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This week's answers have been supplied by a team of lawyers from Barker Gotlee of Ipswich, Suffolk

1st September 2005
Page 40
Page 40, 1st September 2005 — This week's answers have been supplied by a team of lawyers from Barker Gotlee of Ipswich, Suffolk
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

The law states that vehicles over 7.5 tonnes should not travel in the outside lane of a motorway. How should this be interpreted? Does it mean that vehicles up to and including 7.5-tonners can travel on the outside lane or that vehicles have to be below 7,5 tonnes to use this lane? One of my drivers was stopped for the offence of driving a 7.5-tonner in the outside lane. Does he have a defence?

Paul Ashby Park Express, Wellingborough, Northants.

It is correct that vehicles exceeding 7.5 tonnes should not use the outside lane of a motorway. You can easily checkto see if your vehicle should be permitted to use the outside lane. The Ministry of Transport plate which gives details of the plated weight of a vehicle must not show a figure in excess of 7.500kg in the 'maximum authorised mass box. If the maximum authorised mass is 7,501kg then the vehicle cannot use the outside lane of the motorway and you would also need to be careful that the driver you asked to drive this vehicle was licensed to category C.

The offence would be prosecuted under Section 17(1) Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984 and the offence would be dealt with byway of a fixed penalty notice unless a court hearing was requested.

If the driver receives a fixed penalty notice it should identify the vehicle being driven, the date and time of the alleged offence and the place where the offence occurred. The best course of action will be to check whether or not the Ministry of Transport plate shows a maximum authorised mass exceeding 7.5 tonnes.

If the maximum authorised mass is 7,500kg or less then your driver does have a defence and you should respond to the fixed penalty notice accordingly.

If the police do not accept this explanation then you will have to request that the matter be dealt with by the court.

We wholesale fresh flowers and run two 3.5-tonne Mercedes vans, which act as mobile shops. To increase volume we have bought a temperature-controlled trailer for each vehicle. Fully loaded the total weight comes to around five tonnes per vehicle, although the weight reduces as we deliver.

I understand that these vehicles are covered by the tachograph regulations, but there are quieter days when we do not need to use the trailers. which brings them under the limit for the regulations.

What kind of records do the drivers need to keep for those days? Presumably they do not need to use the tachographs.

Michael Day Fresh Flowers Northern, Whalley, Lancs The European Drivers' Hours Regulations apply to all vehicles with a maximum permitted weight exceeding 3.5 tonnes. The connection of a trailer to a 3.5-tonne Mercedes Sprinter will automatically bring it within the EU Drivers' Hours Regulations and a tachograph should be used. Equally, a 2.5-tonne van with a 1.5-tonne trailer attached would also require a tachograph to be fitted and used.

The requirement to fit a tachograph is based upon the maximum permitted weight of the vehicle rather than the actual load of the vehicle. It does not matter whether the total weight transmitted to the road is less than 3.5 tonnes. If the vehicle has the capability to carry in excess 01 3.5 tonnes then a tachograph must befitted and used.

On days when a trailer is attached to a 3.5 tonne van a tachograph must he used.

On days when the vehicles are used without trailers the UK Domestic Hours Regulations apply to the drivers. An operator has recently been successfully prosecuted for failing to ensure this takes place.

A log book should be kept of the drivers' hours under the UK Domestic Hours regime. There is no reason why a tachograph record should not be kept on days when the vehicle is used without the trailer to meet the requirements of record keepint forthe British Domestic Drivers' Hours. It would be advisable that if a tachograph were lobe used to record UK domestic hours, drivers should write "UK Domestic Hours" on the rear of any tachograph charts used.

Driving and duty time under the UK Domestic Hours regime count as duty time underthe European regime. Care must he taken to ensure that work carried out under the UK rules does not cause breaches of daily and weekly rest breaks underthe European Drivers' Hours Rules.


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