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Haulier threatens to close business after £50 overloading fine
Page 37
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b Mr Thomas Jefferis. 72-year-old nanaging director of Docks Haulage Co, of iouthampton, delivered an angry outburst it Poole magistrates' court on Monday vhen his firm was convicted of overloading
transporter. The court was told that the railer carrying an excavator was stopped )5/ a traffic examiner last December. Fines otalling £50 were imposed on the firm, and he driver was fined £10.
Mr Jefferis said after the conviction: Since that is the case we shall close down nd live on the State like a lot of other eople. How can a company like mine work
.1 this atmosphere — it's just impossible. orry it has to end up this way but we shall lose."
The company had pleaded not guilty to sing a goods vehicle overloaded on the cond axle, using a trailer not equipped with a plate and without a test certificate and using a goods vehicle when not displaying a plate and without a test certificate. They pleaded guilty to one other summons — using a vehicle without the unladen weight marked.
Mr Lough, prosecuting solicitor, said he understood the company's defence was that they were exempt under the Special Types Order. However,, to qualify under this order the vehicles must not travel at over 12 mph and advance notice has to be given to the police authorities of the journey.
Mr Jefferis claimed that as the trailer was over 8ft 3M. wide it came under the Order. he said that in the past two years the DoE had been concentrating on axle weights instead of gross weights.
The driver, he said, had arranged this particular load so that the boom of the excavator would not be jutting high in the air creating hazards for other road users. By taking this precaution, he said his company was now in trouble. He said that the DoE had not provided any weighbridges in the area in spite of promises to do so nor would they permit the weighbridges at their own testing station to be used by contractors. "Our job of dealing with abnormal loads is very difficult — we've had just about enough," he declared.
After the hearing Mr Jefferis told CM that he would have to seriously consider winding up his business: "How can we go on when we are up against all this bureaucracy? We're being driven to the wall by red tape. The Continentals say our transport regulations here are plain crazy and they're absolutely right."