Crabtree wins overload appeal
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zi• A £2,100 overloading fine on Derbyshire haulier H Crabtree has been quashed on appeal to Bradford Crown Court.
Dismissing the fine, and substituting an absolute discharge, Judge Garner said he accepted the company had done everything it could to avoid the offence, and was neither blameworthy nor negligent.
The court heard that when one of the company's vehicles had been check-weighed at the Ainley Top dynamic axle weighbridge, the permitted weight of the first axle of a two-axled rigid carrying palletised chemicals was found to have been exceeded.
For Crabtree, John BacIdiouse said five vehicles a day were loaded at the customer's premises, close to Ainley Top. Regular drivers on that work were familiar with the loads. ff in doubt about the axle weights, they would use the dynamic axle weigher to check; if it was manned.
On this occasion, the driver was not experienced with the goods he was carrying: the customer's staff had loaded his vehicle. The customer asked for a 2.0ft gap at the front and he expected there would be a similar gap at the rear. The driver had relied on the customer's knowledge of the load. He had thought that the pallets measured 4.0x4.0ft, but they were standard metric pallets so they did not extend far enough back for the usual counterbalance behind the rear axle to operate. The vehicle was not overloaded overall, the
front axle was around 1,300kg over while the rear axle was approximately 2.0 tonnes below its permitted weight.
There was no financial gain in overloading said Backhouse. It was unlikely that there would have been any damage to the road surface.