HAULAGE firm Yuill and Dodds yesterday lost its appeal against a

week-long suspension imposed for drivers' hours and tachograph offences.

At the company's base in Strathaven, Lanarkshire a spokesman refused

to confirm that this would mean the company's fleet of lorries and

trailers must be off the road with immediate effect.

The appeal was heard yesterday in Edinburgh and excluded the company's

10 refrigerated lorries from the suspension, imposed by the Scottish

Traffic Commissioner.

In March the company, which came under the public spotlight during the

miners' strike when it ran the gauntlet for British Steel, had its

licence to operate its 101 lorries and 72 trailers suspended by the

Department of Transport.

The Scottish Traffic Commissioner's move followed a court case last

year which resulted in the firm being fined #1800.

At Linlithgow Sheriff Court, Yuill and Dodds was convicted on 36

counts of allowing drivers to exceed the permitted hours limit and to

take insufficient breaks. It was admonished on a further 18 counts of

causing and permitting them to falsify tachograph records.

At the public inquiry in March, a senior traffic examiner said the

Linlithgow case was unique in that the procurator-fiscal had concluded

drivers were coerced into driving excess hours in terms of job security.

The drivers were not prosecuted, he claimed, because the fiscal had been

sympathetic.

Managing director James Yuill denied the claims, saying there had been

no question of drivers being threatened with the sack.

They had been under pressure to get work, involving the removal of

thousands of tonnes of material from a Bathgate industrial estate, done

in a limited time, but he denied drivers had been threatened or coerced.

However, at the March inquiry Mr Yuill conceded that the number of

loads carried per day could not be achieved within the regulations.

In imposing the one-week suspension, Scottish Traffic Commissioner

Brigadier Michael Betts told Mr Yuill that he must have known that it

would be difficult to do the job legally. He felt the fines imposed by

the Linlithgow sheriff had been quite light and said the suspension was

a demonstration that the law cannot be flouted.

At the company's Strathaven HQ last night, a spokesman said Mr Yuill

was not available. He would not comment on the suspension or its effect

on the company's fleet.

A spokesman at the Scottish Traffic Commissioner's office said the

appeal had been dismissed but that the suspension would not apply to

refrigerated vehicles.

During the miners' strike, Yuill and Dodds transported coal and ore 24

hours a day to Ravenscraig, helping to break picket lines. The stream of

lorries through villages attracted criticism from local people concerned

about safety and environmental damage.