Shop truck requires tacho
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• David licin was ordered to pay 2125 fines and costs last week at Eccles Magistrates for not calibrating and checking the tachograph on one of his vehicles. The court threw out his defence argument that the truck was exempt because it sold farm produce door-to-door and had been specially fitted out for the purpose.
Police constable Stephen Molyneaux said that he had stopped Ikin's two-aided 13tonne Dodge van on the EastLancashire Road and found that the tachograph in the cab had last been calibrated in June 1980. The vehicle was carrying a load of bagged potatoes. No prices were displayed and there was no room for racks.
John Brin, the business's transport manager, said they had bought the van with sliding doors at the side so that they could use it for retail deliveries and when the vehicle had gone in for test it was accepted that the tachograph did not require calibration because it was used for selling. Racks had been fitted into the vehicle to hold cases of produce, said Ikin.
In reply to Michael Kenyon, prosecuting, Ikin agreed that the racks were not attached to the vehicle and that the work was a mixture of wholesale and retail but did not agree that deliveries to hospitals were not door-to-door selling.
Defending, John Backhouse said there were two elements to the exemption. The vehicle had to be used for door-to-door selling and it must be specially equipped for that purpose. The evidence was that a safe had been permanently fitted for the driver to use during his selling activities. It had been equipped with doors making it capable of being opened all the way round. Metal racks were placed in the vehicle to display the produce and scales were carried. The regulations used the phrase "specially fitted", not "constructed or adapted", and he did not accept that something placed in the vehicle was not "fitted" to the vehicle. The racks were fitted for the purpose of using the vehicle for door-to-door selling.
Kenyon argued that if-the vehicle was not being exclusively used for door-to-door selling the exemption did not apply. In his view, the modifications and fittings of this vehicle were not sufficient for it to be regarded as "specially fitted".
The chairman of the magistrates said that they found on balance that the vehicle was not used for "door-to-door" selling and was not specially fitted for that purpose.
Ikin was fined 250 and ordered to pay 275 in costs.