He drove almost the length of New Zealand: Truck driver disqualified after falsely recording work hours

A truck driver will be off the road for a month from today, and his wallet $700 lighter after he made “multiple” false entries in his logbook.

Sentencing went ahead in the Nelson District Court yesterday, in the absence of driver Balwant Singh who drove almost the length of New Zealand last year within 22 hours without a proper break.

Between July 8 and 9, Singh drove from Picton to Canterbury and back again before crossing Cook Strait and driving to Auckland. He travelled 1458 kilometres in that time.

He was charged with making a false statement in his logbook and for failing to have 10 hours of continuous rest in a workday.

Each charge carried a maximum penalty of a $2000 fine and disqualification.

The law states that truck drivers can work for a maximum of 13 hours in one work day in a 24-hour period and are then required to take a break of at least 10 hours, as well as half-hour breaks every five-and-a-half hours.

Work times and rest breaks have to be recorded in a logbook.

Singh, 48, blamed a faulty watch for not keeping accurate work and rest times.

His poor record-keeping was discovered on July 13, 2022, when Singh was driving a large truck laden with timber north out of Nelson, bound for Auckland.

He was stopped by police at a routine check on State Highway 6 near Hira and was asked to hand over his logbook.

Police said it appeared compliant but contained entries that were “unlikely to be physically achievable”.

An investigation began into his movements, including analysis of logbook entries matched against the vehicle’s fuel and GPS records.

The police found multiple false statements had been recorded in Singh’s logbook.

On July 8 last year, he recorded a 13-hour work day as having started at Picton at 3am before he drove south to Sockburn and Rakaia in Canterbury, and returned to Picton at 5 pm.

Singh recorded the 10-hour period between 5pm on July 8 and 3am the following day as rest, but police noted the start and finish times in the log book were inconsistent with records obtained using GPS reports and police Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) sightings.

Police use the ANPR cameras to record the number plates of vehicles passing by, mainly from mobile, highway patrol vehicles, but they also operated a small number of roadside cameras.

The technology was also used by Waka Kotahi and some local authorities, and third-party operators provided the police access to Number Plate Information (NPI) data from private companies which owned and operated ANPR networks.

The police summary of facts said Singh falsely recorded a rest break between 11.23pm on July 8 and 3 am the next morning.

The record of starting work at “Ferry, Wellington” at 3am was also false, police said.

The records revealed Singh had instead resumed work and driven off the ferry at 11.23pm when it docked in Wellington. He then drove to Plimmerton and stopped for a short time to refuel before driving north to Auckland.

Singh told police he drove off the ferry to Plimmerton where he took a 10-hour break, according to his watch, and that there had been nowhere to park at the ferry terminal.

He recorded a half-hour rest in Taupo at 8am but this too was false, police said.

The false entries disguised the fact that in a cumulative work day, he had only had a six-hour break which included waiting for the ferry and sailing time.

That meant he had been behind the wheel for at least 22 hours before taking a break, police said.

“Driving the vehicle during a rest period is work time and cannot be counted as rest,” police said.

Singh was disqualified from driving for the mandatory period of one month and fined $700 on all charges plus court costs.