hi there. new here so not sure if i am posting in right forum.
1st question is what is the date that digital tachos have to be fitted to new veichles. I ask because work have just ordered 7 new trucks.
2nd question. This is just something we were talking about at work the other day. On a class 2 (C) licence you can drive any rigid veicle. So the question is could you drive a bus with no passengers on board? No real reason for the question just one of those that nobody knew the answer too.
with regards to the 2nd question, i would treat that as any other type of vehicle. it has nothing to do with the use of the vehicle. it goes on the design of it. full or empty, if is has 22 seats (picked that figure out of the air) then it is a passenger carrying vehicle capable of carrying that many people and should be licenced and taxed as such
thanks, but just to be pedantic(sp), what if the bus has been converted and has no seats, or has been converted to a tea bus. just asking as this is what the conversation got like. sorry.
i looked deeply into this before i started buying one or two old coaches to convert to campers, rules as follows:
A holder of a suitable LGV licence can drive any coach or bus with any amount of seats provided it is not being used for reward AND the vehicle is being driven for mechanical diagnosis of a fault, or testing of that after repair.
If you take the seats out (well, leave 8 or less), you can drive it as a LGV / HGV whatever you choose to call it. To do this you need to let DVLA know it is no longer a coach / bus & the V5 will state how many seats.
scottbrown:
Anybody know bout the digital tacho bit and when they gonna start having to fit them to new veichles?
No one knows yet. Officially it is a date at least 20 days from the publication of the Official European Journal following the Council of Ministers meeting last December. It is widely expected to be either 1st May or 1st June 2006, though it could feasibly be sooner!
Anybody know bout the digital tacho bit and when they gonna start having to fit them to new veichles?
We have got 100 FH13 XL’s going on the road at the start of March and all ours are fitted with digi tach’s. Anyone buying a new truck this late in the year will probably have them fitted imho.
My interpretation is;
Leaving minibuses out of the equation (up to 16 seats ,hire and reward and the license changes Jan 1997 and all that).
If the bus has more than 16 passenger seats you will need a PSV to drive it full stop.
If the seats have been taken out ,then if it is under 7.5 tonnes (cafe,stock car transporter etc) you can drive it on a car license provided you passed your test before Jan 1997. Over 7.5 tonnes you will need an LGV license.
If the bus is over 30 years old it can be driven by somebody with a pre 1997 car licence with up to 8 passengers, irrespective of how many seats are fitted.
i looked deeply into this before i started buying one or two old coaches to convert to campers, rules as follows:
A holder of a suitable LGV licence can drive any coach or bus with any amount of seats provided it is not being used for reward AND the vehicle is being driven for mechanical diagnosis of a fault, or testing of that after repair.
If you take the seats out (well, leave 8 or less), you can drive it as a LGV / HGV whatever you choose to call it. To do this you need to let DVLA know it is no longer a coach / bus & the V5 will state how many seats.
Seems a bit silly though. A bus/coach is a rigid vehicle after all. I cant see that anyone who holds an LGV would be incapable of driving a PCV. Surely they would behave the same as any class 2 truck
i think there may be a caveat though with trade plates, a couple of years back when I was with Uniloads I drove a Optimum single decker bus and a double decker bus too; we were told that as long as we had class c licences and the plates in the window and no passangers paying to be on board it was alright.
the new single decker was ok, bit strange sensation compared to a normal rigid being sat forward of the front wheels by that bit more and the auto box was alright but quite pedestrian.
double decker - one way ticket to boredom central lol 50mph tops from Manchester (I think was a long time ago!) to southampton…zzzz… and a Brems brake too, which is like a plunger on the dash, if the air wasn’t up to pressure this brake pops up to prevent you from moving away.
It has been legal to fit and use digital tachographs in vehicles since 5th August 2005. The official date for mandatory fitting is still 5th August 2004, but a moratorium was granted to 05/08/2005 by the European Commission, after it was realised that vehicle units and smart cards were not going to be available in 2004. The moratorium was further extended to 31st December 2005. During early December 2005 it was agreed that the official ‘go live’ date would be 20 days after the publication of the new ‘Drivers Hours’ regulations in the Official Journal. The new drivers hours regs will become effective 12 months after their date of publication. The changes to the drivers hours regs, according to the press notice are mainly changes to the existing limits, it appears that some of the main changes to effect us will be;
if you have a break of 15 minutes, your next break from driving will have to be 30 minutes.
if you take a ‘split daily rest,’ you must have one rest of at least 3 hours and then a rest period of at least 9 hours.
at least every other weekly rest period will have to be 45 hours, irrespective of where you are.
a new idea will be brought in, that of EXTRATERRITORIALITY, a lovely word that! It means we can be done in country A for an offence in country B. OK this is nothing new for those used to driving abroad, but not something that has happened in the UK before, unless, the offence continued into the UK, like not taking a daily rest period or false records.
production of records at the roadside. It appears likely that within 20 days of the OJ we will have to carry 15 days worth of records. By 1st Jan 2008 that will change to 28 days. Easy if you have a digital tacho card. Our Domestic Regs will have to change as currently we cannot carry charts older than 21 days.
Please don’t quote any of the above, until it’s published in the OJ, probably sometime in the next 3 to 4 weeks, we simply don’t know exactly what we’re going to get.
And finally; it appears that many vehicle manufacturers are already fitting digital tachos to new order vehicles. With lead times in some cases of over 2 months it is highly likely any vehicle ordered to-day will come with a digital unit fitted.
Forgot to say anything about the bus. According to my book the holder of a Cat C licence can drive a PSV providing;
a) licence held for at least 2 years
b) vehicle being taken to a place of repair of damage or defect or being road tested following repair.
c) vehicle not carrying any passenger not connected with repair or road test
The holder of a Cat B licence can drive a PSV provided that it was manufactured more than 30 years ago and;
a) not used for hire or reward
b) or for the carriage of more than 8 passengers.
