Multiple Tachograph and driving offences before the court
An operator was convicted at Belfast Magistrates’ Court and fined a total of £650. The conviction arose when DVA Enforcement Officers stopped and examined a 3 axle Volvo articulated lorry in combination with a 3-axle trailer. On examination of the vehicle, it was noted it was not specified on a valid Goods Vehicle Operators Licence.
On analysis of the vehicle’s tachograph, it was noted it had not been calibrated, and that the vehicles tachograph data had not been downloaded in 3080 days, 2990 days outside the 90-day limit. On analysis of the driver’s digital smart card, it was noted it had not been downloaded in 38 days, 10 days outside the 28-day limit.
Driver caught using another driver’s tachograph card
An operator was convicted at Craigavon Magistrates’ Court and fined a total of £1,600. The conviction arose when DVA Enforcement Officers were conducting compliance checks in the vicinity of Lurgan when they encountered a 3 axle Scania Articulated Goods Vehicle in combination with 3 axle semi-trailer.
During inspection, it was noted that the driver was fraudulently using the digital tachograph card of another individual, in turn creating a false record. The operator claimed to have no knowledge of this individual who fraudulently used the driver card. DVA later confirmed this card to have been declared not received following a renewal application by its lawful holder, it therefore should not have been in use.
It was noted the company had never downloaded the vehicle tachograph unit or the driver’s tachograph card as required by Regulations, therefore ignoring all activity completed in the vehicle and by the driver. Evidence further indicates the absence of the company carrying out regular checks of the completed work against the driver’s attendance otherwise the illegal activity would have been identified.
On a later date further detailed analysis of the digital tachograph data was carried out, anomalies were noted indicating the driver used the driver’s card fraudulently on 16 other dates to circumvent driver’s hours Regulations at the detriment of road safety, in turn accumulating 53 apparent offences attributable to the company.
The offences before the court included cause / permit use of a driver card of which the driver is not identified as the named holder, creating a false record, failure to download tachograph card, failure to download vehicle Tachograph unit, employing a driver with Insufficient daily rest, cause / permitting excess daily driving time and failure to carry out regular checks.
