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Magistrates halve driving ban

21st December 2000
Page 20
Page 20, 21st December 2000 — Magistrates halve driving ban
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

A former Transfreight Services driver has managed to halve the length of his HGV driving ban after telling of the hardship it was causing him.

William Cutler was one of a number of former Transfreight drivers who had their HGV driving licences revoked for falsifying tachograph records and interfering with speed limiters.

Cutler told the South Sefton magistrates that he had felt unable to say what the consequences would be for his family if he lost his licence when he appeared before North Western Traffic Commissioner Beverley Bell; the ban had immediately cost him his job with Autovalve.

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Cutler said his job with Transfreight had been his first as an HGV driver, as a heart bypass had made it difficult to get a job, and that once there he had been forced into offending. Fie told the court: 1 was told I had to get back from Southampton, for instance, and when I said I couldn't get back I was told that if that was my attitude I could Producing a cutting from CM detailing Western TC Philip Brown's dealing with a number of Bryan Haulage drivers who had been guilty of falsifying tachograph charts, Cutler said they had had their licences suspended for periods of between four and six weeks. He felt that the length of his disqualification was "a bit long" and said the hardship it was causing was "a nightmare".

Transfreight had gone into liquidation two weeks before the hearing, said Cutler. "They closed one day and opened the next week as Hawthorn Transport," he added. "The owners for now have walked free and have had nothing done to them at all."

Gerard Glanville said he had been Transfreighfs transport manager between May1999 and January 2000 but had left before the VI investigation began. The hours breaches were a culture when he joined.

Transfreight knew that several of the drivers were in a vulnerable position because they had drink-driving convictions and found it hard to get work, Glanville alleged; he considered that the drivers had been manipulated.

Cutting the disqualification period, the magistrates said: It was clear that pressure was placed on Culler by his employers. However, we agree with the Commissioner that every driver must make his own choice. in this case Mr Cutler chose to breach the regulations put in place for the protection of all of us."

The magistrates were satisfied that revocation was inevitable but felt a 12month disqualification was excessive and cut it to six months.


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