A Croydon shredding, recycling and waste disposal firm is set to lose its transport licence next month because of “substantial failures” in its vehicle and driver safety standards.

Nick Denton, the region’s Traffic Commissioner, said he had no confidence in the director and transport manager of Deadman Confidential being able to run a compliant operation.

His decision means that the firm will not be able to use heavy goods vehicles in connection with its business from October 8.

The order comes after a public inquiry in Eastbourne on September 6, which heard about a number of issues relating to the company’s vehicles and drivers, including a vehicle found with 10 out of 10 wheel nuts being loose.

The driver did not check the wheel nuts on his daily walk round check but the company had also failed to act on daily defect reports which identified a squeaking noise in the days leading up to the loose wheel nuts being identified.

Examiners from the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) also reported:

· Vehicles had been issued with a high number of prohibitions for defects
· Two fixed penalties were issued for insecure loads, despite advice given to the company and to the industry in general
· The company failed to obtain the required equipment to analyse digital tachograph records and identify whether its drivers were taking the legally required breaks and rest
· Vehicles were not given routine safety inspections on time
· The company’s vehicles had a poor MOT pass rate

Reflecting on the incident involving the loose wheel nuts, the Traffic Commissioner said it was only by good luck that a potentially serious wheel loss incident was avoided.

Denton was also critical of the company’s response to the issues that identified earlier this year. “The operator has been extremely slow to take substantive action to address many of these shortcomings,” he said.

“I have been very unimpressed today by the evidence of both the transport manager, Mr Asher, who appears frankly out of his depth, and of director Mr Deadman, who has taken little or no responsibility for the serious mistakes which have been made on his watch. Because of its substantial failure, over such a wide range of compliance issues and over such a long period of time, and for its very slow and tardy reaction to these shortcomings, revocation is an appropriate and proportionate outcome.”
 

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