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'Dog ate my tachos' tale fails to sway TC
Page 24
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DRIVERS' HOURS, tachograph breaches and maintenance issues have resulted in two of the three operational vehicles belonging to the Dunfermline-based Ronald Mentiplay, trading as Murray Mentiplay, being suspended for eight weeks, and his LGV driving licence for four.
Mentiplay appeared before the Scottish Traffic CommissionerJoan Aitken. He blamed a failure to produce tachograph records on their being eaten by his son's dog.
The TC was told five immediate and four delayed prohibitions had been issued since 2002. There had been five refusals to clear and variation notices. Mentiplay was required to produce charts for 7 August to 29 November, which he did after a reminder. An analysis of the charts showed 3,243km missing, and he claimed these charts had been destroyed by the dog.
But analysis of the charts revealed a number of breaches. Mentiplay admitted his operation had become sloppy.
He said the inspection frequency was being reduced to eight weeks, and his son would take the CPC exam. Mentiplay added that he would be joining the RHA and had been updating himself on drivers' hours rules.
The dog was kept overnight in the porch, where it knocked down a box with the tachograph charts in. The next morning, he claimed, the dog was found dead, surrounded by chewed-up charts. The TC said traffic commissioners heard many explanations for missing charts but she found -tacho charts eaten by a dog" difficult to accept. Aitken said she always bore in mind life was stranger than fiction, but, if the charts had been kept in proper order and produced on the traffic examiner's request, she would never have had to hear about the story of the dog and its demise.