Fi res were produced early
Page 18
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
Operators who fail to produce requested financial information until the day of a public inquiry, or after, are likely to face licence suspension until the information has been produced and digested by Traffic Commissioners.
This warning was sounded by Scottish Deputy Traffic Commissioner Richard McFarlane when he congratulated Stirlingbased Millar International Freight Transport on producing financial information well before an Edinburgh public inquiry.
The company, which holds a licence for 11 vehicles and 11 trailers, was called before the MC because of concern over driver control. However, in taking no action against the licence, McFarlane said he was impressed by the company's professionalism, saying that it seemed to have comprehensively addressed the problems it had faced. It had been let down by drivers who had worked for t, who had also letthemselves down.
Traffic examiner James Griffin said that he had examined 218 tachograph charts for eight vehicles for the month of June last year and discovered a number of problems, including a considerable amount of unac
counted for mileage.
In reply to James Backhouse, for the company, Griffin agreed that with international haulage there was a higher risk of daily driving and daily rest offences because of the distances involved. Griffin said he had found only one driver who had fallen down in that respect and he had been a tem porary driver. He accepted that there were no problems on the majority of the charts and felt that this was good, as there had been only a few minor problems.
Backhouse said that the problems had mainly been with relief drivers who were employed on a temporary basis. Agency drivers or drivers who had already left the company were unlikely to notify it of any convictions.
Managing director Graham Arnott said the only conviction against the company was for failing to have a two-yearly tachograph check. A number of missing charts related