Me again - thanks for everyone that has posted on a few of my earlier posts about tacho’s just 3 more questions for you lot - this place should be called Trukipedia !
1.Are tachographs used in accident investigation? and is the evidance off them “valid in court”?
2.Only the police in the uk can “do” you for speeding - not on evidance of your tachographs alone
3.If you were investigated and your hauglage yard is just off a single carridgeway - can you be done (and by whom) if your last few mins driving was at 50mph?
Jenson Button:
1.Are tachographs used in accident investigation? and is the evidance off them “valid in court”?
2.Only the police in the uk can “do” you for speeding - not on evidance of your tachographs alone
3.If you were investigated and your hauglage yard is just off a single carridgeway - can you be done (and by whom) if your last few mins driving was at 50mph?
Yes and yes.
A driver can’t be prosecuted in the UK for speeding on the evidence of a tachograph chart alone.
A company in, IIRC, North Wales had its O licence revoked because vehicles were regularly travelling at 56mph just after leaving the yard, and there were no dual carriageways or motorways in the area.
So the Welsh firm would have had this picked up by a routine check or a report then? - which would have brought the boys from VOSA for a nice friendly visit, resulting in a prosecution, so he then looses his “good repute” and the TC would have taken his licence off him?
You won’t be done for speeding on the evidence of the tachograph alone, but it can be used in an accident investigation to show that you was speeding and I think such evidence is taken seriously, for all intent and purpose it would leave you to prove that the tachograph evidence was faulty and you were not speeding.
Could have been a perfectly innocent situation such as a couple of MOT failures, or 1 or2 drivers getting speeding fines that triggered a visit by VOSA to the depot.
Even a driver with the wrong attitude at the roadside on a routine check may have just ■■■■■■ off the VOSA guy at the end of a bad day and Hey Presto…your boss has a visit
Also bear in mind that that the tacho can be used to get you in the ■■■■ rather than out of it, ie,
getting a speeding ticket through, that for the time and date shows that you were not speeding on tacho is not taken into consideration.
Harry or anyone corect me if im wrong but from previous experiance from other people, this seems to generally be the case in the UK.
Jenson Button:
3.If you were investigated and your hauglage yard is just off a single carridgeway - can you be done (and by whom) if your last few mins driving was at 50mph?
A firm I have done some driving for in the past had a routine VOSA check and they noticed that even though said firm is 20minutes away from a dual carriageway their charts frequently showed their vehicles travelling 50mph+. They got a very snotty letter from VOSA saying that they would be checking their charts again shortly and if they found any vehicles exceeding 40mph near the yard that action would be taken…
I’ve no idea what kind of action it would be, when VOSA came back the drivers had obviously been good boys as no action was taken.
Gembo:
Also bear in mind that that the tacho can be used to get you in the [zb] rather than out of it, ie,
getting a speeding ticket through, that for the time and date shows that you were not speeding on tacho is not taken into consideration.
Harry or anyone corect me if im wrong but from previous experiance from other people, this seems to generally be the case in the UK.
Yep. I sent a copy of my tacho showing the time of the “offence” I’d been on cc at 30mph for about 5mins. Was ignored because “there was no proof that the time was right.” My then TM knew it was unfair but still took my load bonus for the week. When he retired I refused to sign his card or attend retirement presentation.
…Hence why I’ve rarely gone above 40 ever since. Very rare for a tipper driver.
Gembo:
Also bear in mind that that the tacho can be used to get you in the [zb] rather than out of it, ie,
getting a speeding ticket through, that for the time and date shows that you were not speeding on tacho is not taken into consideration.
Harry or anyone corect me if im wrong but from previous experiance from other people, this seems to generally be the case in the UK.
Yep. I sent a copy of my tacho showing the time of the “offence” I’d been on cc at 30mph for about 5mins. Was ignored because “there was no proof that the time was right.” My then TM knew it was unfair but still took my load bonus for the week. When he retired I refused to sign his card or attend retirement presentation.
…Hence why I’ve rarely gone above 40 ever since. Very rare for a tipper driver.
He didn’t want to retire but senior management wanted to modernise: He whinged to me but I told him I had no sympathy and wouldn’t complain, reminding him how I was treated re the speeding offence.
toowise:
Could have been a perfectly innocent situation such as a couple of MOT failures, or 1 or2 drivers getting speeding fines that triggered a visit by VOSA to the depot.
Even a driver with the wrong attitude at the roadside on a routine check may have just ■■■■■■ off the VOSA guy at the end of a bad day and Hey Presto…your boss has a visit
Yep and it will be recorded and probably used against the operator when he renews or tries to make a major alteration to his O licence. A guided tour of Harehills House often results from this.
i think the most famous case would have to be Roger Bastable’s Abbey Hill Group when the drivers and the Doncaster company lost their licences for speeding.
