Campaign against overloading
Page 26
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
• The subject of overloading lorries is very much in the public eye at the moment, and there could soon be a campaign against it, Mr J. R. C. Samuel Gibbon, the Western LA, remarked at a hearing at Exeter last week.
He said: "I must not allow that to influence me. My job is to carry out my duties without regard to pressures brought from outside".
He imposed a "nominal penalty" on the haulage firm of E. A. Major and Sons (Transport) Ltd, of Highbridge, Somerset, by reducing the firm's authorized vehicles from 16 to 13. They at present operate 10 vehicles.
The case was brought to consider curtailment, suspension or revocation of the firm's licence because of three convictions of overloading between 1967 and this year.
Mr Samuel Gibbon said there was little, if any, element of moral blame so far as the operator was concerned. There had to be culpable neglect before a substantial penalty could be imposed and there was no such neglect in this case.
The nominal penalty was being imposed to record the fact that the requirements of the Transport Act had to be complied with. The LA warned that in future if overloading convictions occurred and there was culpable neglect, subject to the facts, "I think the appropriate remedy is either revocation or suspension".