7.5t Operators License

[Modge]

Showman's vehicle is fairly undefined. I know this because when the stage bus was sorting out it's road tax it almost became one. Whilst this category is intended for improbable fair ground rides it isn't actually set in stone what it is. How ever it is set in stone what a 7.5t truck is, so you'll be lucky not to become a goods vehicle, which I think (though I'm not VOSA) is what causes you to need an O licence.

 

Oh and whilst you're thinking how improbable the fair ground rides are remember they don't need MOT's as Showman's vehicle's ether.

[Ike]

I believe the 'official' line is that it must be registered in the name of a showman, used for the sole purpose of his or her work and be fitted with a living van or some other special type of body or superstructure forming part of the equipment of the show of the person in whose name the vehicle is registered.

 

:o

[Andrew C]

I'd guess that the "Showman" thing is some sort of "Grandfathering" type exemption. They didn't need these O licences in Old Man Cotton's day, we won't use them now!

 

I'd quite like the DoT to take an interest in them; the number that I get stuck behind on the M-way unable to make the three hills between hone and work at more than 25MPH :o

[Simon Lewis]

Appendix two of the guidance note states:

 

For a motor vehicle with draw-bar trailer, you need a licence if:

— in the case where both the motor vehicle and the trailer(s) are plated, the total of their

gross plated weights is more than 3500kg, or

— in any other case, the total unladen weight is more than 1525kg.

NB A small trailer of not more than 1020kg unladen weight can be ignored for the

purposes of adding up total gross weights or unladen weights for drawbar outfits.

 

So, the caveat stated above holds true for some cases - which I should have remembered, as I think I used this justification to pull a small trailer for a time! :o

 

However, if you have a vehicle which "is used for the carriage of goods" which has a capacity greater than 3.5t (including a trailer combination) you should have a Tachograph!

 

In the OP's case, a small trailer may not require a O Licence, but does require a tacho. In pscandrett's case, the issue of does a charity need an Operator's Licence (or use a Tacho) doesn't seem to be as clear cut. The issue is whether the vehicle is used as part of a business - which sometimes charities effectively work as to raise funds. I used to work with a church drama group who drove a 6t Iveco. Police would periodically pull them over and ask why they didn't have a licence on display. They successfully argued that they were a charity, but the stops were time consuming. I strongly suspect that you could prove that you are a not for profit organisation, and therefore do not need either tacho or O licence. However, a chat and a definitive answer from your local transport office would be better!

 

Simon

[Billy]

.

Hi

 

The O Licence has 2 main areas of responsibility:

 

(I) The maintenance of levels of safety of commercial vehicles

(ii) The commercial protection of the british road transport industry, evident by it clamping down on Agricultural high speed Tractors transporting goods on the highway, farmers exploiting unfair commercial competition by the use of cheaper fuel and no Tacho regulations.

 

From the official list of exemptions Shownmen can qualify for exemption No.15 which says:

 

Vehicles fitted with permanent equipment (ie machines or appliances) so that the only goods carried are:

(a) for use in the connection with the equipment

(b) for threshing grading cleaning or chemically treating grain or for mixing by the equipment with other goods not carried on the vehicle to make animal fodder

© mud or other matter swept up from the road by the equipment.

 

I operate a mobile workshop, it is permanently fitted with benches, racks, generator and a variety of metal and woodworking equipment. This vehicle was not on my operators licence because it was a mobile workshop under exemption 15a (above). I have been stopped 4 times, and one time was cautioned by the traffic police and later visited by a Traffic examiner because I also carried lengths of timber and metal flatbar and various consumables on the same vehicle which were considered goods.

 

I have since included it on my standard licence because its easier than arguing with the old bill at the roadside on a point of law.

 

The O Licence doesn't specify any exemption for charitable organisations so take further advice from your Area Traffic office.

 

Essential reading and Bible of the Transport Industry is The Transport Managers and Operators Handbook by David Lowe. Its written in an easy understandable plain language.

 

Best Regards

 

Billy

[pscandrett]

The O Licence doesn't specify any exemption for charitable organisations so take further advice from your Area Traffic office.

Thanks for this - it's not so much the fact we're a charity, but more that we don't have a 'business' as such to transport 'goods' for. It seems to me that moving about gig resources is very different from moving pallets of produce from A to B.

 

Thanks though, and I will indeed be contacting the relevant people further/again in the new year.

[ianl]

If anything it would be the 'restricted' one I'd have thought; we occasionally need to hire 7.5t trucks for the purposes of doing gigs but - and this is where the line is blurred slightly, I think, and is probably the crucial point - we are a charity and doing gigs and events is what we do as part of our charitable aims - not to make money. We don't make a profit out of this - we are funded by donations and trusts. (On occasion that we do make a profit, which is extremely rare, from doing events it gets ploughed back into the central pot again). So... do we need a licence if we're not selling any goods or services?

 

 

from my discusions with various relevant parties (such as VOSA, including a man whose job it is to enforce the relevant regs on the roadside) my understanding is that whilst you were as a charity transporting your kit or kit you had hired to enable you to do your gig for your charity they would consider you excempt from O licence, tacho, drivers hours etc rules.

at the point where you do a gig for someone else (especially a comercial entity) in order to make some money by using your charities equipment or expertease irispective of where the money ends up then they may decide that you are not excempt