Mistaken over 3-ton leeway
Page 25
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
• At a public inquiry in Birmingham last week, a Warwickshire haulage company had its licence curtailed by one vehicle for three months as a result of magistrates' convictions and prohibition notices.
Mr R. R. Jackson, the West Midland LA, heard that since 1968 vehicles operated by Benton Haulage Ltd, Warwickshire, had attracted six prohibition notices and that the firm had been prosecuted on several occasions for offences including overloading, records, and failing to display an unladen weight plate on a vehicle.
Representing the company, Mr N. Carless said that the overloading conviction and the records offence conviction were not really the fault of the company. Regarding the overloading offence he said that the firm had undertaken a job in the belief that there was a 3 ton leeway allowed by the particular vehicle used. However, when checked the vehicle was, in fact, found to be overloaded. The records offence, said Mr Carless, had been brought about by a driver who had inadvertently failed to make proper entries in his drivers' hours records books.
Mr Carless went on to say that Benton Haulage, which held a licence specifying 12 vehicles, could not be said to have a bad record. The LA pointed out that neither did it have a good record and that since 1968 the company's vehicles had seemed to be attracting more and more prohibition notices.