News

Aberdeen-based James Innes has had his licence for 18 vehicles and 25 trailers revoked by the Scottish Deputy Traffic Commissioner Richard McFarlane following a second disciplinary hearing for breaches of drivers' hours and tachograph rules.

At a previous public inquiry in February 2005, the Deputy TC cut the licence to 11 vehicles and 25 trailers for a period of three weeks. Innes, trading as JC Innes & Sons, has now been disqualified from holding or obtaining an O-licence for five  years.

In addition, the Deputy TC revoked the LGV driving licences of five drivers, banning four of them from holding such a licence for 12 months and the fifth for two years.

Revoking the O-licence, the Deputy TC said that lessons had not been learnt from the previous hearing: tachograph interrupter devices continued to feature the culture of the deliberate creation of false records had continued drivers continued to pick up speeding offences and Innes had failed to put proper systems in place.

He had also failed to keep full and proper records and had not taken appropriate action against drivers who committed the drivers' hours offences other than to warn them informally.

In summing up, the Deputy TC was satisfied that the drivers had falsified their records by using interrupter devices and that Innes had failed to ensure such devices were not used.