Door-to-door ruling leaves doubts
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BRITISH operators now have a clearer picture of what is meant by door-to-door deliveries, following a European Court judgment.
A Lancashire firm of bakers has lost a test case involving the use of the tachograph on one of its vehicles after an appeal was taken to the EEC's Court of Justice in Luxembourg for a ruling.
The case began more than two years ago when police on the M57 stopped a van loaded with bread and cakes belonging to Thomas Scott and Sons, Bakers.
Although the vehicle weighed more than 3.5 tonnes, the firm claimed it was exempt from the tachograph rules as it was a specialised vehicle for door-todoor sales.
Scott and its driver Brian Rimmer won the first hearing at Kirkby Magistrates Court, but the police appealed and the case eventually went to the Appeals Committee of the House of Lords.
The Euro-Court ruling — which is of significance for many local delivery firms in Britain — is that the van did not qualify under the rules as "as a specialised vehicle for door-to-door services".
According to the Court, the conversion for carrying baskets of bread and cake was not substantial enough and the vehicle could have been used for other purposes.
But the Court was more generous in its interpretation of doorto-door services. These need not be restricted to sales at house doors.
The Euro judges agreed they could be interpreted to mean deliveries to wholesalers, works canteens, schools or any jour neys that require frequent stops.
The ruling has left many loose ends still to be tied up by the transport industry. While it has gone further than before in specifying what is meant by door-to-door deliveries, it is still far from clear what is meant by a vehicle specially designed for such work.
It means that a vehicle will need some specific adaptations to be made for it to be a permanent door-to-door delivery vehicle, but it appears unnecessary for them to be built to resemble mobile shops.
The Freight Transport Association, which represents most of the companies likely to be affected by future cases, told CM that each case would need to be examined on its merits. But future British court cases will be judged within the ruling by the Euro judges.