You will need a goods vehicle operators licence in case you use a goods automobile of over three.Five tonnes gross plated weight or (where there’s no plated weight) an unladen weight of greater than 1,525kg to move goods for hire or reward or in reference to a exchange or commercial enterprise. (In this instance ‘goods’ means goods or burden of any description).
For a automobile and trailer combination, typically you’ll want a items vehicle operator’s licence if the gross plated weights or unladen weights of the automobile and trailer mixed exceed the bounds said above for a unmarried vehicle.
The operator’s licence have to be carried out for in the name of the character, employer or partnership this is the ‘consumer’ of the car.
You can be taken into Vehicle Walkaround checks consideration to be the user of the automobile if:
you’re the driving force and proprietor of the vehicle; or
it is to your lawful ownership underneath an settlement for rent, hire purchase or loan; or
the driving force is your employee or agent (i.E. You pay them to force the vehicle for you).
Exemptions from items vehicle operator licensing
Small trailer exemption
A trailer with an unladen weight of less than 1,020kg need now not be taken into account in the weight calculation for a vehicle pulling a trailer. It consequently can be overlooked for the purposes of including up total gross weights or unladen weights to decide whether they are above the brink for requiring an operator’s licence.
However, this exemption does now not observe if you are sporting other people’s goods for rent or reward (e.G. Running as a courier or freight delivery enterprise). In such instances, the weight calculation must encompass any trailer connected (no matter the trailer’s weight). In this situation, if the automobile and trailer mixture exceeds three.5 tonnes gross plated weight or (wherein there may be no plated weight) an unladen weight of more than 1,525 kg), a preferred licence is required.
Other exemptions from Operator Licensing
Some vehicles do no longer want an operators licence. These are:
vehicles first used earlier than 1977 which have an unladen weight no longer exceeding 1,525kg and for which the maximum gross plated weight exceeds 3,500kg (and is much less than 3,556.21kg);
motor cars and their trailers using public roads for much less than 9.654km (6 miles) a week, while transferring among personal premises owned by means of the equal individual;
vehicles being used below a exchange licence (i.E. With alternate plates);
automobiles built or adapted for sporting passengers and their effects (any trailer) and being used for that motive;
motors utilized by, or underneath the manage of, Her Majesty’s United Kingdom forces
motors being used by neighborhood government for civil defence functions, or to perform their capabilities for the functions of enactments referring to weights and measures or the sale of food and drugs;
motors being utilized by a toll road authority for the reason of phase 196 of the Road Traffic Act 1988 (i.E. The availability of weighbridges);
motors getting used for police, fire or ambulance purposes;
hearth-fighting and rescue cars usedin mines;
Royal National Lifeboat Institution and Coastguard vehicles while used for transporting lifeboats, home equipment or group;
cars being held ready to be used in emergencies by means of water, power, gas and cellphone companies;
tractors, along with agricultural tractors, used for the specific purposes described in Part II of Schedule 3 to the Goods Vehicles (Licensing of Operators) Regulations 1995, within 24.A hundred thirty five km (15 miles) of a farm, forestry or property;
vehicles being used to carry goodswithin aerodromes;
motors getting used for funerals;
uncompleted motors on test or trial;
motors being used for or in connection with (or on their way to) snow clearing or distribution of salt, grit, and so on;
automobiles on their manner to a Department for Transport examination and being provided laden at the request of an Examiner;
electric powered and steam-propelled vehicles;
recovery automobiles. Paragraph three of the Goods Vehicles (Licensing of Operators) Regulations 1995 states that a restoration vehicle has the equal meaning as in Part V of Schedule 1 to the Vehicle Excise and Registration Act 1994 (i.E. A car that is built or completely tailored for anybody or more of the purposes of lifting, towing and transporting a disabled vehicle)
a vehicle with gadget permanently connected to it for the lifestyles of that vehicle. Examples of such gadget encompass permanently fixed machines or home equipment. Additionally, the handiest different goods or burden that such vehicles are allowed to carry are those critical to be used in reference to that fixed device. As a popular rule, loose equipment, cooking device, foodstuffs, furniture or show units of any kind or other articles that aren’t a permanent fixture on the vehicle would not constitute goods which can be critical for the use of the fixed device.
Tower wagons and any trailers which are transporting goods associated with the work accomplished by using the automobile;
dual-cause automobiles (e.G. Land Rovers) and their trailers;
trailers whose number one reason isn’t to hold goods however accomplish that by the way in reference to the construction, renovation or repair of roads;
road rollers and trailers;
showmen’s goods automobiles and trailers. (such motors have to be registered in the call of a person following the commercial enterprise of a visiting showman wherein he is the sole consumer of the vehicle for this and for no other motive);
Crown motors which might be automobiles operated through crucial government departments (e.G. Home Office, Department for Transport) however not by their external contractors;
motors approved to perform cabotage inside the United Kingdom (cabotage is in which non-resident providers from one EU member country may also perform temporary home haulage operations within every other member state).
Motors being used for international haulage via operators hooked up in Northern Ireland; and
motors getting used below the provisions of the Goods Vehicles (Operators’ Licences) (Temporary Use in Great Britain) Regulations 1980. These Regulations consist of provision for the use in Great Britain of Northern Ireland motors that have an working centre in Northern Ireland, furnished that positive conditions are met. Own account (motors used on your personal functions and not for hire or reward, as an instance restricted operators) and lease and reward operations are blanketed with the aid of the exemption.
