Three-day suspension for failing to report
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A COMPANY has had its licence suspended for three days after it failed to report convictions for hours offences to the WesternTraffic Commissioner Philip Brown.
VOSA had prosecuted Romsey-based Iball (Wholesale) for a driver's failure to take the required rest breaks. The company and the driver were fined more than £1,200 but the company committed a further offence by failing to notify the Traffic Area Office of its conviction.
The driver was convicted of nine offences of driving for more than 4.5 hours without a 45-minute break and the company of permitting eight of the offences. The driver was fined £575 and the company £635.
For the company, Fred Randall said the offences came to light when the driver was stopped last July. He had only been with the company since March and had failed to take the minimum break of 15 minutes. He drove for no more than 7.5 hours a day but the pattern was repeated. Randall added that he was the only one of the company's drivers to offend.
Iball director Richard Starner said he now checked the tachograph charts every two weeks. He accepted there had been had management and there had been a failure to explain the regulations to the driver concerned. He had not thought it necessary to notify the Traffic Area Office of the convictions as the prosecution had been brought by VOSA.
Suspending the licence, the TC said there had been a potential risk to road safety. However, he accepted the offence had been "a one-off" and he gave the company credit for the steps it had taken since.