1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172 
No control over drivers so licence is revoked
Page 22
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
Director disqualified as DTC comments that tacho-fiddling device represents all that is bad in road transport.
A SCOTTISH COMPANY in which all the drivers were found to have committed hours offences has had its licence revoked. In addition its director, Lorna Eddie, has been disqualified from holding an 0-licence in any Traffic Area for three years.
Eddie, trading as Fraserburgh-based Lome Freight, held a licence for five vehicles and eight trailers, and had been called before the Scottish Deputy Traffic Commissioner Richard McFarlane at an Aberdeen disciplinary inquiry.
The DTC was also considering action against the LGV driving licence held by one of her drivers — Raymond Cowie — after an interrupter device had been found in his vehicle.
Traffic examiner Margaret Munro said analysis of 309 tachograph charts for June to August 2006 disclosed 20 drivers' hours offences.
In October 2006, a vehicle driven by Cowie was checked and his charts showed he had failed to keep a continuous record of journeys to the Continent and back. He had also failed to take a daily rest period, and his total driving time was 16 hours 30 minutes.
Traffic examiner Michael Dunlop said that in November 2006 Cowie's vehicle was stopped during a check and a loose wire with a cigarette lighter attached to it was found. When this was put in the cigarette lighter socket, the tachograph unit and speed limiter stopped working. The seal on the rear of the tachograph head had been tampered with Making the revocation and disqualification orders, the DTC said drivers' hours and tachograph offences had been detected in relation to all drivers employed during June to August 2006.
There was nothing to show this was an exceptional or unusual period and he was entitled to infer this was normal practice before and after that period.
There was no proper analysis of the tachograph charts and he concluded Eddie had no control over her drivers. The two significant incidents involving Cowie which, without question, involved false records, added to his concern, and the matter took a significant and sinister dimension with the discovery of the interrupter device.
Such a device represented all that was bad in road transport operation and had only one objective — to deceive. Invariably when such a device was discovered nobody owned up to its presence or how it got there.
It was not a manufacturer's optional extra: it was something deliberately introduced into the tachograph equipment, and it took time and knowledge to do that. Over the years such devices had become more sophisticated and harder to detect and the DTC was not persuaded that the new digital tachograph was immune from this type of abuse.
He revoked Cowie's LGV driving licence and disqualified him from holding such a licence for three years. •