MAC76

Anyone got any idea's what the normal fine is for failing to nominate the driver of a company car??

We just do not know who was using one of our pool cars and the photo does not help

Anyone?

OllyK

If you genuinely can't tell, you should get off. They may ask why you have proor signing out records so you don't know who had the car on a given date. IIRC the penalty for not declaring the driver if they think you know is the same as if you had committed the offence yourself.

MAC76

I hope so We really dont know, the photo is useless

OllyK

Try the pepipoo site as a starter, but if the photo is useless and you can show that the car is regularly used by a number of people you may be OK (note the "may", I am no legal eagle!)

MAC76

ok had a look on there but cant really find anything?

Reffro

If the company cannot provide the drivers name, then the MD of the company takes the rap. It happened in the case of the police car speeding in Hampshire, and they couldn't identify the driver, therefore the chief constable had a day in court.

22BUK

From pepipoo.com:

For a limited company, RTA 1991 Section 21 (2) requires the keeper of the vehicle to identify the driver. Subsection (3) makes it an offence for the keeper to fail to comply. Subsection (4) provides a defence if the Keeper shows that he did not know who the driver was and could not have found out by using "reasonable diligence".

The sting in the tail for limited companies is in Subsection (6) which provides that for a company to establish the Subsection (4) defence it must prove that in addition to the matters in (4) the Company did not keep a record of who was driving the vehicle and that the failure to do so was reasonable.

It is being suggested that companies ought to keep such records. For example if pool cars are used, there should be a system of signing in and out. If the company does have such a system but it didn't work on a particular occasion that might suffice. There is also the sting in the tail in subsection (5) which says that where a director or senior manager of the company caused or connived with the failure to identify the driver, that person is also guilty.

The problem is that companies can be fined but can't get points - however, Directors can. We believe that most forces prosecute the company and not the Directors for failing to identify as this leads to a conviction and fine without any effort. If they also prosecuted the Directors (solely to get points put on a licence), most would fight.

hades

I'd suggest that there are two possibilities, depending on whether the company has taken reasonable steps to control/record who is driving. To quote the above example - if pool cars are used and there is a signing in and and out system, that is potentially reasonable steps. If one person has signed for the car, they are likely to take the rap. If more than one person has signed for the car - e.g. I've on occassions travelled with a colleague to another site 100s of miles away, and we've shared the driving - it's a little trickier, and maybe no-one will get prosecuted if there is no reasonable way to determine who was driving.