No comment on VI overload policy
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• John Rose, for the Vehicle Inspectorate, told Wantage magistrates that when an artic belonging to G Stiller Transport of Stockton-on-Tees was check-weighed at Abingdon last March it was found to have exceeded its permitted train weight by 1,140kg (some 3%).
Gary Hodgson, defending, said the vehicle had been carrying steel to Portsmouth and the company had relied on the delivery notes which showed the weight of the load was not excessive: no axle weight limits had been exceeded and the total weight had been within the design weight. In such circumstances the driver would have been unaware of any problem, he added. Hodgson said he understood that the VI was now exercising a policy of not always prosecuting train weight offences if the excess was under 10% or Iwo tonnes.
Rose declined to disclose VI policy but pointed out that summonses had been issued in this case.
The magistrates fined the company £350 with £60 costs.