Blakey cleared on hours charges
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• Hull based I J Blakey Haulage has been cleared by the city's Stipendiary Magistrates of permitting its drivers to exceed the hours limits and of filling to keep tachographs running continuously.
The company denied 50 allegations that it had permitted drivers' hours and tachograph offences. Stephen Baggott, prosecuting for the North Eastern Licensing Authority, said that a random check on the company's tachograph charts for March 1986 revealed offences commited by 11 of its 15 drivers. The prosecution contended that 50 offences in one month ought to have put the company on notice.
Christopher Pegdon, the company's general manager, said unrealistic delivery schedules were not imposed. Drivers were paid a fixed wage and there was no monetary incentive for them to do more than the fixed hours. There had been a number of problems last March due to the weather.
The company's instructions to its drivers were regularly revised and charts were checked weekly. Descrepancies were drawn to
the attention of the drivers concerned. Two of the offending drivers had been given written warnings and a third a verbal warning. One driver had been dismissed last March for tachograph infringements.
Pegdon agreed the system had been changed, with the charts now being sent out for computer analysis. He accepted some of the drivers had committed further offences after previously being warned, but did not accept that the system in operation last March was not good enough.
He produced records showing that a number of the offences had been picked up by the company and subsequently