A SOLICITOR is urging Tarmac bosses to meet lorry men amid claims that they are being pressurised into breaking the law.

A court has heard how demands being placed on the drivers and lorry operators who service the firm's quarries are such that many were tempted to fiddle tachograph records aimed at ensuring tired drivers are not on the roads.

Lawyer Michael Cunningham, who is representing 15 drivers and tipper lorry operators caught in an operation codenamed Operation Flintstone, wants to arrange a meeting with senior management at the firm.

"We need to sit down with Tarmac and sort out working conditions and hours so that drivers are not put in these situations," said Mr Cunningham, who specialises in transport law.

The move follows criticism of the way Tarmac treated drivers and tipper lorry operators who service its quarries in the Ribble Valley.

Although Tarmac does not employ the drivers and operators, who run their own vehicles, it has been claimed that they should shoulder some responsibility for the offences.

Solicitors and magistrates have attacked the firm for the way pressure has been put on drivers, with one chairman of the bench suggesting the firm changes the way it works.

"Tarmac will ask for a wagon at two hours' notice after the driver has already worked that day," Mr Cunningham told Blackburn magistrates during a case involving seven men this week.

"If he does not take it he will find no work there the following day.

"The attitude is get in, get your wagon in, get the work or we will give it someone else."

Mr Cunningham said many drivers were "mortgaged up to the hilt" to pay for their wagons.

"They are just ordinary working people who are being put in a very difficult position."

Mr Cunningham said he had written to Tarmac asking for copies of the drivers' and operators' contracts but had no reply.

Blackburn magistrates are halfway through hearing cases against 38 tipper owners and drivers.

So far, 21 drivers and tipper lorry operators who service the quarries have been before Blackburn magistrates and ordered to pay fines and costs totalling more than £10,000 for offences of falsifying or failing to keep tachograph records.

At Tarmac no one was said to be available for comment.

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