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[C Brown hands ND I4-day suspension
Page 8
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by Mike Jewell le Eastern Area Operator's Licence held by 'ench haulage giant Norbert Dentressangle has :en suspended for 14 days and cut from 35 ucks and trailers to 30 trucks and trailers. Western Traffic Commissioner Philip Brown wet), acting as Deputy TC in the Eastern Area, ok action following continuing breaches of the airs and tachograph rules committed by ND driirs in this country and abroad.
The company's licence was curtailed following lblic Inquiries in March 1995 and June 2000 muse of hours and tacho offences by drivers. Last ..11.0 Eastern TC Geoffrey Simms revoked )'s Eastern Area licence and disqualified it from Ming an 0-licence in his area for three years. In )vember that decision was rerturned by the Transport ibunal, who directed that e case should be reconlered by a different TC.
In his decision, Brown lid that Simms had Ihtly considered the case be a bad one, However, in nil this year he formed the view at the situation had improved. It was clear that while the per:tillage of non-compliance had ).creased, the continuing nature ' breaches made it difficult for e company to contend that its stems were either appropriate • reasonable, Brown concluded. appeared to have some diffiilty in demonstrating to some of e drivers that it took its discirili try responsibilities seriously Norbert: Says its infringement rate is now only 0.7%. enough when attempting to ensure that they complied with the law.
The main offenders had been identified by both the Vehicle Inspectorate and the company itself yet no effective action had been taken, he added. There must come a point when an operator was not willing to put its licence at risk when some of its drivers showed an inability to comply with the law.
Brown said he had balanced the action taken by the company, which was designed to minimise the number of transgressions committed by its drivers, against the fact of the beaches themselves, which had continued for more than two years.
Patrice Schneider, Norbert DentressanOe UK managing director, says: "I am delighted that this TC has recognised the enormous progress we have made with regard to drivers' hours offences.
However, the fact that we demonstrated a 0.7% infringement rate [against an industry average of 15%] and still have to suffer a 14-day suspension is disappointing."