Whitelock wins tacho exemption
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• A specialised breakdown vehicle is exempt from the need to fit and use a tachograph — even when being used tor non-breakdown purposes, according to the latest ruling of the European Court of Justice in a case referred to it by the High Court in Edinburgh.
In July 1983 Joseph Whitelock, a Scottish motor repairer, was stopped on the M90 driving a Bedford breakdown vehicle and trailer. The vehicle and trailer were carrying unroadworthy cars bought at auction. Whitelock was charged with using the vehicle without a tachograph.
Although he was acquitted in the Sheriffs Court, the prosecution appealed to the High Court, which sought a ruling from Luxembourg.
In its judgement, the European Court says that Article 4 (9) of Regulation 543/ 69 exempts "a vehicle whose construction, fitrnents or other permanent characteristics are such that it will be used mainly for removing other vehicles that have recently been involved in an accident or have broken down for another reason" — whatever use is actually made of it by its owner.
An unusual feature of the case has been the intervention of the British Government in favour of the narrower exemption. Arthur Hamilton QC, for the UK, argued that it did not apply to vehicles used for the collection of unroadworthy vehicles from a market where they were sold.
George Close, however, the principal legal advisor to the Commission, pointed out that some vehicles were exempted solely on grounds of use (for example, by the police or fire brigade), some by construction and use (such as specialised vehicles used for door-to-door selling), and others merely by construction and equipment — including breakdown vehicles.
The cased turned on Regulation 543/69, which was replaced last September by Regulation 3820/85, but the wording of the exemption for specialised breakdown vehicles has been carried forward unchanged into Article 4 (10) of the new regulation.