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Newhaven check leads the weigh
Page 39
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by Johnny Johnson INTERNATIONAL HAULIERS entering the UK at Newhaven should take note that all their vehicles will be check weighed on the Weighwrite dynamic weighing machine. One of these units has been installed at Newhaven harbour and a traffic examiner stationed there permanently. Similar checkpoints are planned for other ports.
CM was there when the new installation was brought into use last week and our reporter watched two British and 10 foreign vehicles being put over the weigh beam and the electronic recorder printing out axle and gross weights. The foreigners were from Italy, France and Spain but only one, a Spaniard, contravened British regulations.
An artic outfit belonging to Gilabert of Alicante was found to have 11440kg (about 111/4 tons) on the second axle making the vehicle about one-ton gross overweight.
The driver was given a GV170 (GV160 for British vehicles) which prohibited him from taking the vehicle out of the dock area.
The traffic examiner concerned told CM that if the print out was acceptable it was given to the driver so that he could produce it and perhaps save another check weighing if he was subsequently. stopped.
If the print out showed that the vehicle was overweight, the driver was issued with a prohibition notice and allowed to proceed to the Customs shed. The print-out ticket was stamped to show that a prohibition notice had been issued and by whom and retained as evidence.
While the driver was completing his Customs procedure, the DOT staff would inform the agents that the excess weight must be unloaded before the vehicle could leave the dock. Alternatively, the DOT staff have powers to allow the vehicle outside the dock area for unloading but at a declared speed and escorted by a DOT vehicle.
To weigh the dozen vehicles involved took only a few minutes so that there was the minimum of delay. Thus, the inference is clear, while formerly only those vehicles which appeared to disembark overweight were check weighed, now all vehicles landing from the Dieppe-Newhaven ferries will be checked.
Though prosecutions will not be brought because the vehicle does not go on a public road. obviously the prohibitions issued will be taken into account by the Licensing Authority when renewing British operators' licences. The appropriate Government will be .informed in the case of a foreigner.
At the Newhaven check, only one foreigner was found to be overweight but the number of these vehicles entering Britain with excess axle and gross weights has been causing concern for some time.
Mr Jack Stokoe, Kent County Council consumer protection officer, told CM in June (CM June 11) that hundreds of overweight lorries were entering the country every day but that the authorities were almost powerless to act. Out of the one per cent — 3,100 vehicles — weighed by the DOT and his department, more than 1,000 were overweight. This led to 500 prosecutions and fines of £29,000.
In East Sussex, the Consumer Protection Department has installed an electronic weighbridge at Beddingham, between Lewes and Newhaven, and though weighings are carried out on this with the vehicle stationary, the principle is similar to that employed in Newhaven harbour. However, a large number of successful prosecutions have been brought on this and similar equipment at John's Cross to the East of the county.
The criterion which both the DOT and the Consumer Protection Department is applying is that if the axle or vehicle is five per cent overweight then the driver will be cautioned. At 10 per cent overweight, then the driver and employer will be prosecuted. But this will apply only on public roads.
On this aspect, trials have been carried out at Staines and are still going on at Barham (CM June 18). As a result of the Staines trials, the DOT is poised to bring in dynamic weighing at roadside checks throughout Britain but it is waiting till the Barham trials are completed before finally making a decision.