UFO drivers fined
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• Seventeen drivers employed by Dewsburybased Universal Freight Organisation were ordered to pay fines and costs totalling 22,475 after they admitted driver's hours and records offences before the town's magistrates.
Prosecuting for the North Eastern Traffic Area, senior traffic examiner Brian Walscher said the offences had arisen mainly on international journeys and involved failures by drivers to meet the legal requirements. The magistrates might feel the company has a responsibility to monitor the drivers, and it was a matter that the Licensing Authority would take into consideration.
Walscher quoted instances of drivers being on duty for periods of up to 50 hours 45 minutes without taking the required amount of daily rest; driving for as many as 13 consecutive days without taking the required weekly rest, and driving for as long as seven hours 20 minutes without a 45minute break.
Tha drivers were Terris Benson, of Morley; Simon Brook and Keith Monks, of Dewsbury; Tony Clark, of Blackpool; Thomas Crowther, of Huddersfield; John Dakin, of Doncaster; Robert Drake, of Yeadon; Andrew Dunne, of Pudsey; William Fraser, of Chesterfield; George Griffin, of Rothwell; Jack Holt, of Middleton, Leeds; Brian Hudson, of Liversedge; Michael Nixon, of Balby, near Doncaster; Richard Sheard, of Gomersal; Alan Summerscales, of Heckmondwike; Barry Wilson, of Wake field; and Neil Wilson, of Southampton. They were each fined between 2120 and 2260 and were ordered to pay 215 each towards the costs of the prosecution.
Asked by the magistrates if anything could be done about the company, Walscher said Universal Freight had used a tachograph screening system that had been ineffective, and it was possible that the company was insufficiently aware of the offences to the extent of creating a defence.