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Legal O&A is a service to CMreaders in which specialised
Page 45
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road transport lawyers suggest the answers toyour legal queries. This week's answers are by Barker Gotelee. which is based in Ipswich. If you have picked up this copy of CM at the CV Show then why not drop in to our free legal clinic with your query? Transport lawyers from Barker Gotelee, Backhouse Jones and Hill Dickinson will be on CM'ssland from 11 am-1 pm and 2pm-4pnn each day.
Phoenix firms and the 0-licence
read with interest your article on phoenix companies (CM5 February). However. if a company closes on a Friday and reopens on a Monday under a different name hut with the same directors, what is the legal position regarding the 0-licence'? How can it continue to operate if the licence is held in the name of the former company?
Name and address supplied Essex If a company ceases trading and then a separate company commences trading (under a different Companies House number) then the new company must have a completely new 0-licence to lawfully run vehicles on the public highway. If, on the other hand, the same company continues trading but simply changes its trading name then the situation is different because a trading name is simply a banner under which a company will operate and the transport activities may continue under the same 0-licence number.
The difficulty does tie in enforcement: if a company ceases trading and use of vehicles continues behind the front of another company without an 0-licence then that company is liable to prosecution and should be prosecuted in fairness to all other operators that pay for and comply with the requirements of their 0-licences.
Does quarry time count as driving time?
I am an owner-driver working in a quarry in Derbyshire and, until recently. was under the impression that quarry driving is designated as non-driving time. However, a policeman has told a fellow driver that this is not so because quarry driving is in a public place. Now different traffic areas have given us conflicting information. But if the police are right we will effectively lose one to two hours' driving time each day for the time spent in the quarry. What is the correct interpretation of the law? Name and address supplied Derbyshire You will only need to record as 'driving' time periods spent on journeys on roads open to the public: otherwise it will be 'other work'. Whether the quarry you work in contains public roads depends on the extent to which there is public access to them. In order to prosecute the police or the Vehicle & Operator Services Agency would have to prove the driving was on a road open to the pub Ii' The more the quarry is clearly shown to be a private place, and the less public access there is, the harder it would be for them to prove this.
Of course, driving to and from the quarry will be 'driving' time. This question raises a important issue: many road traffic offences can be committed at locations seemingly 'private' but which in fact are 'public' eg public house car parks.
MustIwearaseathelt?
One of my drivers has been handed a £30 spot tine for not wearing a seat belt. However. I understood that HGV drivers do not need to wear a seatbelt.On the day in question he was engaged in multi-dro work collecting used fridges for recycling on behalf of the local authority.
George McCabe Ramsgale, Kent From the limited information it would apoe that your driver will not be exempt unless he can show that he was a driver using a vehicle which was 'constructed or adaptec for delivery or collection of goods or mail, while making local rounds, deliveries or collections' in which case he could claim a exemption. In any event he will not be able claim the exemptions when driving to or fit the area within which he is engaged in the multi-drop work. The more his activity is loc and repetitive, the easier it will be to justify 1 exemption.