Taxi firm let drivers exceed hours
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A taxi firm which permitted drivers to breach the hours rules after moving into light haulage has had its 0-licence suspended for two weeks and cut from six vehicles to four.
Lichfield City Radio Cars was called before West Midland Deputy Traffic Commissioner Alan Bourlet at a Birmingham disciplinary inquiry.
Last December the company pleaded guilty before the city's magistrates to 10 offences of permitting drivers to drive for more than 4.5 hours without taking a 45minute break and to three offences of
using a vehicle with a defective tachograph. It was fined £1,000 with £650 costs.
Traffic examiner David Dunham said an examination of 460 tachograph charts revealed 73 hours and records offences, including one case of falsification committed by six drivers; and 99 offences of defective tachographs where the speed limiter was not working.
When interviewed, managing director Michael Pullen had said he had glanced at the tachograph charts when he received them. After the firm's transport manager had left three or four years earlier the charts were not checked regular's( For the company, Alan Bentley said it had been formed in 1984 to run taxis before expanding into light haulage. The offences were committed when it was running10 vehicles.
Most of its difficulties arose from the harsh economic climate resulting from the high cost of diesel and competition over rates. When the transport manager left in 1994, another one was employed but later left due to financial difficulties.
The offences arose when Pullen was trying to grapple with all the administrative work, said Bentley. He had left himself with too much to do due to lack of finance.