Compressed rubbish overload
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• An overloaded refuse vehicle has cost Al lerdale District Council in Workington and one of its drivers £640 in fines and costs. The council, operating as Allerdale Contracting, and refuse truck driver John Hodgson pleaded guilty before Penrith Magistrates to exceeding the permitted second axle weight of the vehicle by 1,200kg, {11.4%). Defending, John Collinson said that as rubbish was loaded into the vehicle it was compressed to the front. The equipment was designed to stop once the permitted gross weight was reached but problems arose if heavy material was picked up towards the end of the trip, as that meant there was greater weight at the rear.
The gross weight had been within 50kg of the legal limit and the driver had no way of knowing what the axle weights were. The council had since spent £15,500 equipping its refuse vehicles with on-board weighers. The gross weight of the vehicle had been reduced to 15.5 tonnes as it had been found that it was not moving the weight between the axles as it ought to. The council was fined £500 and Hodgson £100.