MacDiarmid Haulage has operating licence revoked

A Torlundy-based haulage firm has had its operating licence revoked on grounds of lack of professional competence and financial standing.

Traffic Commissioner (TC) Joan Aitken took the decision to strip MacDiarmid Haulage Ltd of its licence last month after the company failed to provide evidence of continuing financial standing or adequate arrangements to employ a transport manager during a period of grace.

Mrs Aitken revoked the licence with effect from February 15, but refrained from making any disqualification orders.

Following a public inquiry in Inverness in October last year, MacDiarmid Haulage’s sole director, Donald MacDiarmid, was given until January 9 to find a new transport manager, after the TC disqualified the previous one, as well as demonstrate it had enough finances to operate five HGVs.

However, the TC determined that MacDiarmid had failed to do so by the deadline.

The inquiry into MacDiarmid Haulage was originally called after a DVSA vehicle examiner issued one of the company’s trailers with an ‘S’ marked immediate prohibition, which are only issued when the examiner believes a severe defect is due to significant breakdown in the vehicle’s maintenance procedures. A total of nine immediate defects were discovered at the roadside in March 2018.

Failure

Just over a week later, an immediate variation prohibition for a tyre failure was issued by the examiner on the same trailer, followed by a further variation prohibition being imposed for an inoperative service brake. A maintenance investigation at the operator’s Torlundy premises in May last year revealed more deficiencies, while another ‘S’ marked immediate prohibition was issued at a Police Scotland road check in October 2018.

At the public inquiry in October, the TC then gave the business until January 9 to nominate a new transport manager and show evidence of continuing financial standing, or else the licence would be revoked.

Mrs Aitken said that getting evidence from Mr MacDiarmid was like ‘pulling teeth’ and there was a ‘lack of engagement’.

In her decision, she wrote: ‘I gave him a chance and a reasonable deadline given what he told me he expected to do to remedy the deficiencies in the licence. He has failed to meet that deadline and what he has produced goes only so far to meet the mandatory requirements for an operator licence.

‘I have to take my own orders seriously,’ she added. ‘They cannot be idle threats.’

MacDiarmid Haulage Ltd was contacted by the Lochaber Times but was unavailable for comment before going to print.