hope this helps
I used to drive these a few years ago the company I was driving for had 5 and 4 transits we used to move our own hire cars to the accident repair industry (ambulance chasers). We had restricted o licence and had to comply with the 6wk inspections. As I see it the only difference is your cars will be damaged and ours were to replace damaged cars, as the cars will be your you will need to comply IMHO. This will be classed as haulage.
When we started to collect the repaired cars from the garage and return them to our hirer and collect our car from them we had to change from a restricted to a standard o licence so be careful.
madmanjay:
thinking of buying a 7.5 tonne recovery truck for buying accident damaged repair cars,just a few questions for you guys,wondering if you could shed some light
questions
1,would i need a operators licence
2,would the truck in question require 6 weekly inspections
Yes. However if it is only for your own business and you are not doing it for hire and reward you can get a restricted O licence which has lower requirements on the operator. You cannot do any work for anyone other than your own business though. The restricted O licence is for moving your own goods - a scaffolding company would have one for example but a builders merchant wouldn’t because they charge for delivery.
If you have a restricted O licence, no you wouldn’t.
madmanjay:
thanks for all the info guys,decided to leave the 7.5 tonne after all, on the look out for a 3.5 tonne now think that will be best option as i’m still driving artics for a living and these cars i buy is only a part time thing,plus there is the driving hours side of things
Depending on what car you own, why not just get a twin axle car transporting trailer and use your car to tow it or sell your car and get a 4x4 which you can use for going to work and the business? Something like this with a winch on the front will do the job.
Once over, anything over 7.5 tons was a commercial vehicle, now it’s 3.5 tons.
So you put a trailer on the back of a 4x4, and the total weight exceeds 3.5 tons, you’ll still need tachograph.
The VOSA aren’t interested what the trailer or tow vehicle actually weight, they go off the plated weight.
My Landrover is 3050kgs and trailer is 2800kgs max on the plate.
So no matter waht the combination actually weighs on the bridge, as far as VOSA are concerned, it’s 5850kgs, and if used for business needs tacho.
A frames are illegal unless the brakes are properly coupled, like the motorhome brigade use. Or unless the car weighs less than 750 kgs, which there’s maybe only 1 that is (French MicroCar).
madmanjay:
thinking of buying a 7.5 tonne recovery truck for buying accident damaged repair cars,just a few questions for you guys,wondering if you could shed some light
questions
1,would i need a operators licence
2,would the truck in question require 6 weekly inspections
Yes. However if it is only for your own business and you are not doing it for hire and reward you can get a restricted O licence which has lower requirements on the operator. You cannot do any work for anyone other than your own business though. The restricted O licence is for moving your own goods - a scaffolding company would have one for example but a builders merchant wouldn’t because they charge for delivery.
Conor,
Is a builder’s merchant entitled to make a charge for delivering his own goods and still run on an own-account ‘O’ licence?
Conor:
2) If you have a restricted O licence, no you wouldn’t.
Isn’t there a requirement upon all ‘O’ licence holders to maintain their vehicles in a fit and serviceable condition?