My company handles considerable traffic to the Continent and, from
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time to time, we find ourselves short of vehicles and so we have to hire. It is not economical to expand the fleet to cover the amount of hiring we have to do.
Naturally, we have a supply of permits to cover the journeys, but I am not convinced that our permits cover the journeys undertaken by hired transport. Could you clarify this matter please?
AIt all depends on how you hire in the vehicles. At a DTp check at Dover in March, last year, the principle was established that the holder of the operator's licence, under which the vehicle is operated, must be the person to whom the journey permit covering the movement was issued.
Therefore, if you have subcontracted the movement to another haulier, it cannot be carried out under the unilateral permits issued to you because the subcontracted haulier will be running his vehicle under his own 0 licence.
If you have simply spot hired the vehicle, however, it is operating under your 0 licence and the permits issued to your company would be valid for that journey.
Even if the vehicle concerned was an articulated outfit comprising your trailer and another haulier's tractive unit, then your permits afe not appropriate, and only those issued to the owner of the tractive unit as the 0-licence holder would be valid for the movement.