FULL WEIGHT OF THE LAW
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6iT okuegrhetatolit ioswthwathean haulier knows, vehicle is overweight." weight." It's not often that Commercial Motor quotes a Court of Appeal judge— it's not that often that Court of Appeal judges have anything to say about road haulage. But the words of Lord Justice Kennedy should send a shiver down the spine of every law-abiding operator or driver who has ever struggled to determine the weight of a vehicle after it was loaded. It's not enough that the weighing of laden CVs is highly contentious: we've now got a Court of Appeal judge expecting every operator to know the exact weight of his vehicle, every time it's loaded, presumably by some form of instinct. In theory, of course, any operator who claims the title "professional" should know when his vehicle exceeds its plated weight—in practice it's another matter altogether. That word "practice" also pops up in Mr Justice Mancefts remarks regarding the application of those sections in the Code of Prod ice for Dynamic Axle Weighbridges which cover the correct setting up and operational use of such devices: "An obligation on the prosecution to establish compliance with the Code of Practice would in fact be a most onerous and uncertain obligation if one looked at all the provisions of the Code.. it seems to me most improbable that such an obligation would have been envisaged." That's ironic when you consider that one of the primary movers of the codes, along with the DOT, was Trading Standards—which is a prosecuting authority. The true position, as Mr Justice Mance rightly observes, is that the current Code of Practice for Dynamic axle Wei9hbridges '...has no statutory Force". CM suggest it's time that situation is changed—and changed fast.