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Definitely the wrong people to overtake.., as haulier finch
Page 31
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Operator loses half his licence authority after a little injudicious overtaking at high speed. Mike Jewell reports.
WHEN A TRUCK doing more than 70mph overtook a van containing a traffic examiner and a vehicle examiner it led to an investigation that cost an operator half his licence authority.
West Midland Traffic Commissioner David Dixon described the subsequent revelations as the -worst scale of speeding by drivershe had ever come across as a TC. He cut the licence held by Shrewsbury-based Mervyn Edwards from six vehicles and six trailers to three vehicles and three trailers for two months.
Traffic examiner Nicholas Wust told the TC that he had checked the firm's tachograph records for May-December 2002 after a`fransit van containing a vehicle examiner and a traffic examiner had been passed on the M54 by an artic moving at more than 70mph.
The check showed that nine drivers, including Edwards himself, had regularly exceeded the UK speed limit, sometimes travelling at up to 130km/h (81mph).There were also a number of 4.5 hour driving and daily rest offences. Most of the vehicles concerned were first registered before January 1988 and did not require speed limiters. Several of the drivers had claimed that their tachographs were recording higher speeds than they had actually driven at. But Edwards said that when the calibration of their tachographs was checked. only one vehicle had a problem.
At a previous hearing the drivers had blamed their speeding on ageing vehicles that did not require speed limiters and the TC had reserved his decision over what action to take against their HGV driving licences (CM 8 January).
Andrew Woolfall. appearing for Edwards, said that if he retained his licence new vehicles would be acquired which would be equipped with speed limiters. All the firm's tacho charts were now sent for outside analysis and Edwards planned to join the Freight Transport Association.
Accepting that the tachograph records had not been checked as they should have been during the period concerned. Edwards said he had gone to live with his 87-year-old mother while his father was in hospital for 12 months before his death. The system for checking charts had -fallen to pieces" as he had not been there to monitor it.
However, the drivers were paid by the hour so there was no incentive for them to speed to get back early. Of the drivers concerned, only one was still with him.Agreeing that he had himself exceeded the speed limit and committed hours offences. Edwards said that it was due to neglect on his part, with his mind not being on the job. He conceded that he had been convicted of three speeding offences, two involving trta The TC said that it was not an impre record for someone who was both a drivel an operator. Curtailing the licence. Dixon that it was unacceptable that personal prob had stopped Edwards from doing what he c to do in relation to his haulage business. •