Q If my drivers fail to hand in log sheets to
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me within seven days as required by law, am I liable to prosecution for failing to see that they do so ?
A The requirement for written records to be kept is contained in Section 98 of the Transport Act 1968 which allows the Minister to make regulations about how they should be kept.
Subsection (4) lays down that any person who contravenes any regulations made under this section shall be !liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding £200; but the employer of an employee driver shall not be liable to be convicted . . . if he proves to the court that he has given proper instructions to his employees with respect to the keeping of records and has from time to time taken reasonable steps to secure that those instructions are being carried out.
Moreover, through Regulation 5 (8) of the Drivers' Hours .(Goods Vehicles) (Keeping of Records) Regulations 1970 sets out that the driver should deliver the completed log sheet to his employer within seven days of completion. This does not impose any obligation on the employer to see that he does so apart from impoSing an obligation on the employer, to examine and sign the sheet within seven days of its receipt.
Though this may, perhaps, be taken as a possible offence if the employer does not so examine and sign it, a further paragraph in the same subsection provides that if this was not reasonably practicable then there will be no offence if the sheet was examined and signed as soon as it was reasonably practicable. Non-delivery would, no doubt, be taken as a reason for the examination and signature to be "not reasonably practicable."
Further, in an appeal against a decision by magistrates in Leicestershire in March, the Appeal Court held that a transport company was not guilty of aiding and abetting a driver in contravening the Regulations contrary to Section 35 of the Magistrates' Courts Act 1952.
At the appeal, it was held that for a person to aid and abet 'he must, with knowledge, give assistance or encouragement to t h e offender. Though the company had not received the log sheets, it had not assisted or encouraged the driver to withhold them.
It would appear, therefore, that provided you have instructed your drivers to hand in their log sheets within the stipulated time and have reissued those instructions from time to time, you are unlikely to be prosecuted if they fail to do so.