I am studying for my O license in both Road Haulage and Passenger Transport at the moment and have just come accross something interesting. The definition of a self employed driver is as follows :
“Someone who’s main occupation is to transport goods or passengers by road for hire or reward within the meaning of Community legislation and under cover of a Community license or any other professional authorisation to carry out such transport…” (then the bits about working for multiple clients etc)
I researched this a bit and discovered that a lot of the time this is interpreted to mean that the individual self employed driver must hold an Operators license. Is this true?
Could the self employed driver theoretically temporarily nominate the company he is working for (or their transport manager/O license holder) as his/her O license holder on a job-by-job basis, perhaps in the contract for the job?
I have worked as a driver self employed on and off over the past 10-15 years and I have never heard of that.
I know the HMRC have problems with people being self employed due to ‘no risk’, but that is a separate issue. I am also not talking about owner drivers here, just the people who drive somebody else’s vehicles.
The O licence is the responsibility of the owner of the vehicle’s they class operating as running a haulage business, that includes maintenance and daily running costs and also a suitable location off road to keep those vehicles when not in use, or if off the road, part of which includes the need for a National /international CPC holder depending on if or not doing EU work, most companies have their own in house cpc holders (transport managers) but there are some freelance CPC holders who offer their services for smaller outfits, unless they have stopped that
A self employed driver can be in 2 meanings, the first being as an owner driver who is responsible for ) licence and other documentation like insurance GIT ( goods in transit insurance ) MOT, road fund licencing, maintenance, and all the joys that come with owning your own truck.
The second one involves being a holder of a licence ( HGV or Car ) and hires himself out to either operators or an agency specialising in drivers , he is responsible for invoicing for any work done, for paying N.I. and PAYE, although most opt for an accountant who can reduce costs by claiming for things drivers wouldnt normally know how to claim for.
You only need an Operator license if YOU are operating a vehicle or vehicles, either as an individual or a company.
As a self employed driver who just happens to be self employed and simply hire yourself out to drive other people’s vehicles that are operated under their operators licence then you are not really any different than their own employed drivers.
Truck boy is right. He describes an operator and then a self employed labourer who happens to drive but is realistically no different than a self employed fork lift driver or plasterer.
Surly you don’t study for an ‘O’ licence! You study for a CPC that will enable you to apply for an ‘O’ licence should you want to become an operator or have your name put on a company ‘O’ licence as the named responsible person. Or have I missed some huge changes in the last two years?
Gangan:
Surly you don’t study for an ‘O’ licence! You study for a CPC that will enable you to apply for an ‘O’ licence should you want to become an operator or have your name put on a company ‘O’ licence as the named responsible person. Or have I missed some huge changes in the last two years?
Yes, sorry I am studying for the CPC’s. I’m sure most people got my drift though!
Thanks everyone for your advice. I was worried because a friend of mine has just gone self employed and I thought this was something we/he had overlooked.
