Gas wagons need tachos
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• Vehicles delivering gas cookers, boilers and meters are not exempt from the EC tachograph regulations, the European Court has ruled.
British Gas had been prosecuted for using a vehicle carrying gas cookers, boilers, meters and cylinders without a tachograph.
The company had denied the charge before Petersfield magistrates, claiming that the vehicle was used in connection with the gas service, and was therefore exempt from the tachograph provisions. The magistrates adjourned the proceedings and referred the matter to the European Court of Justice.
In its judgement, the European Court said that the derogation from the tachograph provisions for vehicles used in connection with gas services could not be interpreted in such a way as to extend its effects beyond what was necessary to safeguard the interests it sought to secure.
If a company like British Gas, responsible for the production, transport and distribution of gas, was authorised to transport domestic gas appliances using vehicles not fitted with tachographs, it would enjoy a competitive advantage over all other undertakings which supplied such appliances, said the court.