Towing Trailers and Operator Licensing – New Regulations

Nigel — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 12:31:30 +0000

There has been much discussion both here on the blog and in the meetings I have had with business owners about the effects of the Road Transport Operator Licensing Regulations 2011 which covers the use of vehicles and operator licences to run those vehicles.

If you consider how many vehicles are towing trailers as part of their business, the impact of theis legislation could be huge, but there is some good news for those businesses who transport certain goods and the it could depend on the vehicle you choose to tow the trailer with!

First it might be useful to explain what an operators licence is and what it means to a business.

If you operate a vehicle which have a Gross Vehicle Mass in excess of 3,500kg or a combination of vehicle and trailer in excess of 3,500 you needed a licence issued by a Traffic Commissioner giving you permission to operate such vehicles. You have to agree to certain maintenance schedules (typically 6-8 weeks), have a set amount of available capital to maintain those vehicles and agree to a number of other requirements. Equally in some cases you must have a qualified person of good repute to manage those vehicles.

The process involved in obtaining an operators licence can take around 12-16 weeks to complete and can be refused for many reasons along the way. The reasons for refusal can be due to objections from local residents, the council, Police, poor maintenance history or the directors having a poor record.

If the trailer you used had an unladen weight of less than 1,020 kgs then you did not need to consider the trailer into the 3,500 kg calculation. So in reality you did not need to have the operators licence and all the associated regulations and paperwork. You did still need a tachograph in certain applications, but this is covered in a separate post HERE.

The changes in legislation are, as normal, not entirely clear but after much reading and consultation with other professionals we are happy we have interpreted the new regulations and we hope you understand how they affect you as businesses and individuals, but as always if you are unsure you can call us on 01623 675833.

The basic situation is this:
If you are using the trailer to transport goods you own or can be defined as yours (eg hired to you) then you will not need an Operator’s Licence.
If you transport goods for other people, like a delivery company then you will need and operators licence.

We are currently working on a Compliance guide to help businesses with this minefield, but in the interim please do not hesitate to call the team on 01623 675833 for specific advice.

Nigel Grainger
Senior Consultant

Looking forward with clarity

Fleet Risk Consultants — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 09:51:18 +0000

I have been using a product on the glass in my car for the last few months and I am now at the point where I can share the proven benefits of using a glass treatment product.
The product I am using is RainX and it is, in my opinion, brilliant. It works be creating a [...]

Looking forward with clarity

Nigel — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 08:09:07 +0000

I have been using a product on the glass in my car for the last few months and I am now at the point where I can share the proven benefits of using a glass treatment product.

The product I am using is RainX and it is, in my opinion, brilliant. It works be creating a micro-surface on the glass and is designed to allow the water to bead and run off easier. It does this very well indeed and it will allow you the driver the ability to see much clearer and at certain speeds it is not necessary to use the wiper blades as the screen clears of water quicker than the blades could do it.

Over the winter I found an added bonus, it prevents frost forming on the glass. This meant that I did not need to scrape hard to clear the side glass.

I have re-treated the windscreen because over time it does wear away, but all the other windows are still in a great condition.

So to improve your visibility and give you a bit of extra opportunity to see the road ahead I suggest you invest in some RainX I think you will find it of value.

Nigel Grainger

Senior Consultant

Fleet Risk Consultants

Ah, it’s January and what to do first?

Fleet Risk Consultants — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 08:57:50 +0000

You have employed some great people to work for you, but are you sure they have a valid driving licence?
I always advise my clients that the first job of the New Year is to collect all the driving licences of their employees and check they are valid. There are a couple of great reasons [...]

Ah, it’s January and what to do first?

Nigel — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 08:11:59 +0000

You have employed some great people to work for you, but are you sure they have a valid driving licence?

I always advise my clients that the first job of the New Year is to collect all the driving licences of their employees and check they are valid. There are a couple of great reasons for this.

1. The photocard driving licence was born on the 1st July 1998 in The Driving Licences (Community Driving Licence) Regulations 1998. Buried in these regulations in Section 8 is an amendment to The Road Traffic Act 1988 (c52) Section 99 that puts a 10 year life span on the photocard driving licence. This is to bring into line with the passport requirements to maintain a recent photograph of the bearer.
If your employees have these photocard driving licences and they are over ten years old and therefore invalid, you are allowing you employees to drive otherwise in accordance with a driving licence. This is an offence for which the senior management could be prosecuted.

2. If anyone got caught breaking the traffic laws, I am thinking of the drink drive laws here, then they will have been dealt with and had their licences removed by now.

To prevent your business falling foul of the law driving licences should be checked every six months, and any organisation checking licences over a period any longer than six months will find themselves, at some point, in serious trouble with either the HSE or the Police or both. At the same time it is good practice to check the eyesight of your staff. If you do this for all staff regardless of whether they drive or not you would have a much better case to present in court, should the need arise.

When you check the licences you should be on the look out for those that state replacement as there are drivers who apply for a replacement licence whilst the original has no points on it. They then produce the original to the courts and the ‘clean’ replacement to their employer. You should also be on the lookout for ten year old photocard licences. The expiry date is on the front of the photocard and is designated 4b.

If you do not feel you can do this yourself, then talk to a licence checking agency. We know some great ones!

Nigel Grainger
Senior Consultant

Fleet Risk Consultants

It looks like it will finally turn cold!

Fleet Risk Consultants — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 08:33:37 +0000

The weather forecast in the UK is for it to turn cold and we may be in for some snow. This presents a few hazards, but the biggest is that the majority of drivers in the UK do not know how to drive in snowy conditions.
They are either too cautious, getting nowhere at all, [...]

Why Human Resources Departments need to be cautious

Fleet Risk Consultants — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 08:41:09 +0000

Whilst I was at a recent meeting we had a discussion about how to deal with drivers who hold a non-UK driving licence and more particularly drivers from within the European Union.
Managing your ‘duty of care’ can be tricky with European drivers as it is illegal to discriminate against them by having different [...]

You need to be seen

Fleet Risk Consultants — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 09:08:06 +0000

Having spent a significant time driving in the early hours recently, or at least before the sun has emerged from its slumber, I have noticed an increasing number of vehicles driving without lights or with defective lights.
Now defective lights are an obvious defect, but it usually means that the driver has got other defects too. [...]

Corporate Manslaughter Legislation – A Practical Example Part 2

Fleet Risk Consultants — Tue, 21 Sep 2010 10:50:59 +0000

In yesterdays example of an incident that could attract the attention of the authorities in connection with Corporate Manslaughter Legislation I laid out a typical crash scenario. Today I shall lay before you the next stage of the process, the investigation.
You will remember that the incident occurred at 08:40 hours.

By Midday the Police [...]

Corporate Manslaughter Legislation – A Practical Example Part 1

Fleet Risk Consultants — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 07:49:53 +0000

There have been many discussions about the Corporate Manslaughter Legislation and the effect it will have on the way businesses operate. Most of those discussions are based on a best guess scenario and assumptions as we have not yet had a headline prosecution under the legislation.
I will not be making guesses at an eventual [...]