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Tetley trucks did 75mph
Page 14
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CARLSBERG TETLEY's West Midlands 0-licence has been cut by 25% following speeding offences and a poor initial failure rate at annual test.
A Birmingham disciplinary inquiry was told that the initial failure rate was 60.5%,compared with the national average of 35.4% .The fleet's prohibition rate at roadside checks was 29%, as opposed to a national average of 23.1%.
Traffic examiner William Hutchison said two of the company's vehicles, stopped in a roadside check last October, were found to have defective speed limiters. The drivers had said they knew the speed limiters were defective and claimed they had repeatedly reported this to no effect. The company denied this.
Traffic examiner Neil Gardiner said a subsequent examination of 819 tachograph charts for a two-month period showed that on 395 occasions the speed limiters on nine vehicles driven by 47 different drivers had not limited the speed for periods of 10 minutes or more. In April the company pleaded guilty to 19 speed-limiter offences before the Solihull magistrates. It was fined £4,000 with £85 costs.
John Jackson, the company's national fleet engineer, said he believed it had been possible to tamper with the speed limiters of the vehicles concerned; they had been rewired to prevent a reoccurrence.
A lot of the annual test initial failures were due to headlight alignment, he added; the firm had since purchased headlight alignment equipment.
Curtailing the licence with effect from 4 January, TC David Dixon said the extent of the speed limiter abuse with HGVs being driven at speeds up to 75mph and the fact that Carlsberg was wholly ignorant of what had been going on, were totally unacceptable for a company of its stature.
Speed, along with alcohol and fatigue, were key safety issues in this critical matter. However, he took account of its previous unblemished record, and the fact that the company had recognised its failings and had taken energetic steps to prevent any repetition.