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.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article