Early start led to hours fines
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• Pontarddulais, West Glamorgan based haulier Emyr Davies was prosecuted for permitting hours offences after he sent vehicles out early to avoid a major farmers' demonstration in the Midlands.
Llanelli magistrates fined Davies £500 with £55 costs after he admitted permitting two drivers to exceed 4.5 hours of driving without taking the required break.
Driver Robert Jones was fined £200 for two 4.5-hour driving offences; Peter Hargest was fined £75 for one offence.
The court heard that the offences came to light after one of Davies' vehicles was stopped in a check and traffic examiners investigated the tachograph records.
Davies said he had called the two men in on a Sunday night to take loads to Nottingham without any of them realising they would start driving before taking the required rest.
That particular Sunday was the only Sunday in six months when vehicles had left his yard, he said. A huge demonstration was planned in the Midlands for the Monday morning and the police had advised them to keep clear of it.
Davies said he had not realised the drivers had not had their proper rest periods. The regulations were complex and it was only in the last five minutes of his discussions with the traffic examiners that he was told they could give a presentation on the hours rules.
Jones was an experienced driver who had thought that he understood the tachograph regulations, said Davies. Hargest was less familiar with tachographs as he had mainly driven trucks in the Army.