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OVERLOADING crackdown on speedsters Ma ENVIRONMENTAL CONCERNS
Page 16
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Drivers who regularly exceed speed limits are to lose their HGV licences for months rather than days or weeks.
North Western Traffic Commissioner Beverley Bell gave the warning when Jeffrey Stobbs, trading as JR Stobbs Transport, of Bootle, and four of his drivers appeared before her at a St Helens public inquiry.
Stobbs was seeking to increase authorisation on his licence from eight vehicles and 10 trailers to 14 vehldes and 18 trailers. The TC was also considering taking action against the licence held by David Reston, formerly employed as a driver by Stobbs.
In March Reston and Stobbs were convicted of tachograph offences (CM 14-20 March). Stobbs and three drivers were subsequently convicted of using vehicles with defective speed iimiters.
Traffic examiner Geoffrey Whitley said several complaints about a speeding vehicle were traced to Reston's truck. Reston had bought a vehicle from Stobbs and had thought he would run it for a month to see whether he could make a go of it before applying for an Operator's Licence.
Maintaining that Stobbs's drivers had adopted a cavalier attitude to tachograph and speed limiter regulations. Whitley said Et was alleged that another driver, Geoffrey Hunt, had bent the speed styli so that the top speed was recorded significantly lower than the real one. There had been no proper checks on the tachograph charts and Hunt was never disciplined.
The tachograph on one vehicle had been defective for some time and the driver had been making manual entries, said Whitley Stobbs had said that he had been trying to find a second-hand replacement.
Drivers James Benson and Thomas Pruden had seriously exceeded speed limits, with sustained speeds of up to 75mph. Whitley was unable to say whether the drivers had deliberately interfered with speed limiters, it was more likely that the equipment was defective and the drivers took advantage of that.
Hunt said he had bent the styli to correct the speed on the chart, having reported the speed limiter to be defective because he had known the charts were showing excessive speed. He did not believe he had been endangering anyone.
Stotts said he had never put drivers under pressure to travel above the speed Omits, He felt that as a small firm they had become too friendly, and it had become difficult to discipline drivers.
Suspending Stobbs' licence for 10 days and three specified vehicles for 14 days, the TC said Stabbs's attitude to 0-licensing had been cavalier and he had come perilously close to having his licence revoked. She granted an additional three vehicles and four trailers with effect from late September.
Suspending Reston's licence for seven days, the TO said that Reston had had a pretty appalling start but he had sought to come into the system.
The TC suspended the HGV licences held by Benson and Pruden for six weeks. She revoked Hunt's licence and disqualified him from holding such a licence for eight weeks.
"I am very keen to send a message out to the industry that if drivers feel they can exceed speed limits they will put their iicences in jeopardy," she said.