Truck company a risk to public safety, ordered off the road by judge

Friday, 2 November 2018

Daryl and Dominique McCrostie, owners of McCrostie Trucking, which won awards last year but has now been ordered of the road.

An award-winning trucking company and its co-owner has been ordered off the road for copping hundreds of traffic offences.

McCrostie Trucking based at St Arnaud inland from Blenheim stepped up after the Kaikoura earthquakes to keep freighting moving but its operating licence has been revoked by the NZ Transport Agency.

High Court Justice David Gendall refused to allow the company to continue operating until a court appeal and a judicial review was held because he said the risk to public safety outweighed financial damage to the company.

Between October 2004 and March 2018, the company, which owns 11 truck and trailers, committed 105 traffic-related offences, 25 of them for overloading, 13 for operating uncertified heavy motor vehicles not up to Certificate of Fitness standard, plus 38 breaches of the road user charges and 26 speeding offences.

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The company also failed 34 police roadside safety inspections for brake faults, damaged towing connections, insufficient tyre tread, damaged or deteriorating suspension, and non-functioning lights or indicators.

Forty nine drivers have been apprehended for a further 105 safety-related offences including 57 speeding offences, two of carelessly using a heavy motor vehicle, and various offences for failing to comply with traffic rules or rules related to logbooks and work time.

McCrostie personally committed more than 80 traffic offences since 2000, at least 39 of these while driving heavy motor vehicles. He was disqualified seven times and paid more than $18,000 in fines.

Between 2001 and 2018, McCrostie was given 16 warnings by NZTA.

The lawyer for the company said in spite of the traffic offences there had not been any accidents and the co-owner, Daryl McCrostie's wife Dominique, was in charge of the company now.

McCrostie's wife Dominique highlighted the consequences the loss of the licence would have on the company, its suppliers, and its employees and their families.

The effect of the revocation of the licence meant that all the drivers will be without a job and its customers without a transport provider, she said.

Given the length of time until the appeal or judicial review is to be heard, the business would likely be impossible to resurrect, even if the courts found in its favour, she said.

The company planned to argue in its judicial review that NZTA took into account irrelevant considerations such as the traffic-related offending of Daryl McCrostie, who it said was no longer involved in the operation of the company, and had failed to take into account the company's compliance scheme and significant steps towards reducing offending.

But Justice Gendall said he considered Daryl McCrostie remained in control because he jointly owned 98 per cent of the shares, was in charge of overseeing maintenance of the fleet, and has handled public relations.

'He has been the figure in control on the ground and, in the past, has been the public face of the business. He is the one with the experience in the industry. Therefore, even though he may no longer be a driver, he is still in control of the company and the safety risk remains,' Justice Gendall concluded.

Justice Gendall said a transport service licence was a privilege not a right.

The judge accepted that Peter Stevenson, the delegated decision maker for the NZTA, found the instances of non- compliance showed a consistent course of conduct and a culture of non-compliance.

Stevenson had also issued McCrostie with a separate notice of proposal to revoke his driver licence classes 2, 3, 4 and 5, and to prohibit him from driving any transport service vehicle or hold those licence classes for three years.

In 2017 the McCrosties won the 2017 Linehaul Contractor of the Year at the Fastway Couriers Excellence Awards for their work after the Kaikoura earthquakes when they bought extra trucks and employed more people, taking staff numbers to about 12.