'Dual nationality' problems
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Express Freight Scotland has lost its licence for uslng vehicles in France after they had been suspended. The company and its sole director, Pascal Thery have been banned from holding or obtaining an 0-licence for a year.
The 10-vehicle/la-trailer licence held by the Letham, Angus-based company had been suspended for two weeks by Scottish Traffic Commissioner Michael Betts after a check on its tachograph records revealed a massive amount of unrecorded use.
The vehicles, which were registered in France, carried foodstuffs to France, where they were taken over by French drivers. On their return they delivered Peugeot parts to Coventry using drivers from the Birmingham area before returning to Scotland.
Transport manager Vincent Ewan said he had no knowledge of a company called Express Freight Birmingham, of which Pascal Thery was also said to be a director. Thery denied this.
When he imposed the suspension the IC said that the vehicles must remain unused at the operating centre in Dundee Street, Letham. But when the company appeared before him again he was told that the vehicles had not been seen there.
For the company, Colin Ward said it had not fully understood the implications of the suspension. The missing kilometres were explained by the fact that when the British drivers were having their weekly rest the vehicles were in France being driven by French drivers.
Ward said it would have been commercial suicide to have kept the vehicles off the road. They had been taken to France and used under a French licence. The Scottish work had been handled by bringing vehicles on the French licence into this country, and using subcontractors.
Betts said he had some sympathy, but concluded that if any operator could use commercial necessity for ignoring an order made by a TC it would set a ridiculous precedent.