Overloading puzzle
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• As a result of four overloading offences, the North of Scotland Milling Co Ltd, Inverurie, was called before Mr A. B. Birnie, Scottish LA, at Aberdeen last week, to show cause why its licence should not be revoked, curtailed or suspended.
Mr Peter Collie, manager, said the company's vehicles had always had a clean record and he was at first puzzled by these overloading troubles which had occurred within a short period.
Eventually, it was realized that all related to the same vehicle, the oldest of the 13 in the fleet. This lorry had been downgraded at a recent DoE test and its permissible payload reduced.
The result was that when there was a change of drivers, the men taking out the smaller vehicle had unknowingly accepted an overload at farms they were working from. The utmost precautions had been taken to prevent recurrence of the offences.
Accepting the explanation, Mr Birnie pointed out that overloading represented a serious danger to public safety and some penalty had to be imposed. , He suspended from operation the one vehicle involved for a period of two months from February 1 and withdrew the margin of two additional vehicles.