Our bezzie mates are moving house from dahn sarf to oop norf (hooray!) and being the kind of bloke I am, I’ve offered to do the removal for them. I intend to rent an 18 tonne rigid (with tail lift etc) in Yorks and drive down to their gaff on a Friday morn. The plan is to load Friday, me kip in the truck overnight, then drive up north Sat morning and tip.
I know I need to use a tachograph (not a problem and it will easily be do-able within my drivers hours for that week), but my question is;;;; Do I need to be covered by an operators licence? Obviously this is not for hire or reward and is simply a favour for our friends.
Wheel Nut:
I didnt think it was that simple to just walk into Hill Hire and rent an 18 tonner without an o licence check though.
Agreed Wheel Nut.
The hire companies have been stung in the past by people saying that they needed to hire for a household removal, and then doing some work that clearly needed an ‘O’ licence.
IIRC, for about 5 years(ish) VOSA have had the power to impound vehicles found operating without an ‘O’ licence.
The problem might come when a hire company employee refuses to hire on the basis that the truck is of a GVW that needs an ‘O’ licence.
Some of the hire company bosses don’t realise that the exemption Krankee mentioned does indeed exist.
If you look at this from the hire company’s point of view, their problem is that they’ll need some sort of indemnity against losing their truck in the event that the customer is telling porkies.
I’m not sure whether any of them have come up with a solution to that problem, so IMHO a question needs to be asked.
I haven’t attempted to hire anything bigger than 3.5t GVW for some time, so I don’t know how the hire companies would react to Shrek’s request.
Shrek, I’d make sure that the hire company will actually hire to you, having clarified to them in advance that you have no ‘O’ licence.
It might save some disappointment on the big day.
Blimey Shrek only £600 indemnity for a truck.■■
That would be cheap at twice the price.