Connection hit with hours fine
Page 16
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
• Bradfordbased Connection Freight and six of the company's drivers have been ordered to pay fines and costs totalling £7,045 by the city's magistrates after admitting a series of drivers hours and tachograph offences.
The drivers pleaded guilty to taking insufficient daily and weekly rest; exceeding 90 hours driving in a fortnight; exceeding 41 hours driving without taking the required break; and failing to keep tachograph records on ferry journeys.
Department of Transport senior traffic examiner Bryan Walscher said that Connection Freight was a small family business operating 7.5-tonne vehicles. The company had completely failed to ensure that its drivers understood and complied with the regulations. No training whatsoever had been given; no action at all had been taken and the company was consequently guilty of permitting the offences.
There had been no system for checking tachograph charts. When traffic examiners carried out a check, a total of 32,000km was unaccounted for in a period of four months. There were a massive number of offences, of which those before the court were specimens.
Jonathan Clarke, defending, said that Connection Freight had been in financial difficulties, It obtained a lucrative contract for the carriage of car parts on behalf of Opel. Deliveries had, in the main, to be made within 24 hours. In order to meet the requirements of the contract, the drivers had driven over the hours limits in an excess of enthusiasm to safeguard their jobs, and help the firm.
The company was fined a total of £5,700 for permitting the offences by the drivers, and was ordered to pay £175 prosecution costs.