Yellow tickets for endorsable offences...
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Transport Act 1982: Part III implemented
1110n October I, Part III of the Transport Act 1982 was brought into force in England and Wales. This extends the fixed penalty scheme from stationary offences to cover moving traffic offencesincluding loading offences.
The penalty for non-endorsable offences is £12, with 28 days to pay by returning the payment slip to the address given, or in which to request a court hearing, From a practical point of view, drivers stopped for endorsable offences (fixed penalty: £24) will be saved a lot of time and trouble if they have their driving licences with them. The police officer, and only police officers have this discretion to use the new range of fixed penalty offences, has to see the driver's licence to check the existing number of penalty points, If the points on the licence plus those for the current offence total 12 or more, which would usually bring disqualification, the offender is reported for prosecution, and if not carrying the driving licence will be required to take it to a police station within seven days. Drivers who have to surrender their licences will be issued with receipts.
Tickets for endorsable offences are yellow. Drivers who have neither paid the penalty within 28 days nor opted for a court hearing, are fined half as much again, so the £24 fine rises to £36, similarly, the £12 fine is increased by half to £18.
While this system is operated only by the police, traffic wardens continue to be limited to stationary lighting offences, waiting, loading and parking offences, failure to display a valid excise licence disc, and parking meter offences, With endorsable offences, it is not permissible for the police to leave a fixed penalty ticket on a stationary vehicle in the driver's absence; the ticket must be issued to the driver.
The purpose of the fixed penalty scheme is to save time and money to all involved.
IN The introduction this month affixed penalty fines what the popular press calls "spot" fines for moving traffic offences besides stationary offences, "is not," says the Home Office, "a move towards the Continental system of on-the-spot fines". All drivers see previous article have the right to contest a prosecution in court; they must make their decision within 28 days.
Nevertheless, the extension of the scheme has caused some confusion in the press and the Road Haulage Association has attacked antilorry prejudice.
Notably, that hoary old question: "Why can't police reveal at what speed they will begin prosecuting for speed offences?" has been extended to: "Why can't they say at what weight levels fines will be sought?'
It is for the same reason that they dare not say that only with vehicles travelling at, say, five miles an hour above a speed limit will the driver to prosecuted. Because that increased speed would inevitably become the effective new limit.
What, then, is the purpose of extending the fixed penalty scheme and how will it affect road transport?
The scheme is aimed to save time and money to all involved, and ensure that all tickets are paid (in London more than one million a year were never paid). When the extended scheme has been in operation long enough for experience to be gained a future issue of Legal Bulletin will focus on how it operates in practice.
The September issue of the RHA magazine Roadway dealt with the "anti-lorry lobby" allegation that 38-tanners will face only a £12 fine if they are between five and 10% overloaded, compared with the current average of £250. "According to the magazine Construction News," it said, 'police are being told to take no action against lorries up to 5% overloaded and to issue a £12 ticket if it is between five and 10%." Above that limit, it was being said that Association of Chief Police Officers guidelines stated that prosecutions should be taken.
"The Guardian carried a story headlined 'Juggernauts' fines cut under fixed penalty law'.
But what it appears to have missed is that the guidelines apply only to drivers, not to operators,' reported Roadway.
Phil Bond, RHA executive officer for highways and traffic, commented: "Sad to say, the wicked road haulage lobby has not managed to persuade a docile government to rearrange the law to the detriment of the long suffering environment. Part III of the Transport Act 1982 does not do that."
Bond said: "Hauliers and drivers should remember that a police officer who believes that an offence has been committed or is being committed will from October have three options to caution the driver, to issue a fixed penalty, or to prosecute, Only a police officer will be empowered to issue the fixed penalty. Trading Standards Officers will continue to have to prosecute through the courts where overloading is concerned.
"It has to be stressed that neither the Home Office not the Association of Chief Police Officers has the power to instruct police officers as to how they shall apply the law. We cannot believe any police force will instruct its officers to overlook a 5% overload and issue a £12 'ticket for a 10% overload. One can imagine a newspaper unwittingly giving a wrong impression if, by a chance, a reporter misunderstands a reference to axle overloads as a gross overload.'
Freight, the Freight Transport Association's journal, points out: "In 1974 vehicle owners were made liable for certain fixed penalty offences where the driver had failed to pay up. From October 1 owner Lability will apply to all non-endorsable fixed penalty offences.
"There are obvious implications for FTA members here, as tickets may be put on vehicles for non-endorsable Construction and Use offences. A C and U offence is endorsable if it involves using a vehicle: 1, so as to cause or be likely to cause danger; 2, in breach of the law regarding brakes, steering or tyres. 3, for any purpose which is so unsuitable as to cause or be likely to cause a danger."
Nevertheless, FTA's advice is that members instruct their drivers to report any fixed penalty ticket left on their vehicles.
The law providing safeguards to those who hire vehicles to third parties, says Freight, continues under the fixed penalty system, by Legal Bulletin reporter