HAULAGE
Page 35
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BULLETIN
VOLUME 2 NUMBER 11 AUGUST 1998
Overweight? There's a heavy penalty to pay
Do you know the law on weighing and the penalties for overloads? CM reminds you.
THERE'S NO DOUBT that a minority of cowboy hauliers persistently overload their trucks to gain a financial advantage over the law-abiding majority But there's also no doubt that many of the overloading offences reported in CM'S Legal News pages are committed by accident—and in some cases consignors have been proven to have misled hauliers or their drivers about the weight of their loads.
Absolute offences The problem is that overloading offences are "absolute". Once the offence has been proved, the fact that it was unintentional and outside the driver or operator's control—or that loading was in a place where no weighing facilities existed—will not be accepted as an effective defence.
Defences However, there is a defence under the Road Traffic Act 1988, Section 42, if it can be shown that at the time the overload was found the vehicle was on its way to the nearest available weighbridge, or was returning from the weighbridge to the nearest point at which it was reasonably practical to remove the excess load.
For an overload of 5% or less it is also a defence to prove that the weight was within the legal limit when the vehicle was loaded, and that nobody had added anything to it since. This is designed to allow for the weight of rainwater or snow Vehicle Inspectorate policy seems to be that if a vehicle exceeds its maximum weight by more than 5% (up to a maximum of one tonne) it will be pmhibited from continuing its journey until the weight is reduced to legal limits. Where an overload exceeds 10% of the vehicle's legal limits (or a maximum of one tonne) the VI will prosecute. However, Trading Standards Officers may not take such a pragmatic view when dealing with overloaded vehicles.
Dynamic weighing The use of dynamic axle weighers is permitted under the Weighing of Motor Vehicles (Use of Dynamic Axle Weighing Machines) Regulations 1978, which empower an enforcement officer to require a vehicle to be driven across the weighing platform of a machine to check its weights. Permitted weights are measured to within plus or minus 150kg for each axle, and within plus or minus 150kg multiplied by the total number of axles to determine the tolerance on the total vehicle weights.
The Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions Code of Practice for Weighing Goods Vehicles on Dynamic Axle Weighers must be followed by examiners to secure a successful prosecution for overloading. This code supplements the regulations and provides examiners, hauliers and drivers with information on the correct setting up and use of weighing machines and on periodical accuracy tests, which must be carried out at least every six months.
Among other things, the code specifies standards for the approach and exit from the concrete apron of the weighing equipment.
Prohibition of overweight vehicles Under the Road Traffic Act 1988, Sections 70 and 71, an authorised examiner or police officer is empowered to stop an vehicle from proceeding if it is overloaded to the extent that it could endanger public safety until its weight has been reduced to within legal limits. He can also order the person in charge of an overloaded vehicle to remove it to a specified place.
A prohibition notice (form TE160) will be issued to the driver of a vehicle which is found to be overweight, and it becomes the driver's resporsibility to remove the excess weight to his own satisfaction and clear the TE160 before continuing his journey.
Overweight penalties The maximum fine for an overloading offence is £5,000 but any user of an overloaded vehicle could be convicted for more than one offence, such as exceeding the gross weight and one or more individual axle or bogie weights. Each of these offences carries the £5,000 maximum penalty. The maximum fine for ignoring a TE160 prohibition notice is also £5,000.
Subsequent convictions for any of these offences could lead to even higher fines.
In addition to a fine, a conviction for overloading can jeopardise th the driver's LGV vocational driving entitlement and the haulier's 0-licence.