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Q We operate Bedford CF box-vans which are under 30cwt unladen
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weight and propose to add a trailer on two days a week. Will an operator's licence become necessary and will the driver have to have a heavy goods vehicle driving licence? Would the requirements change U' we used a caravan converted to a mobile showroom?
A Part V of the Transport Act 1968 deals with operators' licensing. Paragraph 60(1) states briefly an operator's licence is required for the use of a vehicle on a road for the carriage of goods for hire and reward or in connection with any trade or business. Subsection (2) exempts small vehicles as defined in subsection (4). Subsection (4) (b) (ii) applies to the kind of outfit you have described.
Briefly this subsection refers to a vehicle combination (not being an articulated combination) which comprises of vehicles not having plated weights. The effect is to exempt from operators' licensing vehicle combinations in which the aggregate of the unladen weights of the vehicles (excluding any small trailers — that is, any trailer having an unladen weight not exceeding one ton) does not exceed 30cwt.
Therefore, if your trailer does not exceed one ton unladen weight, then you do not need an operator's licence to use the combination which you have described.
Nor does the driver need a heavy goods vehicle driving licence. With this type of combination the necessity for the driver to be the holder of an hgv licence is governed by the prime mover. Briefly, if this is a "motor car", that is a vehicle which has an unladen weight of less than 3 tons, then he does not need an hgv licence.
The same regulations apply to a vehicle towing a caravan converted to a mobile showroom. Moreover, if such a combination was not used to carry goods for hire and reward there would be no question whatsoever of it being subject to operators' licensing.