Aston fined £14,200
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by Geoff Perfitt • Aylesbury-based Aston Clinton Haulage, a subsidiary of Norbert Dentressangle, was fined £14,200 with £750 costs last week for allowing drivers to spend too many hours driving and failing to produce tacho sheets.
The Aylesbury-based company faced 43 charges of failing to keep records, allowing drivers to exceed working hours and ignore rest periods. The company pleaded not guilty to four of the charges.
Seventeen of the company's drivers were also charged with similar offences and 13 of them were fined. The other four, and the company, will be heard at the court on 3 August when their not guilty pleas to a range of similar charges will be considered.
Prosecuting for the Vehicle Inspectorate, John Rose said in court that lengthy enquiries into the firm's records and their drivers working hours started last November.
During routine checks on the company, the inspectors found they had failed to keep their tachograph records for at least a year. About 90 sheets were missing, covering 30,000 kilometres. The company has 63 vehicles: 49 are used for international haulage, mainly in Italy and Germany.
David Fowler, managing director, was interviewed and admitted that drivers were not given written warnings about the need to comply with working and rest period hours, and their tachograph sheets were not fully checked, but just looked at randomly.
The company said most drivers had exceeded their hours because they drove on to their destinations or to reach secure compounds.