Skip truck exempt from tacho regs
Page 29
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
• A director of Ashton & Manchester Waste Executive was cleared of a tachograph offence after Manchester City magistrates accepted that a 7.5-tonne mini-skip vehicle carrying domestic waste was exempt from the EC tachograph
John Loftus had denied using the vehicle when the tachograph had not had a six-yearly calibration check. The magistrates heard that the vehicle was stopped in a check in March 1997 after it had collected a skip full of domestic waste from a private household. The prosecution maintained the vehicle was not exempt as it was not engaged on local authority service or under contract with a local authority. It was pointed out that the skip had been provided to the householder for a fee.
Ian Whalley, defending, argued that as long as the service was provided to the public at large then the vehicle was exempt. He pointed out that in the case of Swain vs McCaul the High Court had said that the criterion for inclusion in the exemption was that the service in question was a "general service performed in the public interest".
The magistrates directed that the defence costs should be paid out of public funds.