Drivers not told about hours regs
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• A meat haulage firm has been fined nearly £8,000 for failing to train its drivers about tachograph records or to tell them when they have to take their breaks.
Dawn Midlands, of Gravelly Park, Birmingham, did not enter a plea at Solihull Magistrates' Court; the charges were proved in its absence.
The company, which is based in Beckton, east London, was fined £7,800 on 10 charges involving drivers who had failed to take the required break and three counts of failing to produce tachograph records.
Driver Michael Dicken, of Bromford Bridge Estate, Birmingham, was fined a total of £1,180 after admitting 10 charges of failing to take a break. Juan Maddrell, prosecuting, said the offences had come to light during a visit to Dawn Midlands' Gravelly Park base by Vehicle Inspectorate officials.
"Tachograph sheets had not been produced and it was revealed that drivers had not taken the required breaks," Maddrell told the court, -One driver had driven for six hours 18 minutes with only an 18-minute break and another had driven more than nine hours with only a 26-minute break. The firm had failed to train drivers about the tachograph and had no control over the drivers."
Maddrell said the firm had claimed that one of the drivers had lost his tachograph sheets and that problems had been caused by employing agency drivers.