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Haulier who drove 'day and night' remains off the road
Page 35
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Magistrates fined him, the Traffic Commissioner disqualified him — now
the Transport Tribunal has rejected his appeal. Mike Jewell reports.
A TACHOG RAPH FIDDLER who admitted he drove "day and night" and who was so tired he fell asleep at the wheel has failed to convince the Transport Tribunal to lift a fiveyear disqualification order imposed by Eastern Traffic Commissioner Geoffrey Simms.
James Daines of Bury St Edmunds held a licence for three vehicles and three trailers. On 14 November 2005 he was driving along the Al4 when his truck ran off the road. No other vehicle was involved and Daines claimed he had swerved to avoid a deer.
When asked to produce his tachograph charts for that week, he produced the chart that was in the tachograph and claimed he could not produce any others. The vehicle was recovered and charts found in the cab revealed a number of drivers' hours offences.Analysis of charts for a two-month period revealed further hours offences.
When interviewed, Daines said he had been unable to employ a night driver and had been driving "day and night". He had given false charts to the police officer, who concluded that Daines had fallen asleep at the wheel.
DaMes was convicted in a magistrate's court of using a false instrument and 13 hours offences:he asked for 23 offences of using a false instrument and 26 hours offences to be taken into account. He was fined £2,000 for the falsification offence and conditionally discharged for two years on the hours offences.
When he appeared before the TC. Daines said his problems started when he increased the number of operational vehicles from one to three and began to panic about the lack of work. He now monitored all the tachographs and was willing to employ an independent analysis company.
Revoking Daines' 0-licence and imposing a five-year disqualification, theTC concluded that this was a very had case of an operator who had quite deliberately, systematically and regularly falsified tachograph records to conceal the fact that he was working day and night at the wheel of a maximum-weight artic.
Appealing to the Transport Tribunal, Daines said his wife and children and three other drivers were being punished by the revocation. He had worked all his life and had never been in trouble before.
Dismissing the appeal, the Tribunal said there was no doubt that it was a serious case of deliberate offending over a long period for the purposes of profit with significant road safety implications. The fact that Daines was initially obstructive and had created false tachograph charts to mislead the enforcement authorities meant that loss of repute was inevitable and disqualification for five years was appropriate and justified. •