Records breaches cost BRSL £270
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• Fines and costs totalling £460 were imposed on British Road Services Ltd and nine drivers at Cardiff magistrates' court last week for breaches of regulations concerning the keeping of drivers' records.
BRSL was fined £220 and ordered to pay a ,total of £50 costs for failing to examine and sign record sheets, failing to cause records to be kept and permitting drivers to exceed hours of duty, while the nine drivers were fined varying amounts from £10 to £25 for making false entries and failing to keep proper records.
Mr William Tillyard, prosecuting for the South Wales LA, said that examination of the records revealed more than 500 apparent offences and the cases before the court were brought as samples. Pleading guilty on behalf of BRSL and the drivers to some of the offences listed, Mr Norman Lloyd-Edwards said they were committed shortly after the new Transport Act had come into force and BRSL had issued pamphlets, booklets and wall charts to ensure that drivers understood the new regulations.
The offences, he said, concerned the NeWport depot which dealt solely with the handling of timber on the wharf there. The problem had arisen because of the closing of Newport docks for the repair of the lock gates.
One particular importer, instead of transferring his business to one of the other South Wales ports, had decided to deal from Boulogne and the timber was sent by lorry on the cross-channel ferry to Dover.
Drivers were sent by train to Dover and, because they were not actually driving, said Mr Lloyd-Edwards, they entered their hours of duty from the time they actually took over the wheel of their vehicles.
In fact, under the new regulations, the time taken up by the train journey counted as being "on duty" so that entries made in the record books were inaccurate.
The superintendent in charge who, it was said, should have signed the records and, had he done so, would have noticed the errors, was also based at Dover during this period and was working under some stress.
He was now back at his administrative office in Newport and as the docks had been reopened the problem was not likely to arise again.
Imposing the fines and costs, the chairman, Mr Anthony Steel, said it was extremely serious that proper records were not kept. "There are good reasons for these regulations," he said, "to ensure that drivers do not get overtired and become a danger to the public."