Fire destroyed three months' tad() charts
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• The licence held by Londonbased international haulier European Express Cargo has been renewed for the full five years.
South Eastern and Metropolitan LA Brigadier Michael Turner accepted that the missing three months of tachograph charts had been burnt by decorators.
Last November the LA suspended the six-vehicle/six-trailer licence for a month and renewed it for six months only This followed evidence that the company's drivers had frequently breached the hours limits and vehicles had been operated without the correct vehi
cle excise duty (CM 30 Sept-6 Oct 1993 and 28 Oct-3 Nov 1993). The Transport Tribunal sub sequently quashed this suspension (CM 10-16 March).
For the company, Jim Duckworth said that all tachograph charts were now placed on racks and collected every three to four weeks by an external tachograph analysis agency. If a serious breach of the regulations was detected, the driver concerned was given a written warning. A subsequent breach would lead to instant dismissal, and one driver had already been dismissed on that basis.
Financial evidence was heard in private at the company's request. Renewing the licence, Brigadier Turner said he was satisfied that the charts had been burnt due to a bizarre set of misunderstandings.
Warning the compa fly that it was legally required to retain tachograph charts for 15 months, Brigadier Turner said that they should be kept in a much safer place in the future. He felt that if VAT records had been burnt by mistake, HM Customs and Excise would not have adopted such a lenient attitude.