0-licence curtailed over hours
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Breaches of the drivers' hours rules have led to the South Wales licence held by Liverpool meat wholesalers Towers Barron, trading as Towers Thompson, being curtailed r to seven vehicles for a period -V of two weeks. The company, which holds a restricted licence in South Wales for t. nine vehicles, appeared before
Welsh Traffic Commissioner David Dixon at a Cardiff disciplinary inquiry
Traffic examiner Williams Rees said that when two of the company's vehicles were stopped it was found that the drivers had been exceeding the hours limits. Tachograph charts obtained from the company's premises for October 1998-January 1999 revealed a further 70 offences.
For the company, Christopher Childs said it was part of a group of 66 companies. Meat was distributed from Swansea with multi-drop deliveries throughout South Wales. The drivers were also meat porters and cutters.
Transport manager Tim Dugdate said that licences were held throughout the group. This was the first time there had been any serious offences. Curtailing the licence, the TC said there had been a "people failure" during a short space of time but the outside checking of the charts ought to prevent it occurring again.
One of the drivers concerned, Christopher Pimm, said he had been fined 2260 by the magistrates for inserting a chart in the tachograph while his vehicle was in motion, and for a number of centre-field offences. Issuing a warning, but taking no other action against Pimm's HGV licence, the TC said his offences were at the bottom end of the scale.