Wharfedale pays for 'ignored warnings'
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• A company said not to have heeded warnings following previous drivers' hours offences was ordered to pay fines and costs of £2,000 when it appeared before the Halifax magistrates last week for the second time in five months.
In May, Wharfedale Traction was ordered to pay fines and costs of 25,300 after admitting 16 offences of permitting drivers' hours offences and one offence of unauthorised use (CM 26 May-1 June). On this occasion, it pleaded guilty to 13 offences of permitting drivers not to take a weekly rest period.
Richard Wadkin, prosecuting for the North Eastern Licensing Authority, said the offences dealt with in May had been committed between June and August 1987 and had been pointed out to the company on 2 September 1987. Wharfedale, however, had then flagrantly disregarded the need to take steps to prevent the repetition of such offences. The matters before the court last week had arisen between 9 September and the end of October.
For Wharfedale, David Smedley said seven of the offences related to one driver and six to another and that they were duplicated in the sense that once a driver failed to have a weekly rest period he committed an offence every time he climbed into his vehicle. Neither driver had exceeded 90 hours driving in the fortnight and there was no suggestion that either had failed to take the required daily rest.
The company had also acquired a new management team since the offences.
Five of the company's drivers also appeared before the magistrates and were ordered to pay a total of £840 in fines and costs for a variety of offences.