£170 Fines for Hours and Records Offences
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EIGHTY-FIVE summonses against a Birmingham bakery concern and 15 of their drivers for exceeding the maximum legal hours and failing to keep accurate records were heard by Mr. Mervyn Pugh at Birmingham Magistrates' Court last week. The concern, Hardy and Sons. South Yardley, were fined a total of £128, plus £26 5s. costs, on 43 summonses. life drivers were fined
on each of 42 summonses.
The charges against the drivers were for failing to keep records, driving for more than 11 hours in 24, or driving continuously for more than 54hours, The company were summoned for causing or permitting theoffences. Commenting on the working hours, Mr. Pugh said that the former Lord Chief Justice, Lord Goddard, had pointed out that a fatigued driver was almost as great a danger on the roads as a drunken one. He added that a man might feel that he was doing his duty by his employers, but if he did so at the risk of the public, it was a serious matter. Appearing for the company, and every driver except one, Mr. C. C. Ladds maintained that these cases were very different from those involving drivers who covered long distances over many hours. These men were roundsmen who did not drive more than about 30 miles a day. The company, he said, had been careful about records and had issued sheets to their drivers, which, they felt, covered the whole time a man was driving and gave all the required information. Mr. Ladds contended that it had never been established whether the time a driver spent waiting for his van to be loaded should be included, He concluded by saying that many of the cases concerned work on Friday or Saturday, when a man took longer to cover a given distance because he was collecting money.
BASE CHANGED: WIDER CONDITIONS A CHANGE of base and 'wider conditions on their B licence were granted last week by the Western Licensing Authority to Mittel] Bros., Clutton, Somerset. They sought to have both their B-licence vehicles based at Clutton, instead of one at Clutton and the other at Farrington Gurney. They also wished to carry building materials and requisites for J. Dawson and Sons, Clutton. and cattle feeding stuffs for H. K. Barnes and Sons, Bridport, within a radius of 75 miles.
Mr. Ronald Minall said that in the
year ended April last, the B-licence vehicles had earned about £1,500 each. About a fifth of their working time was spent in connection with his business of coal merchant. The three vehicles and trailer, specified on an A licence had earned L10,077. In addition, he had paid £1,312 for hiring. Barnes had paid him £1,145 and Dawson £577.
British Railways and British Road Services withdrew their objections. British Railways and British Road Services withdrew their objections.