1Bread van reprieve
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BREAD DELIVERY van operators have won at least a 12 months' reprieve from tachograph legislation, following a decision last week by the House of Lords.
The Law Lords granted Thomas Scott and Sons (Bakers) Ltd and one of its drivers, Brian Rimmer, leave to appeal against a High Court ruling that they broke the law by having no tachographs in door-to-door delivery vans.
That hearing (CM, April 9) overturned an earlier ruling by magistrates on Merseyside that bread vans came within the door-to-door delivery category, and need not be fitted with tachographs. It implied that all bread vans would need to be equipped, at a cost well in excess of E4m.
In view of the European connection, the Law Lords have referred the appeal to the European Court at Luxembourg, as it is likely that a ruling by the Law Lords would be referred there in any event.
But no further ruling is expected this year, and it is anticipated that the European Court will not hear the appeal before the middle of next year.
Until then, the Freight Transport Association is reminding all operators of vehicles used specifically for door-to-door selling that they should carry on as normal and run without tachographs.
It has repeated earlier advice (CM, May 28) that any operator who experiences problems either with enforcement authorities or when presenting a vehicle for its annual test should contact the FTA immediately.
FTA director Bill Mills, who attended last week's hearing when the FTA and the Federation of Bakers backed the petition seeking the appeal, told CM that the Law Lords' ruling had been a success for the bakery trade in the sense that it had not stopped the chances of the matter eventually being over-ruled.
Hardly surprisingly, tachograph manufacturers are far from happy about any possibility of bread vans being excluded from their potential market, and Lucas Kienzle managing director Fred Kay told CM: "As far as we are aware, the exemption sought does not apply in other EEC states.
"It has always been our view that the tachograph exemptions should not be created lightly, since the vehicle operators and the general public are denied the benefits of the instrument and the granting of exemptions can create confusion rather than removing it," he added.