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Scottish firm may appeal against TC's tad() ruling
Page 18
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Ferguson Transport believes leaving the tachograph set to 'rest' when doing jobs in the yard is "acceptable practice". David Harris reports.
A PROBE INTO potential breaches of working time regulations at a Scottish haulage firm, sparked by an anonymous tip-off, came in the nick of time,according to Scottish Traffic Commissioner Joan Aitken.
Although the investigation into Spean Bridge haulier Ferguson Transport did not reveal any breaches of the legislation as the 26-week reference period had not ended, the operator displayed confusion about how it should be complying.
The TC says: "It is fortunate that the [Vosa] examiners went in when they did. for I strongly suspect that had they not done so, this operator's drivers would have been shown to have worked excessive hours. Their intervention was a stroke of great fortune for this operator and for road safety."
The firm was eventually called to public inquiry because of irregularities in the way its drivers were using their tachographs.
The key issue was that drivers were not switching the tachograph mode from 'rest' to 'other work' when doing jobs in the yard such as loading their vehicle.
The TC eventually curtailed the firm's 0-licence from 38 trucks to 34 for a period of six weeks.
The company's managing director, Alasdair Ferguson, says he may now appeal against the ruling. He is particularly concerned that the TC effectively accused management of colluding with the drivers to break the rules.
He argues that it has long been acceptable practice to leave the tachograph on 'rest'.
"I accept the fact that we made mistakes, but nothing we did was deceitful," says Ferguson. "Our name and reputation are very important to us."
Ferguson believes "a very large proportion" of hauliers are failing to change the mode of tachographs in similar circum stances. "We had been doing it for some time and it hadn't been highlighted in inspections, and I know many other operators have been as well. Are they all going to be prosecuted?"