Disciplinary action is waived by LA
Page 16
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
INTERNATIONAL haulier David Prince, trading as Prince Transport of Cheddar, has been saved from possible disciplinary action by Western Licensing Authority Major General John Carpenter.
Prince was called before the LA after a conviction for overloading and several drivers' hours offences, but Carpenter decided that Prince was now exercising sufficient control and that no action need be taken.
For Prince, Geoffrey Jones said the overloading convictions concerned a vehicle on a journey from Barcelona. The vehicle had been loaded and customs sealed in Barcelona with 8.25 tonnes of paper and just under nine tonnes of exhaust pipes. The train weight was within the limit, but there had been a gross overload of 1,140kg on the tractor almost certainly caused by loading the dense paper.
The hours offences at Taunton were in respect of one driver only Prince was not being prosecuted. The driver was convicted of making a false entry, failing to use a mode switch and failing to take a weekly rest.
Prince said that the driver of the vehicle concerned in the overloading offence had checked his train weight on arrival at Dover, The driver had had no control over the way the vehicle was loaded.
Prince no longer checked the tachograph charts himself but sent a month's charts away at a time for analysis.
Taking no action Carpenter said that, on international traffic, good men with initiative were needed as long as that initiative did not get out of hand. The convictions had raised the question of whether Prince was exercising sufficient control over his drivers, but he had been satisfied by what he had been told.