Moss gathers fines
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• Committing drivers' offences cost A W Moss & Son, trading as Moss Tours of Sheffield .£55,280 in fines and costs when the company appeared before the Sheffield Magistrates.
The company admitted three offences of permitting drivers to exceed eight hours driving in a day, three offences of permitting them to take insufficient daily rest and one offence of permitting a driver to take insufficient weekly rest. Charges alleging a further 38 offences were however, withdrawn by the prosecution.
Prosecuting for North Eastern Traffic Area, Michael Henley said an investigation followed a complaint from a driver about the way the company's drivers were being forced to work excessive hours with little rest. The main focus of the investigation was on a service operated between Bradford and Gatwick Airport on behalf of National Travel.
Tachographs had been initially used on that service but ceased on 2 May, the company claiming that it was exempt because it was a regular service. A number of the drivers, however, continued to use the tachographs. The offences before the court were specimens of the offences that were discovered.
Several of the drivers had said that they had slept on the rear seats of the coaches because they had insufficient time to go home and sleep before starting work again — and that the company expected them to work excessive hours irrespective of the fact they were breaking the law.
It seemed the company had been quite lax about keeping records, said Henley. If there had been more records available doubtless many more offences would have been discovered.