Divisional Court
| DOI | 10.1177/002201830206600203 |
| Published date | 01 April 2002 |
| Date | 01 April 2002 |
| Subject Matter | Divisional Court |
Divisional
Court
'Permitting' Employees to Drive Public Service Vehicles
in Breach
of
EC Regulations
Yorkshire
Traction
Co.
Ltd v
Vehicle
Inspectorate
[200 I]
RTR
518
The defendant company operated public coach services
north
from
Sheffield
and
south
from Barnsley. The employees at head office were
aware of the EC Regulations restricting
the
hours
of driving of its
employees
and
the
company's rosters
and
schedules were devised to
comply
with
those Regulations. The
northern
run
was
the
longer in time
as it was appreciated
that
the
making of connections
with
buses from
other
companies might cause delays. But
both
schedules were within
the Regulations. The officers of
the
Vehicle Inspectorate made a 19-
day inspection of
both
routes
and
alleged
that
they
had
discovered no
less
than
33 contraventions, involving 19 drivers. The drivers were
prosecuted
upon
the basis of the evidence afforded by their tachograph
record sheets. The company was charged
on
33 informations
with
'permitting' the drivers to commit the 33 contraventions of Article 7 (I )
of Regulation (EC)
3820/85
and
s. 96(
IIA)
of the Transport Act 1968.
The offences in the 19-day period were 15 in
the
first week, 13 in
the
second
week
and
five at
the
beginning of the third
week-a
matter
of
some importance, as the company claimed to make regular checks of
the
tachographic sheets at least once a week. The justices found as a fact
that
the
company did indeed follow this practice,
but
they
also found as a fact
that those in
the
head office
who
had
undertaken
those checks were in
fact ignorant of
the
occurrence of
any
of the breaches of
the
Regulations
which
the
Vehicle Inspectorate claimed to have uncovered. The justices
concluded
that
the company was guilty of permitting the breaches, for
the
reasons stated below
and
on conviction
the
company was fined £40
on each information
and
was ordered to pay £400 towards
the
costs of
the
prosecutions. From this decision it appealed by way of case stated
which was heard in
the
Divisional Court.
Section
96(IIA)
(as amended) provides
that
where
in the case of a
driver of a
motor
vehicle, there is in the UK a contravention of
any
requirement
of the applicable Community rules as to
the
periods of
driving,
the
offender
and any
other
person, being the offender's em-
ployer or a person to whose orders the offender is subject,
who
caused or
permitted the contravention, shall be liable on
summary
conviction to a
fine.
Section 97A (as amended) provides
that
if an employed driver of a
vehicle to which the section applies fails
without
reasonable cause to
return
any
record sheet which relates to
him
to his employer within 21
days of completing it he shall be liable to a fine.
Article 7( 1) of Regulation (EC)
3820/85
provides
that
after 4!
hours'
driving the driver shall observe abreak of at least 45 minutes.
104
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