Company directors or leasing firms may find themselves collecting penalty points on their licences for speeding offences they do not commit unless they keep a good record of who is driving the vehicles on their fleet. Michael McAleer reports.
Concern has been expressed in some business quarters about the current situation regarding company vehicles, whereby if penalty points are allocated to a particular vehicle where the driver is not identified, the points are allotted to the registered owner of the vehicle, in many instances the directors, or in particular the secretary, of the company.
Under current legislation, a registered owner has 28 days to appeal the decision to allot penalty points to them, and to identify the driver of the vehicle at the time. However the onus is on them.
Cormac Hughes, managing director of Armada Fleet Services in Rathfarnham, Dublin says: "Essentially, we are dependent on the co-operation of the companies to which we lease vehicles. If they fail to monitor who's driving their vehicles, it appears we as a company are responsible.
"The issue also arises of employees with foreign driving licences. As they are outside the points system, does an element of liability fall on the employer?"
According to the head of the Garda National Traffic Bureau, Chief Supt Denis Fitzpatrick, the problem with identifying drivers arises with the fixed cameras which operate between 20 sites across the State and photograph the car from the rear.
Robert Taylor, managing director of RAC Ireland, says: "There is understandable concern among company directors as to their liability on this issue.
"For the many companies who use contract hire vehicles, the problem is exacerbated. As ownership does not pass to the user, will the lease company director be shouldered with penalty points? Or perhaps the local dealer as intermediary?
"These are not arguments to knock the system. But, ultimately, it must be the responsibility of the company to put procedures in place to ensure offending drivers can be tracked."