Weekend classes cost £13,000
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by Amanda Bradbury • Felixstowe-based haulier Goodway, which employs 150 drivers, has been fined 213,000 with 250 costs by magistrates after asking drivers to do classroom-based training at the weekend. This is the first prosecution of its kind involving the drivers' hours implications of hazardous goods driver training, says the Vehicle Inspectorate. The haulier may appeal on either the level of fines or the verdict given by Deben magistrates at Felixstowe last Friday (2 September): it refuses to comment on the case.
The 213,000 fine was levied for 26 offences of failing to allow drivers minimum rest periods: the convictions covered a sample of offences in which 13 drivers were involved on two separate Saturdays in March this year.
Goodway's managing director Roger Jennings pleaded guilty on behalf of the company. He said drivers volunteered to do the training at the weekend.; they were not paid, but were given expenses. Because the drivers had volunteered, the company had not seen the courses as part of the drivers' ordinary working week.
For the Vehicle Inspectorate, Richard Mutimer said the company was advised by the VI before the offences were committed that they should not run ADR courses at the weekend. Following the training sessions, drivers who attended them had their tachographs checked: these showed that 13 of them had already worked a full week before the courses took place. About 15% of Goodway's business is the carriage of hazardous goods.