I am looking to increase the amount of units and trailers from 1 to 3 on my standard o licence and just got a couple of questions to ask you people.
First of all, on the apllication it asks if my maintenance arrangements will remain the same, which I have answered yes. It then asks to provide them with a copy of the maintenance contract. Is this just to prove that my provider has agreed to maintain extra wagons?
Also, I’m my own transport manager and also drive, by increasing my o licence I will also have to dedicate more time to the management from 8 hours to 15 according to DVSA guidelines. Im worried they will question where I will find 15 hours a week from when im also driving full time.
In my eyes it does not take 15 hours per week to keep a track on 3 wagons when I dont do any maintenance, invoicing or accounts. All I need to do is check tachos, defect reports and time sheets as if/when I do increase the extra trucks will be run by a specific customer and not by me. Has anyone ever stated LESS hours than the guidelines and provided a covering letter explaining this? If so, what was the outcome?
If there’s any important bits I’ve missed out or you have snippets of info on the process please do post on here, don’t want to waste my £250 application fee due to a silly mistake!
Cheers
Matt.
It’s not just the transport management side that they will consider but the fact your drive full time and also run the business end of things. Legally you can not carry out any duties during your daily rest or weekly rest so if they want to be female ■■■■■■■■ about it then they could do. They will want to see a maintenance agreement that states the extra vehicles. Hope this helps. If you find you need an external TM give us a shout. You probably won’t but for any drastic decisions. Good luck,
Also thought I’d add that I know plenty owner drivers with 3 units that are also TM so you shouldn’t encounter any difficulties.
xfmatt:
Also, I’m my own transport manager and also drive, by increasing my o licence I will also have to dedicate more time to the management from 8 hours to 15 according to DVSA guidelines. Im worried they will question where I will find 15 hours a week from when im also driving full time.
I’ve got a three vehicle licence and when I applied for it I sent a covering letter saying that I only intended to operate one vehicle at first, but that if I expanded the fleet to three vehicles then I would come off of the road and manage the company full-time and they were quite happy with that.
Thanks for your input folks, any other advice will be gratefully received.
Harry Monk:
xfmatt:
Also, I’m my own transport manager and also drive, by increasing my o licence I will also have to dedicate more time to the management from 8 hours to 15 according to DVSA guidelines. Im worried they will question where I will find 15 hours a week from when im also driving full time.
I’ve got a three vehicle licence and when I applied for it I sent a covering letter saying that I only intended to operate one vehicle at first, but that if I expanded the fleet to three vehicles then I would come off of the road and manage the company full-time and they were quite happy with that.
Cheers Harry. Think ill do similar as im not actually planning on running extra trucks at the moment I just want the use of a margin should an opportunity arise.
Matt
VOSA do like a covering letter but you must have been going for three or four years now and if you have kept your nose clean then I really don’t think you will have a problem getting an increase in the number of vehicles on the licence.
If you don’t want to put the hours in that are recommended on the form, you put in an explanation of how you’ll cover you TM duties in the hours that you’ll say you’ll put in.
When we had an external TM he explained that as our truck only did very few miles compared to a normal haulage operation and as I was already looking after much of the day to day admin, he could maintain control over the operation with 8 hours a week a and a site visit every 4 to 6 weeks. This explanation was ok’d and we got our O’licence.
Harry Monk:
VOSA do like a covering letter but you must have been going for three or four years now and if you have kept your nose clean then I really don’t think you will have a problem getting an increase in the number of vehicles on the licence.
Started November 2011 Harry ive had couple of clran roadside stops and am green operator so hopefully shouldn’t have a problem. Did you state 8 hours then and extra if you got up to 3?
Matt
muckles:
If you don’t want to put the hours in that are recommended on the form, you put in an explanation of how you’ll cover you TM duties in the hours that you’ll say you’ll put in.
I know I could do this but I was wondering if anyone has succeeded in doing this or do most people just tell vosa what they want to hear and put 8 hours?
xfmatt:
Harry Monk:
VOSA do like a covering letter but you must have been going for three or four years now and if you have kept your nose clean then I really don’t think you will have a problem getting an increase in the number of vehicles on the licence.
Started November 2011 Harry ive had couple of clran roadside stops and am green operator so hopefully shouldn’t have a problem. Did you state 8 hours then and extra if you got up to 3?
Matt
I’d read on here that somebody had had problems because the TC didn’t think they would be able to drive the truck, run the company and manage the other two vehicles on the licence, and I believe the upshot was that his wife had to take over as director of the company.
I thought VOSA would guess that I was starting out driving one of the trucks myself, so the letter I wrote stated that this was the case, but that I only intended to operate one vehicle at first and so would only need to devote eight hours a week to TM duties, but if I ever expanded the fleet to three vehicles then all three vehicles would be driven by employees, and I would run the company full-time, just driving very occasional shifts to cover for days off etc.
Harry Monk:
xfmatt:
Harry Monk:
VOSA do like a covering letter but you must have been going for three or four years now and if you have kept your nose clean then I really don’t think you will have a problem getting an increase in the number of vehicles on the licence.
Started November 2011 Harry ive had couple of clran roadside stops and am green operator so hopefully shouldn’t have a problem. Did you state 8 hours then and extra if you got up to 3?
Matt
I’d read on here that somebody had had problems because the TC didn’t think they would be able to drive the truck, run the company and manage the other two vehicles on the licence, and I believe the upshot was that his wife had to take over as director of the company.
I thought VOSA would guess that I was starting out driving one of the trucks myself, so the letter I wrote stated that this was the case, but that I only intended to operate one vehicle at first and so would only need to devote eight hours a week to TM duties, but if I ever expanded the fleet to three vehicles then all three vehicles would be driven by employees, and I would run the company full-time, just driving very occasional shifts to cover for days off etc.
Think ill send a covering letter with my application then and maybe state the 8 hours and then rising to 12 if I go up to 3 which, to be honest, I cant see happening. I’d like the space on my licence in case I get the opportunity to put a hire wagon on at a busier time.
Just thought id bump this up, see if anyone else has any useful advice on the application?
Cheers
Matt
Honestly Matt, I really don’t think you’ll have a problem with this application, just get it in and see what happens. All you are asking for is the exact same three-vehicle licence as I’ve got, and you have the huge advantage of being an established OCRS green light operator compared to me being a completely unknown quantity when I applied for mine.
My prediction is that it will go straight through. 
Im sure it will be fine Harry im just undecided whether to say 8 hours rising to 12 if a third wagon went on the road or whether to put down 15 hours and cut back on my driving. Doing it that way they could easily come down for a quick tacho check and see im still doing 60+ hours a week.
The thing is, all work I do is written on an invoice sheet throughout the week as im only on for one customer. Therefore I have no invoicing to do, accountant covers all vat and year end books,I do no maintenance on my own so I literally drive it and sign a few cheques whilst keeping an eye on my tachos and such like on a daily basis.
So basically all the extra id have to do is check the tachos for 2 vehicles (potentially) and their defect reports and also check timesheets to pay them as they would also be self invoiced.
Matt