A motorist has criticised the Government vehicle testing agency for failing his truck ? because of the logo on the door.

And another driver has hit out at the ?pot luck? system after he said officials failed to pick up on a catalogue of faults on his ?wreck of a car?.

Pool maintenance man Tim Simons was sunk by Transport Control Department officials when they refused to give his new $18,000 truck permission to hit the road.

Mr. Simons said officials stopped the Nissan in its tracks because it had a logo and the name of his company on the side.

TCD officials said it could have the logo or the name and phone number ? not both.

Mr. Simons? old van, which carried the same name and logo for his Little Blue Pool business, had sailed through the TCD annual test every year since 1995.

The self-employed 47-year-old eventually got his new vehicle approved after three days of frustration.

And he said that was only because he took his old van to the North Street testing centre and showed them the same logo, number and name.

However, the Southampton resident said the rules on what adverts vehicles can carry have to be cleared up, so other small businesses do not have to go through the same red tape headache.

?I?ve had the same logo on there for nearly ten years. If anything, this logo on the new truck seems to be a little smaller. But it was in more or less the same place.?

?The officials told me that other vans did not pass because of their logos. They did not pass three or four other trucks because of this.

?Another man got hauled up for having a coffee cup logo. I don?t understand what?s going on. They need to have guidelines before you even go there.

?Why do they keep making up different policies??

The logo that caused the headache for Mr. Simons is about ten inches high and 12 inches long and shows a picture of a dog sitting by a swimming pool.

Mr. Simons said this was within the size range recommended by TCD.

There are many other vehicles with logos on Bermuda roads; some include Barnes? Locksmith Services, which has a picture of a key next to the company name and Just Roses, which has flowers printed on the van.

Meanwhile, TCD came in for more criticism, with one motorist branding its inspection procedure a ?complete shambles?.

The furious motorist, who asked not to be named, said his girlfriend got up very early to ensure sure she secured a testing place, as there were only enough bays for 12 cars.

?She got up twice at some Godforsaken hour to make sure she was first in the queue. Both times all the bays were taken when she got there.

?In the end we just parked up and left it overnight ? not something we were happy with but what else could we do??

And he said when the test finally started it was an ?utter joke?.

?The examiner got in the car and drove it about 30 feet in an arc back to the bay. When I saw him coming back I assumed it was because I had forgotten to give him the paperwork or something, but that was pretty much the full test.

?He did lift up the hood for a quick inspection and I think I saw him kick a tyre but that was it,? he said.

But that was not the end of what he said proved to be a thoroughly testing ordeal.

?I thought the examiner would just hand me back my paperwork and I could drive off. I couldn?t believe it when he actually then went around testing all 11 cars before giving me back my, and everybody else?s documents.

?Although I was first in the queue I was actually last to leave.

?It?s a test of your patience more than anything else.?

The driver, who said the equivalent MOT in the UK was much more stringent, then had his vehicle failed for a crack in the back brake light,

?I couldn?t believe it. I?d heard rumours they can fail a car for having a rip in the upholstery but I didn?t realise it was true,? he said.

However he said the ?frightening? thing was that less than two weeks later his car went for a service and mechanics found a catalogue of faults.

?The brakes were completely shot to pieces,? he added. ?The whole car was just a wreck.

?I asked the mechanic if he was surprised my car had passed a TCD inspection and he told me that it?s pretty much pot luck down there. ?It all depends on who you get? ? were his exact words.

?He said he?d seen cars in a worse state that had passed and cars in better condition that have failed. ?That pretty much sums it up.?

TCD director Randy Brangman was not available for comment last week. was told he was off the Island when it tried to speak to him.

Attempts to contact Transport Minister Ewart Brown were also unsuccessful.

In an interview after he took control of TCD in March, Mr. Brangman said he aimed to to make the department run more smoothly through the new online booking system.

?We want to speed up the administrative processes so people can book appointments online, license their cars,? he said in June.

?Like online banking we want it to help reduce the traffic flow at TCD by 20 to 30 percent. The days of coming into TCD and waiting in a line are over.?