Not exempt from hours
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• A Worcestershire waste recycling company was convicted of failing to produce tachograph records after a ruling by Droitwich magistrates. The bench ruled that vehicles used to collect wastepaper and cans for recycling are required to comply with the EC drivers' hours and tachograph rules.
Three Counties Recycling, of Worcester, had pleaded not guilty to seven offences of failing to produce tachograph charts.
The court was told that while the company's vehicles were equipped with tachographs, it had failed to produce records when requested to do so by Department of Transport enforcement officers.
Adrian Harding, for the company, argued that it did not have to produce the records because it was entitled to the benefit of the exemption from the EC rules for vehicles that were used in connection with refuse collection and disposal.
He said the company collected waste paper and cans from schools, colleges and supermarkets for recycling, maintaining that there was no element of prof it involved in the carriage. Beverley Bell, for the Vehicle Inspectorate, argued that as the paper and cans were being recycled they could not be regarded as refuse and consequently the vehicles concerned were subject to the EC rules.
The magistrates gave the company a conditional discharge for 12 months with £400 costs.