Tacho-fiddling driver disqualified for a year
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A former driver at EG Chassar has been disqualified for 12 months after admitting to using a magnet
By Roger Brown
TRAFFIC COMMISSIONER (TC) for Scotland Joan Aitken has disqualiied a former driver from Arbroath haulier EG Chassar for a year after he admitted to using a magnet to interfere with his tachograph equipment.
In a conjoined public inquiry (PI) and driver conduct hearing in Edinburgh, the TC was told how in June 2010 a VOSA trafic examiner visited the haulier’s premises after receiving a tip-off that drivers at the irm had been using magnets. The examiner analysed 22 digital records from driver Alastair Hudson, covering the whole of March that year.
He found two instances of Hudson driving for more than 4.5 hours without a break; one instance of failing to enter the period of time; ive false records and one instance of insuficient daily rest.
Hudson explained that he purchased a small magnetic device worth £5 from a website to interrupt the true operation of tacho recording equipment. He had used it because at the premises of one customer – Albert Bartlett and Sons in Airdrie – he and other drivers could spend up to ive hours sitting in queues.
He said he had got into the habit on the advice of other drivers delivering to Bartletts. The beneit to him was not inancial but social, in that he could do two loads a day and get home. Hudson and three other EG Chassar drivers investigated have since left the business.
Aitken said that because of the failure of the other three to attend the hearing, she would deal with the matter of their itness on another occasion.
VOSA also examined 25 digital records for partner, transport manager and driver Albert Chassar. The oficer identiied two instances of exceeding 4.5 hours driving, one of insuficient daily rest and four of driving without an appropriate card. The TC suspended his HGV driving licence for three months.
For his brother, partner and driver John Chassar, the examiner found one instance of insuficient daily rest and three instances of false records. Aitken suspended his HGV driving entitlement for four months. However, she said there was no evidence that the Chassars themselves had used magnets. The TC also curtailed the EG Chassar O-licence from ive vehicles and six trailers to two vehicles and four trailers, allowing any variation to be made after a year.
She added: “I am prepared to believe that messrs Chassar did not know of the magnets. I may be naïve in that, but they get the beneit of the doubt.”