An application for the return of a Dutch-registered HGV impounded by the DVSA has been refused after a deputy traffic commissioner (TC) found the operator had repeatedly breached cabotage laws.
The HGV was stopped on 26 May 2022 at the port of Harwich and its driver said he was working for John Pronk Transport based in the Netherlands.
Analysis of the tachograph showed that it had performed five cabotage operations in the UK before starting its return journey to the continent.
The company had previously been warned about breaching cabotage rules and so the DVSA decided to impound the vehicle.
The company applied for the return of the lorry and at a subsequent hearing in Cambridge, operations director Steve Perry explained that human error was to blame for exceeding cabotage limits.
Perry also said the company had disciplined two planners at the firm and it now had a new system in place that would prevent re-occurrences.
But deputy TC Nick Denton said statutory documents that outlined the numerous actions a company should take to prevent illegal cabotage illustrated “starkly how insouciant the company has been” since 2019 in failing to prevent it from happening.
He said: “I am struck by the fact that John Pronk Transport BV has not been able to provide any documentary evidence of any such actions. Its application for the return of the vehicle is refused.”
