Trucking Giant Pleads Guilty to 159 Offences
The New South Wales based trucking firm, McCabe Transport has recently pleaded guilty to 159 charges associated with their drivers exceeding driving hours and improper recording of work times.
The charges relate to the company’s drivers working dangerously long hours despite driver fatigue laws. The company pleaded guilty to over a 150 of these charges.
McCabe Transport based in Wollongong, NSW were originally charged with 235 offences relating to the drivers not recording their driving hours in November and December 2011.
McCabe company director Anthony McCabe pleaded guilty to 159 of the charges.
According to an article on Abc.net.au the prosecutor Gabrielle Bashir went through each of the charges in detail at the Downing Centre Local Court. According to Bashir one driver did not take the adequate breaks or keep a work diary when driving on a long-haul trip between Dubbo, Broken Hill and Port Pirie in South Australia.
She went on to state that given the number of charges raised against the company, it was indicative of a culture of non-compliance among drivers, a culture that was tolerated by the company.
She also informed the court of falsified trip documents, all of which Magistrate William Pierce considered as serious when he handed down his sentence. As a result of these offences, the trucking giant is now facing some possible hefty fines.
The following excerpt from an article on Abc.net.au explains more about the case:
McCabe and his company could face hefty fines after the court heard each of the offences carried maximum penalties of thousands of dollars.
None of the McCabe Transport drivers have been prosecuted because they were offered immunity for helping investigators from Roads and Maritime Services.
The court heard under NSW regulations, truck drivers working on their own were allowed to drive for a maximum of 12 hours in a 24-hour period.
Read more at: www.abc.net.au
The article highlighted how crucial the issue of addressing non-compliance with chain of responsibility laws have become within the industry nationwide, also making mention of the Cootes saga and Scott’s Transport. In June this year, a NSW court fined Scott’s Transport and two of its senior staff $1.25 million for speeding and tampering with speed limiters.
The article went on to detail:
Recently, another trucking company, Cootes, was fined $500,000 in NSW and $50,000 in Victoria after pleading guilty to hundreds of road safety breaches.
Cootes was involved in a fatal tanker crash on Sydney’s northern beaches last year. The truck was carrying 20,000 litres of fuel and some of it ran into nearby waterways.
Source: http://www.abc.net.au
Hopefully the fate of these trucking companies’ has highlighted for others in the industry the importance of COR compliance.
Complying with chain of responsibility laws begins with ensuring that everyone within the chain has received the necessary training, not just the driver. Companies need to ensure that their staff have been properly trained on Chain of Responsibility laws to ensure compliance throughout the supply chain.
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