Walsall removals firm’s ‘appalling’ MOT record results in revoked licence12 February 2016

Clentons (Removals), of Walsall, will lose its operating licence this month, after a public inquiry at which the traffic commissioner described the firm’s MOT record as “appalling”.

At the inquiry on 27 January, in Birmingham, traffic commissioner Kevin Rooney disqualified company director and transport manager Brett Perry; one driver was banned for a year; and another driver was suspended for two weeks.

Kevin Rooney was told that Clentons had no system in place to check its drivers were working to road safety rules. Two of the firm’s employees had committed drivers’ hours offences, with one of them continuing to do so months after the issues had first been brought to light.

At the hearing, the traffic commissioner said it was “plainly dangerous” that employee Stuart Scrivens had driven using transport manager Brett Perry’s card, especially since Scrivens had driven for 18 hours out of 24 on one occasion. Scrivens is disqualified from driving for a year from 13 February.

Another driver, Andrew Perry, continued to commit offences from July to October 2015, despite the fact he had already been interviewed for earlier abuses. He received a two-week suspension.

Kevin Rooney was also told that routine vehicle safety inspections were not carried out regularly and the firm’s MOT record was considered “appalling”. There was no procedure in place for driver defect reporting.

The inquiry heard that Brett Perry was unaware of the Driver CPC requirement – something that Kevin Rooney described as “unforgiveable”.

He was disqualified from acting as a transport manager until he passes the transport manager CPC qualification again; he also received a warning on his licence for driving without the Driver CPC qualification.

Author
Laura Cork

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