Police, Road Tax/ Works Van

Chesnut1

Looking for some help please, my OH was pulled today for not having road tax in the works van he was driving. It is not his usual van as his is being repaired. He knows that it is the companies responsibility to pay but he was wondering if the Dundee Police will fine him anything or points on licence? With the van he uses he always has to chase them as they do not bother but in this case the one thing he did not check was the road tax, he is even worrying about the MOT now as he has no access to any of the vehicles documents! He did have a row with one of the bosses as they wanted to blame him but they have since phoned to apologise admiting they were at fault. They have now road taxed it BUT he will have to drive the van to work tomorow to get the disc which is 20 miles away. They are refusing to deliver it and he is understandably not happy. So my long winded question is will he get a fine and or points for today and what about the implications of possibly being caught tomorow driving to get the new disc. All help much appreciated. Oh and yes he knows he should have looked at the disc but his van broke down this van was dropped off to him and he was keen to get to the stranded customers who were overdue to be seen. A lesson he is now learnt by putting himself first in future. Many thanks.

flutterbyuk25

Police penalties for non display of road tax are usually a monetary fine. If it wasn't issued on the spot then they will usually liaise with the local DVLA office to issue one through post to the registered keeper so it would go to his employers not him.

Legally he shouldn't use/keep vehicle on road until it is displaying tax disc. If he was unlucky enough to be stopped again tomorrow then he could get a fine himself if the stop today was recorded by the police as it's 2nd time in 2 days and he would have be aware that he was commiting an offence, and/or another fine issued to employer as keeper.

Also it may invalidate the insurance if he was to have an accident and was not displaying tax disc, depends on the insurance company.

x

Chesnut1

Thankyou flutterbyuk, I did wonder about this. The van is OK at the minute as it is on our private driveway but knowing his luck he would get caught tomorow. He is very annoyed as all our vehicles are always up to date with all the relevant paper work and he wishes he had glanced at it as his employers do not seem to be with it of late. Many thanks for your reply.

mrbadexample

IMO it's extremely unlikely he would be fined in this instance. The employer might be, but I'd be surprised if he was.

Conor_3

It is the responsibility of the driver to ensure that the vehicle is roadworthy and complies with the law. It is the driver that receives the fines and penalty points regardless of the fact it's a company vehicle.

It is also illegal to drive a vehicle without displaying a valid tax disc so I wouldn't drive it until the disc was in the window.

He has no defence if it goes to court especially with something like a tax disc which can easily checked.

wazza

As far as i am aware the driver is responsible for the condition of the vehicle he is driving and not the owner when stopped by the police. If the driver finds something faulty with the car then he should not drive it. Remember watching a program about traffic police. They stopped a car which was driven by a potential buyer, he had the garage salesman in the passenger seat. The car he was driving still had the price written on the front screen by a white marker. It covered the driver's side of screen. The driver was given a fine and points for something that the lazy salesman should have rubbed off before the test drive.

Conor_3

That's 100% correct, wazza. The driver is responsible for EVERYTHING to do with the vehicle they are driving, regardless of who owns it and whether it's a company vehicle or not. The driver is responsible for ensuring it is taxed, MOT'd, insured, roadworthy and not overloaded and meets all requirements under the "Construction and Use" and "Road Traffic Act". It is nobody else's responsibility except the driver and if the driver cannot meet the requirements, it is they who must refuse to drive the vehicle. The "my boss told me I had to or I'd lose my job" is no defence.

mrbadexample

Conor wrote: »

That's 100% correct, wazza. The driver is responsible for EVERYTHING to do with the vehicle they are driving, regardless of who owns it and whether it's a company vehicle or not. The driver is responsible for ensuring it is taxed, MOT'd, insured, roadworthy and not overloaded and meets all requirements under the "Construction and Use" and "Road Traffic Act". It is nobody else's responsibility except the driver and if the driver cannot meet the requirements, it is they who must refuse to drive the vehicle. The "my boss told me I had to or I'd lose my job" is no defence.

That's not entirely accurate. In the case of no MOT or insurance when driving a company vehicle, it is a legitimate defence if you had no reason to believe it was not MOTd / insured, and you were not in a position to MOT / insure the vehicle.

For example, a bloke works in a warehouse. His supervisor asks him to make an urgent delivery in the van. He makes the delivery, and gets stopped on the way home. It is revealed that the MOT has expired.
He would have no reason to believe the van was not MOTd.
As a warehouse worker, he is not (normally) in a position to be able to MOT the vehicle.
No case to answer.

It is a little different with the tax, as the disc is visible in the windscreen. However, I still feel it is unlikely that he would be prosecuted for the offence. Not impossible, just unlikely.

Chesnut1

Thankyou to all who have replied. Since asking on here my OH demanded the boss brought over the road tax for the following morning. He would also like to point out that, he was handed the van on the side of a busy motorway with dark falling, while trying to avoid the traffic and load the van to go onto customers the last thing on his mind was the tax! I would also like to point out to Conor if I may that I raised some of his points today with Police Headquaters, they stated that what he said was basicaly correct but with regards to MOT and Insurance if the employee has no access to the documents (they are always locked up) then it is the company who is responsible i.e the person who has the info. Now unless my partner has second sight he does not know these dates. He does with the van he uses all the time as he has made a note of when it was in for MOT but he does not know who even insures the company vehicles. The police have stated they will be fineing the registered owner of the vehicle not my OH.Many thanks to all who replied I know this can be an emotive issue as the disc is on the windscreen but how many people in my OH situation on the hard shoulder could honestly say that the tax disc would be on their mind? and I know a lot of business people with company vans/cars that never see the paper work as it is locked up in offices.

chris147_2

If he didn't receive anything from the Police at the time then nothing will happen.

They may however submit what is called a CLE2/6 which informs DVLA that the car has been stopped on the road and that no tax was in force for it.

This could lead to DVLA prosecuting either your OH and/or the company that own it. Sorry!

mrbadexample

Chesnut1 wrote: »

I would also like to point out to Conor if I may that I raised some of his points today with Police Headquaters, they stated that what he said was basicaly correct but with regards to MOT and Insurance if the employee has no access to the documents (they are always locked up) then it is the company who is responsible i.e the person who has the info.

You'll notice that our perfect motorist Conor goes a bit quiet when his "facts" are completely dispelled. If he had it his way, he'd be the only one on the road. Everyone else would have been executed or locked up. :rolleyes: :rotfl: