AT THE HEART OF THE ROAD TRANSPORT INDUSTRY.

Call our Sales Team on 0208 912 2120

Carryfast drivers take the blame

19th November 1987
Page 22
Page 22, 19th November 1987 — Carryfast drivers take the blame
Close
Noticed an error?
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.

Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

Keywords : Tachograph, Law / Crime

• Thirteen Carryfast drivers employed at the company's Dewsbury depot have been ordered to pay fines and costs totalling £890 for drivers' hours and tachograph offences. The town's magistrates have, however, cleared Carryfast of permitting the commission of the offences.

Richard Wadkin, prosecuting, said the offences had come to light after tachograph charts for the period of 5 October to 9 November 1986 were sent for. The vast majority of the offences involved drivers driving more than four-and-a-half hours without the necessary breaks.

There were also four offences of failing to use tachographs correctly and one of exceeding nine hours driving in a day. He maintained that the company was guilty of permitting the offences because the sheer number was evidence that it had been reckless.

Traffic examiner William Dixon said he had written to the company requesting the production of the records on 19 November. He agreed that a driver had 21 days in which to hand in his charts and that Carryfast would be meeting its responsibilities if it checked those charts over the following two or three weeks. He admitted that it was unlikely that the company had had an opportunity to check many of the charts.

Criticising the prosecution for bringing charges for offences committed only a matter of days after the new drivers hours rules had been introduced, Stephen Kirkbright, defending, said it would have been reasonable to allow operators and drivers a period in which to get used to the new rules.

The changes had been the most fundamental since 1969 and had required careful study and examination. There was no evidence of guilty knowledge on the part of the company. Some 1,600 charts had been checked which meant roughly that one in every 38 had revealed an offence.

All but one of the drivers were engaged in multi-drop work, said ICirkbright, which was notoriously difficult when trying to calculate the exact amount of driving time on a tachograph chart. The magistrates ordered that Carryfast defence costs of £1,650 be paid out of public funds.


comments powered by Disqus