Ten Abbey Hill drivers banned
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• Ten Abbey Hill car transporter drivers had their HGV licences suspended last week after a tachograph check revealed they had been persistently breaking motorway speed limits.
The drivers all work at the Doncaster depot of Abbey Hill Vehicle Services in South Yorkshire, and they were called before North Eastern Licensing Authority Frederick Whalley when one of their trucks was seen speeding by a member of the traffic area office staff.
A check of the charts at the Doncaster depot showed the 10 defendants to be the worst offenders: they had consistently driven at speeds considerably in excess of the motorway speed limit, even after making allowance for the 61irn/h tolerance allowed by law.
Five of the drivers had their licences suspended for the period 7 March to 3 April; the other five had their licences suspended for the period 4 April to 1 May.
Whalley said that he was not prepared to tolerate speeding by professional drivers. He was being lenient on this occasion but he would not be so lenient in the future. He warned that if any of the 10 appeared before him again, he would consider revoking their licences.
After the hearing, depot general manager Michael Chal lenger agreed that splitting up the licence ban was lenient and he said that if the LA had not given the overlap it would have gien the firm severe problems. Abbey Hill now has Canadian backers and is one of Britain's leading car transporter groups. It employs 120 people.
According to the Transport and General Workers Union: "The message has now got to be quite clear to all professional drivers that speeding, especially on motorways and dual carriageways, will no longer be tolerated. It is quite possible that a major company could be closed as a result of not complying with the Commissioner's warnings and the law."
The LA was told during the hearing that one of the main reasons for speeding was the method of payment at Abbey Hill where drivers were rewarded for every 401an they covered in an hour: but the hearing was told that this system has now ceased and that the company has agreed to fit speed governors.