DTC downgrades Rochdale operator's licence

A local operator, whose proposed transport manager had disappeared, has had to downgrade its licence from a standard national to a restricted licence reports RoadTransport.com. Rochdale-based Mayer Brothers (Excavations), which holds a five-vehicle licence, had been called before North Western Deputy Traffic Commissioner Patrick Mulvenna. The DTC said that the company had first appeared before him in May 2007 following an unsatisfactory maintenance investigation. He adjourned the hearing for three months for further financial information, for a further maintenance investigation and for the proposed transport manager, former vehicle examiner Ivan Coup, to obtain his CPC.

When the case was relisted in January, there had been a satisfactory maintenance investigation and the financial evidence was also satisfactory this just left the issue of the transport manager. The company failed to appear and the DTC initially revoked the licence. He rescinded that decision after the company wrote to say it had not received the call-up letter. He had now a report from transport consultant Grahame Robinson, which showed that, by and large, the vehicle maintenance was satisfactory and that there was an application to downgrade the licence.

For the company, Michael Cunningham said that Coup had just not come up with the goods. The company had paid for him to undertake the CPC course and he had since disappeared from the scene. Director Wayne Mayer had taken the CPC examination but had failed module 4. It was the intention that he obtain a CPC and that the company would then seek a standard national licence.The DTC was not prepared to give the company a further period of grace to obtain a CPC holder since it had been operating for more than a year without a transport manager.

• www.roadtransport.com/Articles/2008/04/16/130534/dtc-downgrades-rochdale-operators-licence.html