Stitch in time for Smith
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• Persistent speeding led to Scunthorpe ownerdriver Marcus Smith appearing at a Leeds disciplinary inquiry.
North Eastern Deputy Licensing Authority Brian Horner was considering taking action against Smith's LGV driving licence and his 0-Licence, but decided just to give a reprimand.
He directed that a further check of Smith's tachograph charts be made before the licence falls due for renewal in July Traffic examiner Ralph Peplinski said that of 48 tachograph charts analysed, 35 (72.9%) showed speeds of more than 60mph. At times the trace exceeded 78mph. There was one instance of a failure to take weekly rest and another when 214km had not been recorded. There was also an occasion when the vehicle was double manned and both Smith and the other
driver had used the same tachograph chart.
Questioned by Gary Hodgson, for Smith, Peplinski agreed that not all the instances of speeding had been when Smith was driving. He accepted that tachographs were accurate to about 6km per hour. It was normal for the speed trace to start on the baseline: on the charts he had examined the trace started above the baseline. He would say that the speed shown would have been affected by about 5km an hour and not 10km as suggested. He agreed that the use of the gears could cause the speed trace to "flip up" on occasions.
Smith said that he had fitted a speed limiter but he had constant problems with it: it cut in at 68 to 70mph instead of at 60mph.
In reply to the DLA, Smith said that he had not been under any pressure to speed. He had been aware that he had been speeding. It was just a question of "pushing loads through efficiently". Peplinski said that recent charts produced showed the limiter in operation and no infringements.
Hodgson said Smith had spent a lot of money trying to get the limiter to work properly. The weekly rest infringement occurred when Smith took his vehicle into the dealer, driving half an hour there and back. But for that journey he would have had the required rest. The missing mileage occurred when Smith's vehicle was borrowed by another operator. Nobody had been misled by the way the double manning had been recorded.
Homer said that there had been some serious infringements. Having heard the explanations, he had decided that it was a case of "a stitch in time".