Dock haulier caught by licence rules
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• An owner driver with a standard national licence has been given a conditional discharge for six months and ordered to pay £15 prosecution costs after being prosecuted for working on international traffic when he hauled B-I-I Line trailers to Fleetwood docks.
Michael Gregson of Fulwood, Preston, admitted to Appleby magistrates that he used a vehicle on an international journey last October when only the holder of a national licence.
The prosecution said that Gregson's articulated vehicle was stopped in a check on October 16. A standard national licence disc was displayed but the trailer and load was on a journey between Co Durham and Dublin.
When Gregson was told said he had not realised that he needed an international licence.
Defence counsel John Back house said that although the European Commission has now indicated that it did not intend • such an operation to come under the international rules, the definition of a vehicle in the 1968 Transport Act includes the motor vehicle and its trailer.
While the motor vehicle was not leaving the country, the trailer was.
Although it could be argued that Gregson was hauling the trailer rather than using it, if that issue was taken it would clearly be appealed to the Divisional Court.
The difference between the national and international drivers' hours rules means in practice that the control of duty time was stricter under the national rules.
Gregson had always complied with the national rules, thinking in terms of the vehicle being driven, when the international rules would have been less stringent.