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Arts loses out in chart snatch

23rd February 1995
Page 8
Page 8, 23rd February 1995 — Arts loses out in chart snatch
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by Miles Brignall • Lewes Magistrates Court has confirmed that traffic examiners are entitled to remove tacho charts from hauliers' premises, when they are acting on the instructions of a Licensing Authority.

On 13 January West Sussex-based Rayner Partnership, trading as Arts International, was found guilty of failing to hand over drivers' tachograph records.

The magistrates granted an absolute discharge, but ordered the company to pay £500 costs. They heard that Vehicle Inspectorate traffic examiner Angus MacKintosh visited the company on 3 May 1994 and asked to see the drivers' records for a specified period. The company produced 266 tacho charts but refused to let MacKintosh remove them from the building. He told the magistrates that detailed analysis of the tachographs on the firm's premises was not possible for logistical reasons.

The company argued that section 99(1) of the Transport Act 1968, as amended, requires a haulier only to "produce" the charts; not to hand them over. However, the magistrates decided that the wording allowed the traffic examiner to demand the charts be "handed over at his option".

C Transport lawyer Stephen Kirkbright says that only the Licensing Authorities are empowered to seize tacho charts—not even the police have this right.


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