Legal update from QS Recruitment
PCV DRIVERS HOURS CHANGES
From 4th June 2010, The ’12-day rule’, allowing drivers on a single occasional service of international carriage of passengers to postpone weekly rest, is reinstated to the driver’s hours rules, provided specific conditions are met.

ROAD SAFETY COMPLIANCE
A DfT proposal into Road Safety Compliance includes plans to introduce six penalty points for exceeding the speed limit by 20mph and make careless driving a fixed penalty offence with three penalty points and a £60 fine from Spring 2010.

DRIVER CARD RENEWAL
Operators and drivers who ordered their first digital tachograph company and driver cards in 2005 are being reminded that they are due to expire this year.  The DVLA has been in a position to supply the cards since June 2005 and their five-year life span means the first operators and drivers to have taken them, will have to renew them in the next few months.  Renewal applications can be made up to three months prior to the expiry date of the cards.  Cards should be issued within 15 working days of DVLA receiving a completed application.  New driver and company cards will cost £19 each.

OCRS CHANGES
VOSA has confirmed that from 1st July 2010 it will extend the green band for traffic enforcement scores to includes bands 0-3 (currently just band 0 is green and bands 1-3 are amber).  At the same time, the red band for both traffic enforcement and roadworthiness scores will extend to include groups 8-10 (currently only bands 9 and 10 are red and band 8 is amber).  VOSA is also developing graduated points in line with the graduated fixed penalty system, which are expected to be introduced in Spring 2011.  For details of the current bands and to identify the changes, see this DfT document.

NEW OFFENCES AS A RESULT OF DIGITAL TACHOGRAPHS
The offences listed in Annex A were introduced in April 2008 as the result of the introduction of digital tachographs.  Since this date, VOSA have where applicable been issuing prohibitions for these offences.  The offences were included into the OCRS tables in April 2008 but with a 0 offence score.  Since April 2008 operators would have seen the fact that an offence had been recorded in their OCRS reports.  Once the tests were completed, the new scores were backdated until April 2008.

DRIVER CPC CARD SCAMS
The Vehicle Operator Service Agency and the Driving Standards Agency are advising drivers that they do not need to buy a card to prove they are exempt from Certificate of Professional Competence (CPC) regulations. The so-called ‘Driver Qualification Exemption Card’ or DQEC is being sold on the internet for £49. VOSA have confirmed that enforcement officers would not use this card to check driver exemption, as it has no legal validity.

NEW SENTENCING GUIDELINES FOR CORPORATE MANSLAUGHTER
The Sentencing Guidelines Council (SGC) has published its definitive guideline on corporate manslaughter sentencing. It sets out principles to guide courts in dealing with companies and organisations that cause death through a gross breach of care or where breaches of health and safety requirements are a significant cause of the death. The guidelines came into effect from 15 February.  For further information visit www.sentencing-guidelines.gov.uk/about/index.html 

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