SIX VEHICLES SUSPENDED
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SEVERE restrictions were imposed on a road haulier by the Yorkshire Deputy Licensing Authority at Leeds last week. Savile Road Transport were called before the deputy L.A. under Section 178 of the Road Traffic Act 1960, following fines totalling £455 imposed by the West Riding, Yorkshire County Magistrates in September. These were in respect of some 45 offences of failing to keep proper records, and a further 14 permitting drivers to work excess hours and neglecting the correct rest periods.
Mr. P. Kenny, representing Savile Road Transport, said that in some of the cases for which his clients had been fined, the drivers had let down the company by taking mornings off when they should have been loading their vehicles. On the records the drivers had entered the incorrect times and consequently all time sheets and records were of no value whatsoever.
It was not the case that the drivers had been given too much work to complete in the stipulated 11 hours, Mr. Kenny emphasized. Since the offences his clients had altered their entire system of operation by incorporating a newly acquired depot in London and utilizing the existing one at Glasgow: They had also taken on a further 26 drivers.
In some cases drivers had been working up to IS hours. Mr. A. Marsh, a director of the company, said that he operated 22 vehicles on public A licence and a further two vehicles on Contract A licence for Baguely and Co. Ltd. It was for these clients that Savile Road Transport operated a trunk service running from the firm's headquarters at Nottingley to London and Glasgow. The trunk service started at 7 a.m. said Mr. Marsh, and it was after this time that his drivers had been taking time off. Over the past month he had made countless spot checks on his drivers, and had employed a traffic manager to check all log sheets and other driving records to make sure that the same mistake would not happen again.
Mr. Marsh went on to say that his fleet was known to be very " clean " and he had steered clear of the law during the past 30 years. At this point the deputy L.A. said that he found it very hard to see why Mr. Marsh did not go to his most prominent customer and check their loading books because it was from these that the present court hearing had stemmed. , He realized that this customer would be very embarrassed without transport and it would be a severe handicap. Commenting that this was a ease of the haulier sadly let down by those he employed, the deputy L.A. said: "It is true that a company cannot always rely on its employees, but it was wrong to hide behind them. I am not satisfied that everything that could have been done had been done following the Authority's warning to this company in June." He suspended a total of six vehicles involved in the offences for a period of two months.