No briefing on tachos
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• Drivers hours and tachograph offences have cost three drivers employed by Oldham-based B&J Haulage a total of £1,425 in fines and costs.
Two of the three said they had received no advice of the hours regulations and had been given no warnings by managing director Brett Hampson. Hampson faces dozens of tachograph and hours offences.
David Casey, of Atherton, pleaded guilty before Oldham Magistrates to two offences of exceeding 44 hours' driving without the required break, and to two offences of exceeding the daily driving limit.
James Goulden, of Royton, pleaded guilty to seven offences of failing to use a tachograph, one 4i-hour driving offence and one offence of taking insufficient weekly rest.
Brian Shaw, of Chadderton, pleaded guilty to two 44-hour driving offences and to one offence of leaving a chart in the tachograph for longer than the permitted 24 hours.
Hampson is accused of permitting these offences and will have to answer dozens of counts of other tachograph offences. Magistrates adjourned his hearing until June after being told that Hampson had been taken ill the night before.
John Heaton, prosecuting for the North Western Traffic Area, said the drivers were employed driving 38-tonne vehicles exclusively carrying powdered and liquid detergent for McBride's, of Middleton. Three months' tachograph charts were seized by a traffic examiner and an analysis revealed numerous offences.
When interviewed Casey had said that he had never had the regulations explained to him. He had just picked them up. He had never been warned that he was exceeding the hours limits by Hampson. He had driven for as long as 11 hours 45 minutes in a day, and for as long as four hours 48 minutes without a break.
Goulden had made a number of double-manned journeys with Hampson. They had each only recorded their periods of driving, neglecting to record rest and other work. Goulden had said he had been unsure how to use the tachograph when double-manned and Hampson had not shown him. He had thought he could take his rest period in a moving vehicle. He said he had received no instruction about the regulations or any warnings from Hampson.
Shaw had admitted that he had had a couple of verbal warnings from Hampson.
The magistrates fined Casey £300, Goulden £675 and Shaw £225, each with £75 costs.