Ferrymasters fined for tacho offences
Page 6
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
by Andy Young • P&O Ferrymasters has been fined £8,300 for tachograph offences and ordered to pay £2,000 costs—but after the trial the company claimed that its offences were not "serious". It was also fined £1,200 after admitting three charges of failing to ensure a speed limiter was working on one vehicle.
Appearing at Ipswich magistrates court, Ferrymasters pleaded not guilty to 18 charges of failing to use tachographs properly on vehicles used by eight of its drivers.
It was found guilty but cleared of 23 other charges of aiding and abetting the keeping of false records and perGuilty an 18 charges. miffing drivers to take insufficient rest.
Stipendiary magistrate Malcom Read ruled that the company could not be said to have aided and abetted its employees to break the law, but he decided it was responsible for the tacho offences which happened when drivers turned off their tachographs. Read pointed out that operators have a strict and absolute liability to ensure tachographs are fitted and used properly.
All the charges related to offences committed by 10 drivers who were ordered to pay a total of £4,875 in fines and costs last month for tachograph, record keeping and driving hours offences.
Martin Evans, prosecuting, said the firm had "shut its eyes" to what drivers were doing when it should have picked up discrepancies in their records.
Jonathan Lawton, defending, said it was illogical to hold an employer responsible for what its employees had done.
He argued that offences such as having a defective wheel were a shared responsibility between an employer and driver, but operating tachographs was solely the responsibility of drivers. The offences of failing to operate a speed limiter were due entirely to a driver taking out a fuse to stop it functioning, he added.
Lawton told the court that Ferrymasters had since spent a considerable amount on tightening up its procedures.