lours ruling
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rolling one.
Morley says the 11../fp's interpretation allows a driver to stay too long at the wheel. "We can't see that it can be right that someone can drive up to nine hours with a 15 minute break — that's the equivalent of Glasgow to London. I wouldn't do that in my car, let alone with 38 tonnes behind me."
Trevor Smith, general manager of Mayfield Chicks, which runs eight vehicles, says Lancashire police are "out on a limb" with their interpretation of the European Community law. The appeal is likely to be heard in 10 to 12 weeks at Burnley or Blackburn. El In another case that could set an important precedent for haulage law, a tanker operator is to appeal against an overloading fine. His argument is that Government inspectors weighing his vehicle on their dynamic weighbridge did not allow enough time for its load of milk to settle.
The dispute could throw into question the validity of using roadside dynamic weighbridges to check lorries carrying liquids. The case, expected to be heard in November, involves Si Barge Tankers, which pleaded guilty in a previous case to two instances of axle overloads.
Transport consultant Colin Ward, however, says there is a chance that in the alleged two minutes from the vehicles being flagged down on the road to them being weighed at the roadside, the loads had not settled: "Liquids find their own levels," he says. "Compensating axles on a truck are designed to keep the wheels in contact with the ground at all times and the weight evenly distributed — we can show that in allowing only two minutes, the officers involved were technically incompetent."
The launch of the appeal comes one week after Commercial Motor revelations that Britain's static weighbridges could be wildly inaccurate (CM 22-28 September).