Speeding complaints
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• Complaints from the public about speeding vehicles belonging to Galloway Refrigerated Transport and breaches of the drivers' hours and tachograph regulations, led to the company's appearance at a Dumfries disciplinary inquiry.
The Newton Stewart-based company has to wait to see what action Scottish Traffic Commissioner Michael Betts is going to take against its licence for 40 vehicles and 40 trailers, although he has indicated that revocation is unlikely Traffic examiner Averil Boyle said that in January 1995 the company was fined £3,800 after being convicted of 19 offences of failing to produce tachograph records.
A check on the company's tachograph charts for February 1996 revealed a number of charts for six vehicles appeared to be missing, with between 426 and 3.219 kilometres unaccounted for. A further check of charts for two vehicles for October 1996 showed a number of apparent drivers' hours breaches and falsification of tachograph charts.
A number of complaints about excessive speed by company vehicles led to a check on the tachograph charts for April and May 1997 said Boyle. Out of 376 charts checked, 220 showed speeds in excess of the 901cm/h limit.
Boyle said a member of the public had complained about a vehicle speeding and tailgating on the M1 at a time when the tachograph chart appeared to show that the vehicle was stationary According to one chart, a driver had taken 25 minutes to drive between Carlisle and Bathgate, said Boyle, which was impossible. Betts pointed out that one of the charts was in the name of a driver not employed by the company.
Producing warning letters issued to drivers, director Andrew Wallace said that following the 1995 convictions a system had been introduced to enable them to trace charts. Drivers had also been warned that tampering with tachographs and speed limiters would not be tolerated. The company had now entered a contract with the Freight Transport Association who would analyse its tachograph charts four times a year, said Wallace. He accepted they had not been analysing charts to the extent they should do.
Maintaining that drivers were not given schedules that were difficult to achieve, Wallace said the biggest problem was that they had not been doing what they were told and the company had not been disciplining them hard enough. He accepted that in the past they had not had a system for trying to detect false charts. He said there was no reason for drivers to falsify charts or for drivers to speed. Any speeding now meant instant dismissal.
In reserving decision, the Commissioner warned that the bottom line had been drawn and any more offences were likely to result in very severe action.