Whittle carries full responsibility
Page 16
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• Ron Whittle, and 13 of his Go Whittle drivers, appeared at disciplinary proceedings last week before West Midland Traffic Commissioner John Mervyn Pugh, following their conviction on drivers' hours and tachograph offences last December.
The drivers admitted 52 offences before the Kidderminster magistrates, and Whittle, who is in partnership with his mother in the Highley-based Go Whittle, was fined 22,500 after admitting allowing 45 of the offences (CM 3-9 December, 1987) Whittle said that it had been the first prosecution against the firm for drivers' hours offences for about 20 years. Serious consideration would have been given to a not guilty plea, and had Whittle done so, he felt it would have succeeded.
The law was extremly complex, and even the Ministy enforcement officers had misunderstood it, as was shown by the large number of charges withdrawn. It had been the firm principally at fault, and not the drivers.
During 1985 he had spent a lot of time chairing BCC committees relating to the new Act. There had been very little time to prepare and register services before the new Act came into force, and, not surprisingly, the firm's administration had showed strain. While the law had been broken on a limited number of occasions during the busiest period of a very unusual year, the spirit of the regulations had not been breached.
Taking no action, Pugh said Whittle, who was a highlyrespected man in the industry, deserved enormous credit for taking full responsibility for what had occurred. He must have been acutely embarrassed, and the shame of what had happened must have ranked very strongly with him. Pugh said he was quite satisfied with the way the firm was run and with its repute.