agistrates fine EFG
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• The operation of a contract-hire vehicle without specifying it on the company's Operator's Licence, and a failure by a driver to use the mode switch of his tachograph, cost Express Food Group International a total of £1,865 in fines and costs, when the company appeared before Bristol magistrates.
The company pleaded guilty to six offences of using a vehicle when the tachograph was not used correctly, and 11 offences of the unauthorised use of a vehicle.
The magistrates were told that the vehicle concerned had been stopped in a check at Ross-on-Wye. When the driver produced his tachograph charts it was seen that he had failed to record periods of rest, using the mode switch. No Oper
ator's Licence identity disc was displayed in the cab. The company's van sales manager subsequently admitted that the vehicle had been used between 23 November and 15 January when not specified on the company's licence.
For Express Food Group, Andrew Blair said the driver had recorded his periods of rest but had neglected to move the mode switch when doing other work. This vehicle was the only one with a manual tachograph, and it would not have mattered with the others, which had semi-automatic tachographs. There was no suggestion of excess hours being driven or anything of that nature. The offences were of a purely technical nature.
The unauthorised use offences also all related to the same vehicle. It was a vehicle on contract-hire. The latter vehicle had been specified but due to an oversight its replacement was not recorded on the licence. These were again technical offences, as there was no suggestion that the company had operated more vehicles than it had authorised.
The magistrates fined Express Food Group a total of £1,820 and ordered it to pay £45 prosecution costs.