A Leominster HGV driver who regularly worked between 80 and 90 hours a week – in breach of road safety rules – has been disqualified from professional driving for a year.
The decision, by industry regulator Nick Denton, comes after Stephen Duggan, 43, of Blanchard Close, Leominster, was reported for committing 84 drivers’ hours and tachograph offences.
Mr Duggan’s vocational driving licence was revoked on 20 February, when the disqualification also came into effect.
The Traffic Commissioner concluded Mr Duggan was no longer fit to hold a professional licence to drive HGVs following a driver conduct hearing in Birmingham last month.
During the hearing, investigators from the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA), told the regulator that Mr Duggan had committed a number of offences while working for the Leominster based farming business Connop & Son Ltd.
The most serious – making 28 false records – came about because he had used another driver’s card to record some of his duties, which is illegal.
Mr Duggan used his own driver card and that of another driver to work double shifts and hide the excessive hours he was both driving and working – way beyond the legal limits for HGV drivers.
Payslips for Mr Duggan showed that he had regularly worked between 70 and 80 hours a week, when the maximum allowed under the Working Time Directive is 60 hours.
On some occasions, he worked more than 90 hours per week, including 94 hours in one instance.
DVSA examiners also identified a number of additional offences committed by Mr Duggan:
· 28 instances where he had taken insufficient daily rest;
· 9 instances where he had exceeded 4.5 hours driving;
· 7 instances where he had exceeded 90 hours driving in a fortnight;
· 6 instances where he had failed to take weekly rest;
· 3 instances where he had exceeded 10 hours driving in a day;
· 1 instance of failing to produce a driver card
In evidence during the conduct hearing, Mr Duggan agreed that he had worked between 80 and 90 hours for several months over an apple season. He told the regulator that he needed the extra money for personal reasons.
He had got hold of the other driver’s card so that he could work beyond the legal hours and earn more overtime. He refused to say how he had come by this card but did say that he had not got it from the operator.
In a written decision issued after the hearing, the Traffic Commissioner said that falsifying records by using another driver’s card was a serious offence.
“Such conduct undermines the entire point of the rules on tachographs and drivers’ hours, which is to enable employers and enforcement authorities to have a true record of a person’s driving, other work and rest periods.
“If drivers flout the rules, road safety can be severely jeopardised.”
He added that Mr Duggan had “deliberately and knowingly” used another driver’s card to falsify the record and try to disguise grossly excessive driving and working hours.
Nothing new, try working for any of the entertainment suppliers, its expected of you to break the law every day whatever country you are in, its made quite simple do it or dont work for us. Using multiple cards is common practise during so called 24/48 hour breaks. Dvsa has its head up it ass, they dont even have any controll over what occurs outside the uk, get cought in most of europe, pay the fine and carry on, the show must go on regardless of the law or safety.