Is it a legal requirement for all trucks to display this disc on the windscreen,and if so what would you do if asked to drive a vehicle without it.
I always check to make sure all discs are presant & correct before driving. It is a legal requirement.
As far as I can remember, it is a ‘legal requirement’ for the Operator. Although not for the driver.
In the case of a ‘hired’ (or recently acquired) vehicle, there is a period of grace of…either 28 days or a month (can never remember which 
) providing that the Operator has sufficient capacity on their Licence.
As a driver, it is not a matter that I am unduly concerned about.
tyler4164:
I always check to make sure all discs are presant & correct before driving. It is a legal requirement.
Hi tyler4164, There are circumstances when an ‘O’ licence disc isn’t required to be displayed.
One such time is when the owner has recently acquired the vehicle and is having it added to the fleet via the ‘margin’ on the ‘O’ licence.
It might well be grounds for a ‘tug’ but you’d soon be on your way. 
If I found myself in that situation, I’d ask the TM about the apparent lack of a disc and I’d see what answer I got.
IIRC, the offence is ‘using’ a vehicle without a disc, so it depends on exactly who the ‘user’ is, because ‘user’ has a definition in law…
I say IIRC because it’s been quite a few years since Towcester Magistrates Court explained it to me. 
Nuff said I think.
On my firm one of the checks we are instructed to make is all discs are present and report if any are missing.With a fleet the size of ours,discs become due at different times and if a vehicle has no disc in the window,it may be that the disc is in the office and they were waiting for the vehicle to come in.
I agree with Krankee’s reply, i’m sure you can drive 28 days without it as we use a lot of Hill Hire motors and they hardly ever have the O-licence displayed if we have them less than 3 weeks…
Krankee:
As far as I can remember, it is a ‘legal requirement’ for the Operator. Although not for the driver.In the case of a ‘hired’ (or recently acquired) vehicle, there is a period of grace of…either 28 days or a month (can never remember which
As a driver, it is not a matter that I am unduly concerned about.
So, a driver doesn’t need to worry unduly , although it is an open invitation to be pulled into a VOSA checkpoint. I would mention it to the office and probably make a note on the defect sheet.
However. Why do companies like Salford Van Hire, Hill Hire Fred Bloggs Hire etc not need to have an operators licence? After all they are in business for hire and reward.
A driver goes into the hire depot and checks the truck over, he cannot be expected to know the track rod end is loose or the A frame bushes are badly worn.
So he goes off on a trip to Scotland and gets pulled in at Beattock, Will the VOSA man let him go and tell him to get it fixed?
I somehow think that this could trigger a fleet inspection for the operator resulting in at least a minor inconvenience or more probably a court appearance over something more sinister. Meanwhile the hire company replaces the worn truck with another worn truck and that is the end of it.
Or do the hire companies have better maintenance standards than the operators?
Why do companies like Salford Van Hire, Hill Hire Fred Bloggs Hire etc not need to have an operators licence? After all they are in business for hire and reward.
Because they are not in the business of moving goods for hire and reward, which is what the ruling applies to.
I’m pretty sure the 28 day grace period is either gone already or is on the way out soon now that trucks can be added to the operators license immediately online.