TTHE COMMERCIAL MOTOR JAN 26TH 2012
THE FARNSWORTH CONSULTANCY DISCUSSES DRIVERS HOURS
Due to our years of involvement with tachograph analysis and drivers hours related court cases, the Farnsworth Consultancy was asked to discuss the issue of drivers hours offences with Commercial Motor in this week’s article, “Haulier’s wide open to drivers hours abuses,” Jan 26th 2012.
"It’s important to us", commented Mr. Brys, "That we ensure that hauliers remain compliant with the complex laws of driver’s hours and avoid any unnecessary fines from the enforcement agencies and the possible problems that will bring with the Traffic Commissioners and their Operators Licence. It is difficult enough for hard working hauliers to operate in this tough economic climate, without having to be burdened with unnecessary expenditure, resulting from convictions, fines and restrictions on their Operators Licence."
The vast majority of hauliers are hard working, whilst aiming to abide by the law. They are only falling down in their compliance due to the incomplete training and guidance that they receive, with what is some of the most complex legislation on the statue books. We know because week on week we audit working procedures and tachograph data submitted to us by new clients who trial our service.
THE NUMBERS DON’T LIE
Despite year on year of Drivers Hours topping the list of most common prosecutions by VOSA, the article notes that VOSA conducted a recent random survey and found an extremely low number of hauliers to be non-compliant, suggesting there may not be a problem.
"We welcome this contribution by VOSA" commented Mr. Brys, "However, whilst the numbers may appear to be low to VOSA, to us they are not and we’ll continue working hard to ensure that our clients achieve and remain compliant with drivers hours legislation, in every way, to avoid any unnecessary fines and prosecutions."
Official figures from VOSA, reveals that in just over 2 years VOSA issued over £7 million in penalties for Drivers Hours, O-licence and other offences (even at the highest penalty of £200 per offence this equates to a minimum of 35,000 offences and at the lowest penalty of of £60 = 117,000 offences).
Between 2009-2010, VOSA issued 13,659 fixed penalty tickets and secured 6,289 court convictions, for tachograph offences
By most peoples standards these figures would not be defined as a low non-compliance rate and in our opinion, pose too high a risk of prosecution. They do not even take into account Drivers Hours related prosecutions undertaken by the Police.
We have the same aims as VOSA and The Police on the enforcement side and us in the private sector, which is to improve hauliers compliance with the Drivers Hours legislation and together we hope to achieve this.
CONCERNS RAISED OVER HAULIERS ABILITY TO DEFEND THEMSELVES
A leading defence lawyer raised concerns over haulier's ability to defend them selves in a recent transport magazine article. "Regulation 561/2006 in conjunction with the Transport Act 1968 requires every operator to have a system in place that complies with the regulatory requirements and operators are automatically guilty of offences committed by their drivers unless they can show robust systems are in place and they took all reasonable steps to prevent any contravention. The difficulty here is that any single gap in the system will probably mean there is no defence and the operator is guilty". Roadtransport July 4, 2011.
ABOUT US
At The Farnsworth Consultancy we are focused on preventing our clients and their drivers being convicted for drivers hours offences. We achieve this by providing them with the highest standards of help and advice, on working practices and tachograph analysis, enabling them to comply with all of the Drivers Hours regulations.
With more than 30 years experience of the drivers hours legislation and tachograph analysis and having been consulted by solicitors and barristers, we know what it takes to prevent your prosecution.
Read why you should move your analysis to us. About Us.