Recovery company having o licence taken away.
Unless things have changed you could perform recovery work without an o licence, but I think they have been doing more transportation than breakdown work.
The 100kg over doesn’t sound like a huge deal, not much more than a full vs empty fuel tank would make on most cars.
The full report is here. [Under appeal] Decision for Scorpion Engineering Ltd (OH1070549) and Transport Manager Sean Donovan - GOV.UK
Much more going on than just the 100kg overload the reporter chose to single out. Bad reporting rather than a ban for a trivial offence. Buying vehicles with a 7T gross design weight, and habitually operating them at 8.25T is one of the other issues that stood out for me.
The article heading on the BBC website might be a little misleading, if you look at their website they do more than just breakdown recovery, they also do vehicle transportation and plant transportation for which they do need an operators licence.
An acquaintance of mine who owns a bodyshop and runs 3 rigid recovery vehicles fell out with VOSA, it’s a while ago, about the need for an O licence. VOSA won obviously. He said “I don’t need one for recovery, and we don’t do any 3rd party work.” VOSA said, “when you go to collect the damaged vehicle, do you take a replacement courtesy car with you? And is that car taxed, insured and road worthy?” Yes, he says, “well how is that recovery” said VOSA, it’s driveable, so that is transport, you need an O licence.
Taking a courtesy car out sounds unusual but the DVsA / Vosa view seems quite logical.
As for the OP case, they planned to run overweight by 100kgs based on the load’sunladen weight, let alone any extras. That’s being optimistic by any9ne’s books!!!