iguana:
I’d bet they would be 3.5t vans & pick ups, they can look like much bigger tonnage vehicles.If not then yes he’d need o licence, but no transport manager & if always within 100km no tacho. Drivers could be exempt from dcpc also.
Cheers Iguana, you could well be right, I will ask him. It was this bit… “or if there is no plated weight and the vehicle has an unladen weight of more than 1,525kg and is used to transport goods for hire or reward or in connection with a trade or business you’ll need an operators licence.”… that made me think. Reading it again, the inference seems to be that the vehicle has to have NO plated weight AND it has ULW of 1.525kg. Its not either / or it has to have both, if that makes sense! 
Seems crazy that he would need an “O” Licence and all that that entails but nothing else! No TM, no tachos, no DCPC. What’s the point in having the O Licence then! Just more paperwork and rules and regs to adhere to when all he wants to do is build stuff!