Extra penalties for quarry overloaders after Section 69 hearing
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• At a public inquiry in Leeds last week, five Yorkshire tipper operators, mainly owner-drivers, were called before the deputy Yorkshire LA, Mr N. F. Moody, under Section 69 as a direct result of overloading convictions at Bradford City magistrate's court on January 28 (CM February 2).
The court was told that the offences which led to the convictions, came to light in November last year when a traffic examiner inspected a number of back-dated weigh tickets at a Bradford quarry where the five operators were employed. In all, 11 men were fined after the investigations — a further four of whom have yet to appear before the LA under Section 69.
The operators told Mr Moody, that at the time the offences had been committed, working conditions had been extremely difficult. Far more vehicles than usual had been employed by the quarry and the weighbridge was finding it difficult to cope with the excessive numbers. If a vehicle was found to be overloaded, the driver would be compelled to remove the excessive quarry waste and then join the queue again at the weighbridge — which could take up another hour's working time.
In the case of Mr Ikram Khan. of Bradford, the deputy LA decided to curtail his two-vehicle 0 licence by removing one vehicle for four weeks from April 7 after hearing that he had been fined £.18 on three charges of overloading and had also been convicted for employing a driver who was not the holder of an hgv driving licence.
Mr Moody suggested that as operators had been paid by the load they had, by failing to dispose of the excessive material and returning to the weighbridge, saved enough time to make another paid journey.
At the same inquiry the driver, Mr Laikat Ali, who had since acquired an hgv licence, was granted a new short-term operator's licence for one year only after applying for a full-term licence to cover two vehicles.
Mr K. B. Pullin, with a licence for one vehicle and a margin of four to be acquired, had his licence curtailed by five vehicles for a period of one week commencing April 20 and four vehicles thereafter, when he admitted knowingly driving an overloaded vehicle.
The licence of P. Wilkinson and Sons, which authorized four vehicles was curtailed by one vehicle for one week from April 20, and the margin of three vehicles for the duration of the licence.
Mr Albert Pinnock. also from Bradford, who was convicted on two charges of overloading, received similar disciplinary action when Mr Moody suspended his vehicle for a period of two weeks and removed his margin of one vehicle, after hearing that the operator's vehicle had been found to be 1 ton I7cwt overloaded on one of the occasions, and 19cwt overloaded on the second occasion. Mr R. C. Simpson told the LA that when he was charged with overloading at Bradford magistrate's court, he had pleaded guilty to 14 convictions although he had, he stated, taken his vehicle on the road only on one of these occasions. He explained that unlike the other operators, he had not been employed by Pickards Quarry, but by a local building firm and had merely cut across a field with 13 of his loads.
As Mr Simpson had pleaded guilty at the magistrate's court and had been prosecuted, the deputy LA suspended the one vehicle operated by Mr Simpson for a four-week period commencing March 30.