Deplorable records cost £330
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• Drivers' records of a Birmingham haulage contractor, Chelmsley Transport, were in a deplorable condition, it was claimed by the prosecution, when the firm and one of its drivers faced hours and records offences before Birmingham City magistrates last week.
Robert Lesley Baxter and Irene Joyce Baxter, trading as Chelmsley Transport, of Garretts Green, Birmingham, each faced 10 charges of failing to cause current drivers' records to be kept and two charges of permitting a driver to have a spreadover in excess of 124 hours. David Robert Baxter, one of the firm's drivers, faced seven charges of failing to keep a current record and two charges of having a spreadover in excess of 124 hours. The magistrates fined the defendants a total of £330 and ordered them to pay £50 costs.
Prosecuting for the West Midland Licensing Authority, Mr Peter Wiseman said Robert Lesley Baxter was the active partner in the business, Irene Joyce Baxter having little to do with the management of the business. When a DoE traffic examiner inspected the drivers' records he found them to be in a "deplorable condition".
Mr W. S. Alsopp, a DoE traffic examiner, said that initially he had some difficulty in getting hold of the records. When he finally managed to see them he found that they were not being kept properly. On seven separate dates, driver Baxter's records were found to be incomplete. The omissions included failure to enter on/off duty breaks, total duty and total driving times. In one case no return journey was shown and no time of ceasing work and in another the only entries were starting times. On two occasions he had failed to take 11 consecutive hours of rest, only having taken 10+ hours, giving him spreadover times of 27 hours and 26 hours respectively.
There were in addition three summonses against each of the partners in respect of another driver, Peter Geoffrey Thomas, who had also failed to correctly complete his records.
When interviewed, David Robert Baxter said although he had not entered his breaks on a number of occasions he had in fact taken them. Nobody had known how to enter the new type of drivers' records correctly and he had had to try to pick it up from other drivers he met.
Mr Wiseman said that none of the records had been certified by the employer. The purpose of the certification was to show that they had been examined for defects by the employer. The DoE had issued a number of explanatory pamphlets concerning the correct way to enter drivers' records and the record books used by the firm had limited instructions printed on the cover.
In a letter to the court, Robert Lesley Baxter said the company had expected its drivers to know how to fill in the records properly. It had not been realized that offences were being committed until they were pointed out by the traffic examiner. The DoE should have pointed out the errors to the drivers rather than bring a prosecution.
The magistrates fined the defendants £.10 on each charge and ordered each partner to pay £20 costs and the driver £10.