'Army of traffic examiners' foils BRS drivers
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• Eight BRS drivers who were fined a total of £138 with £36 costs by Bristol magistrates on Monday for failing to keep current records were fdfced to break the law because of a union ruling to limit their speed, claimed Mr. Anthony Goldsmith, defending seven of the accused.
Continuing he said: ''The real criminals are not before you today. The people to blame are the union officials and the officials of BRS. They have been trying for a number of years to work out a productivity agreement which will suit everybody but the negotiations are like the 18th century gavotte—formalized, slow and entirely ineffectual."
Referring to the 22.5 m.p.h, average speed limit, Mr. Goldsmith said: "This speed was agreed between the union and the BRS when the maximum speed of the lorries was 30 m.p.h.: now these vehicles can go 40 m.p.h. and one might have thought. the average speed of the vehicles would have been raised. We are not considering reasonable people but unions."
Mr. R. F. P. Holloway, prosecuting on behalf of the Western LA, explained that the drivers were employed by BRS at its depot in Bedminster. The accused operated from Philblack Ltd., carbon block manufacturers, of Avonmouth, on Contract A licence to the Midlands and the north. This meant BRS did not have the same control over drivers and vehicles operating from its own base and records submitted to them by Philblack were accepted in good faith.
Following information received by the LA a "massive road check" was made involving an "army of traffic examiners" who were posted
along a route from Avonmouth to the Midlands. As a result it was evident that there had been a deliberate and wholesale contravention of the law. "The records were titter nonsense and so fictitious that it is extremely difficult to know exactly how the drivers were operating," he said. At the prescribed speed it took two days for the return journey and involved a night in lodgings, continued Mr. Holloway, so to avoid this the drivers did the journey in one day and made out false records.
After the hearing, Mr. Ron Nethercott, regional secretary of the Transport and General Workers' Union, and Mr. Bill Garmston, regional commercial trade group secretary, said in a joint statement: -We totally refute the allegations that we have been dragging our feet over negotiations.
-Proposals were presented to our members which they rejected because they did not consider the offer was to their satisfaction. Obviously we have had to continue our talks with BRS management to improve their offer."
At Watford magistrates court on Tuesday BRS were fined £5 for an overloading offence. The vehicle operated from the Guildford depot and two previous convictions were taken into consideration.