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Disqualification for drivers' hours and tacho offences
Page 37
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The boss of a farm building company "deliberately, consciously and systematically" breached the hours regulations. Mike Jewell reports.
A WOMAN WHO RUNS a farm building manufacture and supply business has had her 0-licence revoked and has been disqualified from bolding a licence for nine months because of drivers' hours and tachograph offences, including the falsification of tachograph records.
Corwen-based Lena Hughes, trading as Steel Kit Farm Building Supplies, held a licence for two vehicles and one trailer. She and three of her drivers, including her farmer husband Dylan Hughes, had been called before Welsh Traffic Commissioner Nick Jones (Farm building boss promises to seek advice on hours and tachos', CM 11 October).
The TC was told that Lena Hughes had admitted falsifying tachograph charts by entering her name on the centrefield of charts when drivers had driven back to base after running out of hours. A total of 18,126km were unrecorded. Charts had been deliberately withdrawn before the end of duty to try to show the correct amount of rest had been taken.
Lena Hughes admitted that she had entered her name on false charts when drivers wanted to get home quickly. She also agreed that charts had been falsified to show double-manned journeys when they had been single-manned and that the drivers had been paid for the number of hours worked.
The TC decided that Lena Hughes had "deliberately, consciously and systematically" avoided compliance with the tachograph regulations to obtain financial benefit. He noted there were still a substantial number of kilometres missing as a result of tachograph charts not being handed to Vosa. That meant Vosa had been unable to ascertain whether there had been further deliberate failures to comply with the drivers' hours rules.
Any breach of the drivers' hours and tachograph rules wasscrious, the TC remarked, and a deliberate breach to avoid the need for proper rest or the double-manning of vehicles was especially serious as it affected both public safety and fair competition. Lena Hughes ran a profitable business in large part as a result of her decision to ignore road safety regulations in respect of drivers hours.
As well as the 0-licence revocation and disqualification, the TC suspended Dylan Hughes' LGV licence for three months, saying he had been an active party in the deliberate falsification of tachograph records.As a partrn in the business in all but name, he had obtain( significant benefit.
The TC also suspended driver Robe Larnbie's LGV licence for six months, sayir he had been the principal driver in the busine during the period when deliberate illeg activity had been carried out.
The other driver, John Jones, was warned ; to his future conduct and advised to attend tachograph course. •