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'All due diligence` defence plea by hauliers 'is not enough'
Page 55
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Government is worried rabout the number of hauliers who successfully resist prosecutions for breaches of the regulations by pleading that they used "all due diligence" to see that everything was in order.
"Employers must face up to their responsibilities" was the message from Government spokesman Lord Winterbottom in the Upper House.
He noted that Section 20 of the Road Traffic Act 1962, allowed an operator to plead "all due diligence" as a defence to infringements of the regulations concerning records of drivers' hours. This precedent had proved unsatisfactory in practice, he said
Difficulties had been experienced in the courts, where the diligence expected of an employer was often interpreted as being of a minimal nature, went on Lord Winterbottom.
"The fact that an employer has told his driver to make certain that everything is in order has been taken in the courts as 'due diligence'.
"We believe that this is not enough. We feel that it is most undesirable that operators should be tempted or allowed to evade their responsibility by sheltering behind the man next down the line and by regarding their obligations as having been fulfilled if they merely put up a notice on a notice board. In our opinion, both driver and owner must be held responsible."
Lord Winterbottom also had a few words to say about the allocation of responsibilities to ensure that a goods vehicle is properly loaded.
"We believe that the owner, the driver and the Loader all have a responsibility in seeing that the vehicle is correctly loaded, and that its correct loading is not only for the vehicle as a whole but also for individual axle weights which, of course, is really a question of distribution.
"We cannot expect that the owner should be present every time a goods vehicle is loaded . but at the same time the owner cannot avoid his ultimate responsibility."