One Waikato truck driver has lost an appeal against a sentence for driving for 27 hours straight without a break, and his former employer and colleagues are before the courts for similar offending.
According to Stuff, Taupo man Albert Pahina pleaded guilty to seven charges that included exceeding the 13-hour work limit, failing to have 10 hours of rest in a work day, making a false statement in a logbook, and exceeding five-and-a-half hours of continuous work time.
Further charges included: maintaining two log books, failing to make all log books available on demand, and failing to deliver a copy of the logbook to his employer, Waho Transport Ltd, which is now in liquidation.
His court sentence under appeal was two months of disqualification and 120 hours of community service, but the court declined to reduce the sentence to one month, due to the level of offending and the persistent offending that took place over more than 15 years.
There are 16 Waho Transport employees as well as the company’s directors before the courts for similar offending to Pahina.
Senior Sergeant Lex Soepnel from the Hamilton Police Commercial Vehicle Investigation Unit (CVIU) told Stuff, the offending by the company was some of the worst he had seen.
Soepnel says the company was involved in some crashes around the country where the cause was related to fatigue.
The Hamilton CVIU conducted a ten-month investigation, and Waho Transport was found to have breached many laws. Police compared logbook pages with fuel dockets and time sheets to uncover irregularities.
Soepnel commented that drivers are accountable for their actions, but so are the dispatchers and company owners who make up the chain of responsibility.
“Dispatchers and company directors are liable for the behaviour of their drivers. They are also responsible for ensuring they get adequate rest breaks and that the drivers take those breaks,” concluded Soepnel.
