Drivers for Mart subbie fined for fiddling hours
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IN by Mike Jewell and Dominic Perry Drivers working for a major subcontractor of haulage giant Eddie Stobart have been hit with fines totalling 22,051 for repeated hours offences.
Kendal magistrates heard that seven drivers working for Penrith-based Edmund Brewer—which runs in Stobart's colours— had interfered with tachographs, falsified charts and run without tacho charts to hide the fact they had taken insufficient daily rest. One driver was found to have taken less than five hours' daily rest. There is no suggestion that Stobart was involved or implicated in the Brewer case. This case comes just weeks after Commercial Motor reported that Norbert Dentressangle is under investigation by the VI for hours breaches.
Pace acting on a tip-off raided Brewer's offices and seized three months' tacho charts and timesheets. Analysis of the charts showed that the majority of Brewer's drivers had been falsifying their records, according to prosecutor Richard Henderson.
John Heaton, defending, said that drivers had been put under pressure to break the law by tight delivery schedules. He added that they had been at customers'
beck and call and the motive for the offences had been "to try and make their records look legal".
While many drivers falsified records for their own financial gain, that was not the case here, said Heaton. In one or two cases drivers had simply wanted to get home.
Driver Neil Batchelor said: "If I did not get the wagon back to base my next day's deliveries would have collapsed around me."
Heaton said: "The strait jacket of the EC hours rules does not allow the flexibility this type of work requires."
Fining the drivers, the magistrates said: "Falsification is a serious matter whatever the motivation. You are all experienced drivers and you are well aware what the law expects."
Once the courts have dean with the drivers, the company could be called before its local Traffic Commissioner or before local magistrates.
A further 19 Brewer's drivers are due to appear before magistrates at the end of May. Brewer confirms that it is still carrying out work for Stobart; nobody from Stobart was available to comment as CM went to press.