Driver fined for overload
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• W&J Riding has been granted an absolute discharge after pleading guilty to an axle overloading offence.
Driver William McCann told Penrith magistrates that after loading powdered limestone at a plant at Shap, he had weighed on the plate weighbridge at the works and the train weight was correct. To get back on the road he had to travel up a sharp incline, so the powder probably flowed to the rear of the tank.
Managing director Tom Riding explained the steps taken to avoid overloading axles: 0 Every driver was given a detailed driver's manual and attended a training course.
0 The company had installed an electric compressor and blowing equipment at the loading point at the Shap plant, to enable a driver to reload if the load was found to be uneven on the single plate weighbridge.
CI Axle weighers had been installed at the company's depots in Lancashire and Scotland, at a cost of £7,000 apiece.
CI Every driver passing through the depots check weighed his axles and there was a standard penalty of three days suspension without pay for any driver found to have gone out overloaded.
Riding conceded that McCann had a problem, as his load was going to Ravenscraig and would not pass through either of the company's depots.
He knew of no axle weighing device on the route except for a Department of Transport unit at Harker, and that was only available when in use by the enforcement agencies.
Defending, John Backhouse maintained that the company had shown that it had done everything it could, so it was not negligent.
In such a case the Divisional Court had decided "there was no special culpability on the company", said Backhouse, and there should be an absolute discharge.
McCann was fined £280 with £40 costs.