Hopefully the following will clear this up, I apologise for the length of the post but as you read it you’ll realsie that this is not an easy subject I’ve added the references for those that want to go and check them, by the way all the sections can be found in; ‘The Goods Vehicles (Licensing of Operators) Act 1995’ the comments in are mine, you won’t find them in the legislation. A translation of all this lot appears at the bottom of the post;
Secn2(1) requires that no person shall use a goods vehicle on a road for the carriage of goods for;
a) hire and reward
b) in connection with any trade or business carried on by him. [the legislation says’him’ but I reckon that we can safely include; ‘her’ and ‘them’ in the same term]
Secn5(1) defines vehicles authorised to be used on an operating licence as;
a) any motor vehicle in the lawful possession [owned, hired, hire purchase, leased etc] whether specified on the licence or not.
b) any trailer in the lawful possession of the licence holder.
Secn5(6) a motor vehicle which is not specified in an operators licence is not authorised to be used after a period of one [calendar] month begining with;
a) the day in which the vehicle was first in the lawful possession of the licence holder
b) if later, the day on which the licence came into force
Unless the Traffic Commissioner has been notified and the prescribed fee paid. [this is where the one month ‘grace’ period comes in. Provided you have the ‘margin’ you can hire in a vehicle to cover a short period without informing the TC eg; you’re usual vehicle if off the road for a couple of days for MOT prep]
Secn6(1)(a) an operators licence shall specify a maximum number of vehicles.
Secn6(2) an operators licence which does not include a provision under Secn5(2)(b)[no trailers authorised] may specify a maximum number of trailers(Secn6(2)(a))
Secn6(3) indicates that the maximum number of vehicles used on a licence whilst not specified cannot exceed the number of vehicles in Secn6(1)(a) minus the number of vehicles specified. [this is where the ‘margin’ comes in, the licence authorises 6 for example, you have three vehicles specified, therefore you can hire, beg, borrow three more vehicles for upto one calendar month. However, hire a fouth vehicle and you commit an offence as you now have 7 vehicles in your possession]
Secn6(5) indicates that the maximum number of trailers operated may not exceed the number authorised in Secn6(2)(a)
Secn6(8] makes it an offence to exceed the authorised vehicles / trailer numbers. Level 4 fine [ £ 2500].
So, the translation into language we can understand is; To operates a goods vehicle you need a licence. The licence has to authorise vehicles and if you use them trailers. It doesn’t matter who owns the trailer, if you’re pulling it then you’re using it. With traction you are pulling the trailer in connection with your business, you’re getting paid to do it, therefore you licence requires trailers to be authorised. You can have a licence authorising vehicles only but you can only use rigids or trailers with unladen weights below 1025kg. You cannot exceed the maximum number of vehicles/trailers authorised by your licence. If you only have an authorisation for one vehicle you cannot hire in another if your vehicle breaksdown or is involved in an accident. A trailer hire company would not have to have an O-licence as they are not using the trailer to carry goods in connection with their trade or business. However, they would require an O-licence if they had a tractor unit to deliver the empty trailer to their customers premises. This was confirmed by Booth v DPP (1996) when an empty semi-trailer was defined as goods as it superimposes a load on the drawing vehicle.
Finally (huge sigh of relief) there is a report in the Jan 2004 edition of Trucking which covers a Public Inquiry before the West Midlands TC. Basically it shows that traction operators need trailer licences.
Hello Paul B. the advice given by Robert P. in his last posting makes sense ,it dosent cost anything to have a margin incase of breakdowns etc.Im not so sure about adding a trailer to your license would not constitute a major variation,because in my case it would.But anyway in these days of tight operating margins all the best in your new venture.
Hello geebee45 I cannot disagree with what you have just said,but my operating centre is not big enough to park a trailer therefore the ministry will not allow me the authority for one trailer on my license. I mentioned in a previous post that I had gone through ministry checks well the last two to my knowledge were when the ministry had there computer system up and running and there was no problem
Secn2(1) requires that no person shall use a goods vehicle on a road for the carriage of goods for;
a) hire and reward
b) in connection with any trade or business carried on by him. [the legislation says’him’ but I reckon that we can safely include; ‘her’ and ‘them’ in the same term]
Sorry folks; I should have added; except under a licence issued under this Act; and in this Act such a licence is referred to as an ‘operator’s licence’.
The way I had originally written it basically meant that nobody could use a goods vehicle!! Perhaps that’s what the Government want??
rang the traffic office today and to be honest i’m none the wiser!
seems if you use and park a trailer at your operating center then you have to have an allocation for it on your o’license but if you don’t park it at your center you don’t have to have it your o’license but for it to go on the road it got to be on someones! so i far as i can make out, if you do traction only for a haulage firm then they should already have the trailers on their own license but if you take a trailer to a firm that dosn’t do it’s own haulage and therefore dosn’t have an o’license then you must have the trailer on yours
here it is straight from the tc office today,you only need a allocation on your o’license for a trailer if you are the owner/operator of that trailer,operator being defined by the fact you park it at your designated operating center. you are at liberty to pull anyone elses trailer at any time without an allocation on your license as long as you inform your tc office in writting that you are doing traction work but not parking the any trailers at your o’center! needless to say i’ve asked them to confirm that in writting just to cover my back.
You get one story from one and one from the other, I’ve just advertised to expand my licence and the VOSA help line woman, who seemed pretty clueless, as do all of them, said I needed 1 trailer per unit even though I don’t own any and they never see the ‘O’ centre.
after enquiering about hiring a skelly today and being told i can’t hire one unless i have an allocation for it on my license i rang the traffic office again and was told something totally different than before, the fact is you can’t pull any trailer wether owned by yourself or anyone else without an allocation for it,even if said trailer is on a firms o’license as part of their allocation and your employed by them as traction only you can’t pull it unless you’ve a license showing you’ve got a trailer on it, not a persific trailer but any over 3.5 ton.
so the upshot of it all is i’ve got to apply for a major variation to my license with advert and all the nonsense all of which could already have been done if numpty [zb] had put someone on the phone who new what they were talking about when i rang three weeks ago
language edit - if it needs stars it has to go ! Denis F
Get your application in, and send a seperate letter asking the Traffic Commissioner if he/she would consider issuing an interim licence which would enable you to start operating immidiately under the new variations until the application is processed, as you’ve already got an O/Licence your variation is very likely to be approved so the Commisioner should look favourably on your request for the interim licence. There is a fee, but you’ll have to ask numpty [zb] how much
language edit - if it needs stars it has to go ! Denis F
thats what i’m on with,fifty quid for the interim,one ninety for the variation, just hope they get their finger out as i start with HD on the 16th of feb.
by the way mate, got a quote from axa today for insurance on the wagon and they’re the cheapest by a fair bit.
cheers
I’ve added the references for those that want to go and check them, by the way all the sections can be found in; ‘The Goods Vehicles (Licensing of Operators) Act 1995’ the comments in are mine, you won’t find them in the legislation. A translation of all this lot appears at the bottom of the post;
I should have added; except under a licence issued under this Act; and in this Act such a licence is referred to as an ‘operator’s licence’.
