BRITISH RETORT • I refer to an overloading incident involving
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a Frenchoperated lorry. I thought it might be of interest to you to have details of the incident bearing in mind the recent articles in Commercial Motor on the treatment given to British lorries carrying lamb in France.
On October 16 1986 a Scania two-axle tractor unit with a three-axle refrigerated trailer loaded with frozen meat was stopped in a routine weight check being operated by this Department on the Al2 at Chelmsford. It was weighed on the nearby Essex County Council weighbridge where it was found the train weight was overloaded by 3300kg (8%), the gross weight of the tractor unit overloaded by 3,160kg (18%) and the drive axle overloaded by 3,600 kg (34%). As a result the vehicle was prohibited from continuing on its journey until the excess weight had been removed and the load redistributed.
The driver was taken to court the same day and Chelmsford Magistrates imposed total fines of £1,000, £250 for the train weight overload and £750 for the drive axle overload.
D E Hammond
Assistant County Consumer & Public Protection Officer ECG Chelmsford