Farming crisis hit trucks
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Breaches of the drivers hours and tachograph rules and problems about maintenance led to Sheppey-based Burden Bros' licence being suspended for a fortnight by South Eastern & Metropolitan Deputy Traffic Commissioner Brigadier Michael Turner.
Traffic examiner David Sadler told the TC he had discovered numerous tachograph breaches last June, including 12 occasions when drivers had driven for more than 4.5 hours without the required break. There were also failures to make entries on the centre field of tachograph charts.
Vehicle examiner John Vinall said that during a maintenance investigation in July the inspection records showed the stated period between inspections of six to eight weeks had been extended to as long as 17 weeks. One trailer in particular had no records for 15 months. For the firm, Colin Ward said the Burden brothers were farmers, and the traumas affecting agriculture had caused them to take their eye off the ball when it came to transport. "In 1995 they were paying 8p a litre for agricultural fuel, and wheat was fetching .2120 a tonne." he added. "Today the fuel costs 28p a litre and wheat is fetching .£50 a tome."
Guy Burden said he had taken over the administration of the vehicles. Maintaining that the hours and tachograph breaches had arisen out of ignorance, he said that when he had taken the HGV driving test he had not received any training about the hours and tachograph rules.
Ward explained that the transport of combine harvesters caused traffic chaos, and the vehicle concerned often had to park up for long periods. His firm, Ward International Consulting, would be running a training course for the firm's drivers on drivers' hours and tachographs, and would set up a new maintenance system.
Suspending the licence with effect from 18 December, Turner said two warning letters about extended inspection periods and advice from the Vehicle Inspectorate had not been acted upon. However, he accepted that it had been more a case of ignorance than a deliberate flouting of the rules.