Penalty reduced
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I APPEAL at the Transport Tribunal in London was partly upheld, rmitting the previous fleet cut-back of six vehicles for three mths to be reduced to three vehicles for three months.
lie appeal was made against 3 Yorkshire Deputy Licensing thority by Norman Lewis, ding as Norman Lewis Transrt, an operator which transits hazardous goods. The reced curtailment of his fleet )ans that he will have nine out a possible 12 tractive units d trailers in use at any one le.
.ewis's counsel, Michael MulHand, said that a magistrates' Jrt case at Selby involving irlularities among drivers emiyed by Lewis led to a public iuiry. Mr Lewis was fined a al of £80 for four separate of fences at the earlier court case, although it was not suggested that Lewis was directly responsible for any of his drivers' actions, said the counsel. He claimed that there was no proper system to prevent the offences being committed.
Mr Mulholland went on to say that none of the driving offences gave financial or commercial benefits to Lewis. Since the offences, "a tightening up to a great degree" has taken place, said Mr Mulholland, and Mr Lewis has bought an image analyser and a full-time member of staff is employed to check tacho
graph records, the Tribunal heard.
It was also claimed that owing to the improvements implemented to prevent the offences recurring, the halving of Lewis's fleet for three months was "excessive in the extreme", especially as those offences were the first for the company for five years, said Mr Mulholland, who claimed that the four fines imposed on Lewis were for only "permitting".
Mr Lewis's counsel implied that the Deputy LA had overlooked the fact that few operators in the area have the equipment to transport the hazardous loads at a level of safety achieved by Lewis.