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False tacho records Lead to revocation
Page 26
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An owner-driver loses his 0-licence and HGV licence after falsifying records and winding back the odometer
THE SCOTTISH Traffic Commissioner Joan Aitken has revoked the 0-licence of Dundee owner-driver Peter Daniel after he was found to have falsified his tachograph records (CM 30 October).
She has also disqualified him from holding or obtaining an 0-licence for five years, as well as revoking his HGV licence and disqualifying him from holding one for two years.
Daniel, who held a licence for one vehicle and one trailer, had been called before the TC at an Edinburgh disciplinary inquiry hut failed to appear. Daniel's nominated transport manager, Darren Wright, was also a director and transport manager of TS Transport (Scotland).
Adjourning the consideration of Wright's repute. the TC said that since any loss of repute here would have an immediate ramification for Wright's position as director and transport manager for TS Transport, it would be appropriate for that company to be called to a public inquiry, where she would consider Wright's repute.
Traffic examiner John Harvey said that when Daniel's vehicle was stopped on 6 March he could not produce a tacho record because he had forgotten to put one in.
Daniel eventually produced 55 charts, two undated. He also had a fuel card issued to TSTransport (Scotland). Daniel admitted rewinding the odometer clock, having to break the seals to do that.
He had been on duty almost non-stop for a period in excess of 39 hours from about 8.45am on 5 March 2008. The longest break in that period was about three hours. He would not say when he first broke the seal and tampered with the tacho.
Further analysis revealed: 14 false records: 10 instances of exceeding 4.5 hours' driving without the required break; three manual records; one chart used for over 24 hours; eight instances of insufficient daily rest; five instances of failure to use/keep a tachograph record; two instances of exceeding daily driving; and two of an incomplete centre field. There was also evidence that suggested the odometer had been wound back on previous weeks.
In May, Harvey received a letter from Wright, together with a copy of a letter from Daniel, admitting there had been a deception.
When he interviewed Wright, he was told that 90% of Daniel's haulage work came through TS Transport.
In May he wrote to Daniel requiring the production of tachograph records for September and October 2007 but Daniel failed to produce them. That had prevented him from undertaking a full analysis and reconciling information from TS Transport.
Making the revocation and disqualification orders, the TC said it was a very serious case in which an ownerdriver had wilfully defied the licence undertakings and road traffic laws.
The extent of his breaching of the drivers' hours rules and the degree to which he had put road safety and fair competition at jeopardy could only be guessed at, given his interference with the tachograph equipment, the false records, the missing mileage and his failure to make his charts available when required to do so by the traffic examiner. •