When do I need an operators licence/tacho?

[bingoben]

Can anyone tell me at what point I need an operators licence and tachograph? I am tying myself up in knots trying to understand the rules about 3.5t, 7.5t. Or 3.5t with 3.5t trailer on the back. Are there other regs to consider? Will I need 6 weekly servicing from a registered garage? Will I have to pay for an extortionately priced tax disc? aaaaahhhh! HELP!

 

 

thanks

[Peter]

Any vehicle or combination of vehicle and trailer with a maximum authorised mass of 3500 kg or more requires an o licence.

 

In practice, no-one seems to enforce the rules if you run a 3500 kg towing vehicle and trailer, although the law is very clear.

 

If you run any vehicle larger than 3500 kg MAM then O licencing is enforced, and you will need regular maintenance inspections, driver's hours records, an operating centre, etc.

[Chris Sheppard]

If you run a 3500kg towing vehicle and want to tow anything whatsoever over 50km from base then you have to have a tacho.

 

and as peter said any combination of over 3500 kg requires a tacho too.

 

So for instance, LR 90 with 700kg gross of trailer behincd it is just under 3500kg permissible mass (even though in reality you might not be anywhere near that) - so no tacho, whereas a 90 with an empty twin axle ifor would be over 3500kg permissible mass so would require tacho once over 50km form base. It's not neccessarily what yuo weigh when you get stopped it's what you could weigh if you wanted to.

 

The O license (from what I can gather from work) only comes in once the vehicle itself is over 3500kg - so as long as you have a tacho on your 3500kg vehicle (and you have B plus E on your license) you can pull the trailer legally, but then do become bound by the driving hours and if you drive once in a week with the tacho, the whole weeks hours come under that which then becomes a nightmare.

[harvey b davison]

As well as tacho laws, dont forget about the operators licence side of things, servicing, defect reporting, operator centre, then you have the cpc exams ( certificate of professional competence) for both management and driver. ( 2 differernt courses).

To be brutally honest, transport law is a nightmare, i used to work in transport and it was a nightmare keeping everything running legal, but for some reason i still keep up to date with it all, but then again always fancied my own 7.5t flatback.

[Lyndon]

wow, it almost sounds cheaper to run two 3.5t's and split the loads. The laws surrounding this type of work don't make life easy do they!

[Kev Stephenson]

The 3.5T stuff is only for hire or reward so you can take your track car trailer/horse box etc without the need for tacho. You can also run >3.5 tonners with no tacho/O license if it is for pure personal use only (e.g personal horse box truck that you do not charge others to use or big rig campers).

[Peter]

The O license (from what I can gather from work) only comes in once the vehicle itself is over 3500kg

 

No, if you run a combination of vehicle and trailer over 3500, as the law stands you need an O licence. There is an exemption for small trailers weighing less than 1020 kg unladen weight, so a small chipper and some Ifor type trailers will fall into this category.

 

www.businesslink.gov.uk

 

As well as tacho laws, dont forget about the operators licence side of things, servicing, defect reporting, operator centre, then you have the cpc exams ( certificate of professional competence) for both management and driver. ( 2 differernt courses).

 

You dont need a CPC holder for a restricted O licence, if you decided to apply for a unrestricted o licence you can use an external CPC holder to run that side of things for you.

 

You also dont need driver CPC if driving the vehicle is not your main job, ie if you are only driving it as part of your other work.

[Chris Sheppard]

No, if you run a combination of vehicle and trailer over 3500, as the law stands you need an O licence. There is an exemption for small trailers weighing less than 1020 kg unladen weight, so a small chipper and some Ifor type trailers will fall into this category.

 

That must be where we fall with the two vans and trailers I reckon. Though there can't be that many load carrying trailers designed for 3.5 tonne towing vehicles which weigh more than 1020kg can there?

[Peter]

The big ifor tipper is nearly 1200kg, and the bigger flatbeds with high sides are getting up there.

 

Most chippers bigger than 6" capacity are heavier than 1020 kg though.

[Quickthorn]

No, if you run a combination of vehicle and trailer over 3500, as the law stands you need an O licence. There is an exemption for small trailers weighing less than 1020 kg unladen weight, so a small chipper and some Ifor type trailers will fall into this category.

 

www.businesslink.gov.uk

 

 

 

 

I think there's also an exemption for "dual purpose vehicles" and they give the example of Land Rover and any trailer (or there used to be - can't get their list of exempt vehicles to open). In theory, I could get my 110 plus a suitable trailer up to 6550 kg GTW and not need an o licence.