Cleared of 80 charges
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• TD Williams (Brynamman) has been cleared of 80 charges alleging that it permitted drivers to drive excessive hours and take insufficient rest. The company's defence costs are to be met out of public funds.
The company pleaded not guilty before Llanelli magistrates to 52 charges of permitting drivers to exceed 41 hours driving without the required break, four of permitting them to use tachograph charts for longer than 24 hours, eight of permitting them to exceed the daily driving limit, and 14 of permitting them to take insufficient daily rest.
Prosecuting for the Department of Transport, Michael Petersen said the offences had come to light after a check on
the company's tachograph charts in January. A considerable range of offences was discovered. Although Williams had a chart checking system, it merely distributed warning letters to offending drivers.
Traffic examiner William Rees said the company had not been strict enough with its drivers.
In reply to Stephen Kirkbright, defending, Rees said that around 3,000 tachograph charts belonging to 125 drivers had been analysed by computer.
After Rees had maintained that prosecutions had not been brought for minor offences, Kirkbright pointed out that one driver had been prosecuted for being three minutes short in his break and two for being 12 minutes and 13 minutes out on their daily rest periods. Rees said he was not suggesting that a driver be sacked for being five minutes out.
General manager David Price said Williams was a family firm and its philosophy was to counsel drivers when offences were committed. A driver given a warning letter in October after 10 serious offences had since committed one minor offence in January, a great improvement.
Kirkbright maintained that Williams' softly-softly approach was working. He said that a former traffic examiner of 25 years experience, Harry Thomas, was employed to check the company's tachograph records. Many drivers had received warning letters and three had been sacked for consistent breaches of the regulations. Less than 3% of the charts checked had revealed offences. It could not be said that Williams had been reckless whether or not offences were committed by its drivers.
Twenty eight of the company's drivers earlier pleaded guilty to a series of charges involving the falsification of tachograph charts, failing to keep tachograph records, failing to take the required break after 41 hours driving, exceeding the daily driving limit and taking insufficient daily rest. They are to be sentenced shortly.