08.08.2016
Baldwins to lose transport licence
The senior directors of UK based crane rental company Baldwins have had their right to hold a transport licence revoked, for up to five years.
The traffic commissioner disqualified the four directors after up to 18 drivers were caught falsifying records to show rest breaks being taken when they were not. So far Baldwins has failed to provide a comment on what the loss of its transport licence will mean for its heavy crane division, that is entirely dependent on the movement of counterweight and additional equipment.
The commissioner’s verdict said: “To allow for an orderly wind down of the heavy crane part of the business and taking into account its specialised nature and the apparent scarcity of the services it provides, revocation will take effect from 23:59 hours on Saturday 10 September 2016.
Under the ruling Richard Baldwin is disqualified from applying for or holding a goods vehicles operator’s licence for one year. Wayne Baldwin is disqualified for five years and Andrew Skelton for two years.
Lorraine Baldwin is disqualified from applying for or holding a goods vehicles operator’s licence in any traffic area for an indefinite period, but may apply to have the disqualification lifted at any time but will need to appear before a traffic commissioner to explain how she met her statutory duties.
Traffic commissioner Kevin Rooney said: “The falsification of records to make it appear that drivers had taken appropriate rest goes absolutely to the heart of road safety. In the case of this operator, five out of seven drivers investigated in 2014 were found to be so offending. A follow-up investigation in 2015 found the offending, if anything had worsened with 18 drivers found to be offending. I do not know if my decision will mean the end of Baldwins Crane Hire, but I make my judgement on proportionality on the assumption that it will. The failures at Baldwins Crane Hire are so significant so deep-rooted and inspired by the very top of the business that I find it entirely appropriate that this licence be revoked.”
UPDATE
In January 2017 Baldwins Support Services was granted an interim O-licence in the North East and South Wales traffic areas, which will run until January 2018.
The application covers 14 vehicles based in Leeds and four in Newport, South Wales. The approval was delayed from December 2016, after traffic commissioner Kevin Rooney expressed concern about Richard Baldwin’s involvement.
At a public inquiry in Bristol, Richard Baldwin gave his word that that no Baldwins Support Services truck driver would be involved in the rigging of a crane. Undertakings were also given that not more than seven vehicles would be specified across both Support Services’ O-licences at any one time and that no vehicle would be used unless specified.
Having heard evidence from Support Services director and transport manager Marcus Gough, Rooney said that he was content that the statutory criteria could be met for a managed re-entry.
The DVSA was requested to investigate and audit the control of the business once it was established to verify the degree of autonomy held by Gough, and whether the company’s drivers would carry out rigging duties.
Your all missing a trick here ! Although I don't condone what the HGV drivers have been doing to try and earn a decent living, in there defence they do stand down while the crane is rigged up and working, Once de-rigged off they trot to the next job, all well and good, but what about the crane operator who is not governed by legislation ??? its ok for him to be awake all day then drive through the night to the next job just because he is not governed by rules and regulation's )( or is it !!!! ) When he decides to nod off cause no one has been policing his hours the woman and kids in the car he runs into the back of might be YOUR wife and kids,!!!!!
And Baldwin,s are NOT the only guilty party in the UK they ALL do it even the major players who claim to be whiter than white !!!
The whole industry needs a wake up call, the only people benefiting from all this is the customer,
Ordinary Bloke
I would like the transport commissioners on the whole of the UK to take a leaf out of Kevin Rooneys book and not be afraid to use the law to stop these Cowboy's, they are all over the whole country.
It's all because the management don't price the job properly or tell their customers the Truth!
Crane lads
All Thay will do is get someone to run the transport.
peter chapman
Having spent many years running a "local" crane hire company this comes at no surprise what so ever.
I still remember the successful prosecutions of Baldwins for falsifying crane test certificates and anther crane hire company telling me of the problems they had re-registering an ex Baldwin crane as it appears that it was one of 2 cranes running on the same registration number.
Also Baldwin cranes have a very dis proportionate and negative news coverage re accidents etc.
If the industry can't properly regulate itself it has no one to blame when Government steps in and makes crane drivers work to HGV taco rules on driving hours, working hours and statutory breaks.
This will be the final nail in the coffin for most crane hire firms who run very long working hours and driving hours well in excess of the HGV limits.
upping the game
I think you are correct CFK88.
When i worked at A********* not that long ago it was not that much different, just dressed up to look better than most.
I do think it is hard to keep all happy sometimes we all know how jobs over run through no fault of the company, but the next client still expects the crane and counterweight on site xxx miles away tomorrow morning at 07:00am
cfk88
Why doesn't this surprise me. They will probably work out some way to wriggle out of this. Does anyone think this might be the case at quite a few Crane hire firms?
Crane expert
Is this really a surprise to anybody in the crane industry?? You ask anybody about Baldwins and you always get the same reaction of the eyes rolling and the noise like your sucking on a lemon, there's no question that richard and Wayne know there stuff about cranes and heavy lifting, but they seem to know next to nothing about running within the law, they still have the 1980s cowboy attitude of " we do what we want "
Sadly this attitude will be the nail in the coffin for Baldwins as you just can't get away with this sort of stuff anymore, and it's a genuine shame as they have a lot of great new cranes and some very good operators, how long for tho nobody knows.