LA warns on axle weights
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A NEWPORT (Gwent) operator with an 0 licence for 22 vehicles and 25 trailers had it curtailed to 16 units and 21 trailers and prematurely terminated from 1980 to 1978 when he was summonsed to appear before the South Wales Licensing Authority. John Stephens, a director of BelIport, Newport, told the LA that its work was almost exclusively for Bellport and two of the convictions were for overloading and they were both identical.
The company was carrying containers from Ireland which were sealed by the Customs and Excise and they had been unable to check the way the contents were distributed in the container.
The delivery notes were within the weight limits and they took them on trust to the destinations. Both offences were axle overweights and not gross overweights.
Mr Stephens said that following these offences the company saw the warning light sounding rapidly and following negotiations with Billport a company weighbridge had been installed.
Since that time there had been no more overloading offences, but unfortunately there had been two other convictions. On one occasion a rented trailer was used without a current plating certificate and the other offence was when a driver was not issued with a log book. The company admitted this was an error on their part.
There were also three GV9s between June and September 1977, two on their own vehicles and one on a third trailer, two of which concerned brake deficiencies.
But imposing the penalty, the LA, Ronald R. Jackson, said that axle overloading was just as serious as gross overloading and possibly causes more damage to roads.