1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168 
0-licence in jeopardy after tacho offences
Page 23
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
FALSIFICATION OF tachograph records by John Smith Transport's one driver could lead to the loss of the company's 0-licence.
The Poulton-Le-Fylde-based company. which currently holds a licence for one vehicle and one trailer and was seeking to increase the authorisation to three vehicles and three trailers, had been called before the North Western Deputy Traffic Commissioner, Elizabeth Perrett.
There had been a previous public inquiry conducted back in 2004 when drivers' hours and tachograph offences had also been the issue.
The traffic examiner, Sarah Dalton, explained that the driver, Allen Pearson, had interfered with the tachograph by winding the clock back.
Comparisons made with other documents showed that he had "tipped off the card" repeatedly, and, on one occasion, a break had been drawn in by hand. Pearson was subsequently convicted of 32 offences and ordered to pay fines and costs of £1,365.
Asked why there were a lack of tachograph charts after 11 December 2006, the managing director and transport manager, John Smith, said they had been destroyed when the vehicle was involved in an accident the following month. The DTC agreed there were no obvious hours offences on the face of the charts.
Admitting that he "took the card out" when it would have revealed excess hours. Pearson said that it had been quite common for him to only have four hours' sleep.
He was aware that what he was doing was illegal, but it was the only way to get the job done, and Smith had told him not to "run bent".
For the firm, Mike Cunningham said that the infringements, which did not involve enormous amounts of time or mileage, had only been identified through a process of forensic examination and crossreferencing with other documents that had not been available to the company at the time.