Commendation not a penalty for St Albans Sand and Gravel
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• Commendation instead of a penalty was the result of a Section 69 inquiry when overloading convictions against St Albans Sand and Gravel Ltd were considered last week by the Metropolitan LA.
The firm's transport manager, Mr D. C. Shutes, told the LA that the company was a subsidiary of Ready Mixed Concrete and that there were 179 vehicles on the licence. Sixty-nine vehicles were actually being operated on the road while a further 20 were being used solely on site work. These vehicles had not yet been removed from the licence.
Three convictions were being considered — one in 1970, one in 1972 and one in 1973. In each case the vehicle involved was carrying muck as a return load. Mr Shutes said the problem of overloading on return journeys was almost insoluble because although check weighing was carried out at the beginning of a job the density of the load often varied later. In addition the loads were measured on site by cubic capacity so the company, and driver, had little control over how much the site loader put on the vehicle.
Since the last offence had been committed, but before the case had been heard, a letter had been sent to all drivers telling them not to accept loads that they thought or knew to be excessive, and as a result the company had lost some jobs because the drivers had tipped their loads off at the site and returned home empty.
The company had now reduced the amount of backloading that it carried. Mr Shutes told the LA that his vehicles carried about 45 loads per day of muck and about 190 to 200 loads per day of sand and gravel. Overloading from the company's own quarries was no problem because weighbridges were installed at all of them.
Difficult problem
The LA, Mr A. S. Robertson, salt that the number of convictions agains the company compared with the numbel of journeys carried out was very small He decided, therefore, to take no action He commended the company on the effort: it had made to combat what was accepte( to be a very difficult problem. The LA was concerned, however, at the large numbe of vehicles on the licence which had no been taken up and he recommended tha some of these vehicles be removed freq.] the licence.