Nigel Grainger brings together a related set of skills that all fleets require, to greater or lesser
degrees, but which may not have the staffing or the skills to fulfil those needs.
Bringing his wealth of experience in all areas of fleet management he offers a bespoke service through his company Fleet Risk Consultants, providing you with a cost effective fleet that complies fully with your 'duty of care' requirements.Towing Trailers and Operator Licensing – New Regulations
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
March 29th, 2012 at 2:28 pm
Hi Nigel.
Would just like to say thanks for calling me back today and advising us on the use of trailers and tachographs. Very much appreciated.
Regards,
Jadeen
April 4th, 2012 at 11:40 am
Hi Nigel,
Thanks for clarifying the new operator licencing regulations. Maybe less people would “offend “if the regulations were:
a) consistent internally,
b) presented in a manner, perhaps with flow charts and other visual aids to interpretation
c) left unchanged for sufficient time for us non-professionals and non-lawyers to understand and implement them correctly.
Your excellent blog shows that even well meaning honest men who are bright enough to found and run their own businesses are struggling with this legal minefield that even supposed experts, VOSA men and VOSA policy advisors included, do not either fully understand or instead interpret in idiosyncratic ways just because the legaleese is so complex and yet in the end imprecise and subject to “interpretation”.
What a total mess and enormous extra cost burden this legislation all is when applied to a small business like mine.
Regards
David Green
April 13th, 2012 at 11:42 pm
Nigel,
Many thanks for the update, and for the effort put in to try and give some answers, to a very grey area,i agree with David Green, why leave things to interpretation,, lets see what happens if i am stopped by VOSA.
April 15th, 2012 at 10:09 am
Hi Nigel
Thank you for an excellent website. I have been advised by my local tachograph centre that because my Toyota Landcruiser Amazon was first registered on 08/03/06 it will not qualify for an analogue tachograph, which would fit nicely in the centre armrest box. The problem I have is there is nowhere to fit a digital tacho to comply with regs. as I understand that it needs to be in view of the driver. Is it against the law to fit an analogue type instead seeing that it is only seven days past the qualifying date?
Kind Regards
Rob
April 15th, 2012 at 1:39 pm
Rob – The short answer is yes it is illegal to fit an analogue unit to that vehicle.
Call me if you want to discuss it in more detail on 01623 675833.
Best Regards
Nigel
April 15th, 2012 at 7:22 pm
Hi Rob Seal,
The requirement to fit a digital tachograph in the drivers field of view is very liberally interpreted. My Navara has been installed by a qualified installer and is in the driver’s view only if I look down behind the gear stick and shift my head sideways to clear the steering wheel and associated control stalks for the radio/cd and the lights/ indicators.
Take a look at some of the HGV tacho training videos on Youtube and you will see tachos mounted high above the top of the windscreen and so high above the drivers head let alone his eyeline.I have even seen an installation beneath teh passenger seat!
I guess that gives your installer carte blanche to put it wherever he can find a space.
Regards
David Green
June 9th, 2012 at 7:46 am
Dear Nigel,
I spoke to you recently about my fleet and tacho use etc.. I would like a full check and advise on there use.
I have a quick question about o licence for towing.
We tow woodchippers which weigh up to 2.5 tonnes ut obviously do not carry a load, the tow vehicle carries wood chip and other tree waste which we recycle along with tools used fot the work.
Do we need an Olicence for this combination ?
Thank you
Stuart ABM
June 9th, 2012 at 7:49 am
Dear Nigel,
Sorry forgot to say, great site and sound advise.
How would I arrange an audit and advise from your company as I get more nervous daily when we see the VOSA boys and girls out and about.
Thanks
Stuart ABM