How thousands of dangerous drivers are avoiding licence loss
Thousands of speeding drivers on company vehicles are avoiding penalties as businesses choose to pay hefty fines to keep the offenders nameless.
Victoria’s speed camera watchdog said businesses – ranging from tradies to large corporate entities – exploited a legal loophole to keep their employees from losing their licences over road rule infringement.
An investigation by the Road Safety Camera Commissioner found that for the two years up to July 2018, there were 53,845 cases where companies paid a $3,000 fine instead of naming the drivers caught breaking the law.
If businesses opt to name the offending drivers, they will receive demerit points and a personal fine of around $300.
Of the reported infringements, more than 4,200 drivers would have lost their licences if their companies had not born the costs, according to the report.
Commissioner John Voyage said many companies seem to be treating the $3,000 fine as “a cost of doing business”. In one case, a company vehicle paid off $93,000 in fines to prevent 31 loss-of licence events in the two-year period.
“Drivers can continue to offend without being made accountable for their actions,” said Voyage.
“This is unfair and unsafe for the large majority of responsible drivers and road users.”
Voyage called for changes to the system, including allowing suspension of company vehicle registration if they fail to nominate a driver.
“I’ve been in this position for [more than three years] and I’ve never heard anybody say they’re interested in the money, and I've heard people say ‘I’d want zero infringement if people just obeyed the law’.”
The Minister for Police and Emergency Services, Lisa Neville, said the statistics were “incredibly disappointing”.
She said in a statement, “We take this investigation very seriously and will work with our road safety partners to fully review the recommendations through the Ministerial Council for Road Safety and consider any options to continue to make our roads safer.”
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews slammed the companies taking advantage of the rule. “It gets really difficult to justify how someone, if they happen to have deep pockets, can avoid being accountable for the way they drive,” he said.
“We will look very closely at the finding put forward as to whether it is suitable for us to continue this arrangement where companies pay a higher amount and not have the offence, demerit points of consequences held to the individual license holder.”