‘No one was clean’ at ‘rotten’ haulage firm

Owner ‘devious’ and road safety rules broken by drivers

A Kinross haulage firm has been slammed as “rotten at its core”.

The Traffic Commissioner ruled drivers at Brunthill Haulage had been forced into breaking road safety rules for fear of losing their jobs. The regulator concluded owner George McMinn, who operates from the Bridgend Industrial Estate, presided over a business where “no one was clean”.

McMinn has now had his operator’s licence revoked and five drivers have been either disqualified or suspended from professional driving.

A sixth driver received a warning, a seventh was not brought before the commissioner because he did not hold a UK licence and the firm’s transport manager was banned indefinitely.

Joan Aitken, Traffic Commissioner for Scotland, heard drivers routinely doctored their digital tachographs – used to record driver hours – in order to meet delivery demands.

She found evidence drivers had pulled fuses from the device, used another driver’s card, driven without cards and, on one occasion, used a magnet to alter the tachograph. Drivers were also failing to take proper rest breaks and the commissioner came to the conclusion that McMinn was aware of this activity.

She also concluded Diana Alexander’s title of transport manager was a “fig leaf”, as she was not carrying out the duties associated with the role.

In a written decision, Ms Aitken said: “This transport operation has been rotten at its core – I cannot find otherwise for the Traffic Examiner’s investigations uncovered patterns of behaviours by all of the longer-term, fulltime drivers and, notably, by drivers newly taken on. No one was clean.

“Such behaviours do not happen by accident. On the contrary, they arise when jobs and journeys have to be done in a certain way to keep the work.”

Calling McMinn “devious”, she said: “I formed the impression of a man who found the drivers hours and tachograph rules to be an irritation and hindrance rather than protections against harms.

“Both in answers at interview and at the public inquiry Mr McMinn sought to distance himself from any wrongdoing in his operation. He blamed the drivers. He blamed the transport manager. Everything, according to him, was done without his knowledge.

“It is also a case which reveals that fair competition has been undermined. George McMinn could not do the work he took in the times given by his customers and he therefore put his drivers into the unforgiveable dilemma of compliance or loss of livelihood.”

Of the drivers, Albert Gannon, of Perth, was disqualified for three years, Rodney Thomson, of Kinross, and Alexander Nicoll, of Edzell, were both banned for 18 months, and Ronald Howe, of St Andrews, and Paul Whyte, of Lochgelly, were suspended for three and two months, respectively. Robert O’Brien, of Saline, was issued with a severe warning.

JOAN AITKEN