1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156 
inchecked 'enthusiasm'
Page 25
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
DIA 'conscientious and enthusiastic" driver who committed a series of ivers' hours and tachograph 'fences, left his employer afore West Midland Traffic ommissioner David Dixon at a irmingham Public Inquiry.
Stourbridge-based VC verland had its Operator's cence curtailed from nine %Thies to six for the month of ovember, effectively taking one perational vehicle off the road. Traffic examiner David ughes said that a vehicle driIn by Anthony Gribben was :opped in a check in the North lest last October and it was
bom.
found that he had broken the hours regs on three consecutive days. In the resulting investigation 33 offences were found on the 66 tachograph charts that were analysed in detail.
Gribben and the company were subsequently prosecuted—Gribben was fined £850 after admitting 19 4.5-hour driving offences: three of exceeding the daily driving limit: three of taking insufficient daily rest; and eight of incorrect use of the mode switch. The company was fined .£2,720 for permitting these offences.
Hughes said he believed there had been a similar pattern of offending since Gribben began his employment in February 2001.
For the company, Michael Carless said that Gribben was conscientious and enthusiastic. He was not a driver who had been driving round the clock: he had simply taken his breaks in the wrong amounts. There was no suggestion that he had been a tired dryer, and he was regarded by the company as extremely good. In the current climate an operator could sack a driver and his replacement could prove to be worse.
MD Carl Yokes said that generally the company's drivers got it right. The two things he wanted in a driver were honesty and reliability—and Gribben was "Mr Dependable".
Yokes added that he had verbally warned Gribben on a number of occasions and had decided to suspend him for a week in September. However, Gribben was on holiday the USA and his return was delayed by the events of 11 September. When he finally got back Yokes did not want to compound things, but when Gribben was stopped in October he had felt that it served him right.
Nothing changed, so yokes had transferred Gribben to local shunting work and there had been no further problems. Apart from two drivers who had been dismissed, he had never come across a driver who deliberately set out to break the law.
The TC pointed out that whether it was deliberate or not, the law was being broken and 33 offences after Gribben got back from the USA was a huge number. On one occasion he had only taken 3hr 20min rest in 24hr: on another he had driven for more than eight hours without the required break.
Curtailing the licence. the IC said that Yokes had been well aware at least by early September, if not before. that Gribben was breaching the hours rules, but serious breaches continued almost to the end of the year.