Authorities act to stop tractors 'pirating'
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• A campaign by British hauliers against what they see as unfair competition from vehicles that are registered in the Isle of Man, despite having little connection with the island, is bearing fruit.
Complaints from hauliers who felt they were caught at a disadvantage have led to prosecutions in the North West, and the Manx Government is taking action after checks on the mainland have revealed that most vehicles carring Manx number plates have never been anywhere near the Isle of Man.
Enforcement authorities have been reluctant to act in the past in what was seen as a grey area, often walking away from Manx registered vehicles rather than getting involved with what appeared to be a very complex legal situation. Persistent complaints, however, have led to the nettle being firmly grasped.
In one of the first cases brought before the courts, the Isle of Man Fatstock Marketing Corporation was fined £200 by Lancaster magistrates last October for operating a vehicle without an 0-licence. The magistrates ruled that a Manx registered tractive unit, kept in Heysham docks for up to a week at a time to collect and deliver semi-trailers carrying goods to and from the island, was a foreign vehicle carrying goods internally within the UK.
Manx registered vehicles are exempt from 0-licensing, and do not require a British excise licence, thus exempting them from plating and testing, provided that they operate on a temporary basis in Great Britain. They can be used only on journeys part of which lie outside the UK and they cannot carry goods loaded in one place in the UK for delivery to another place in the UK. The word "loading" in the exemption regulations is said to include coupling to a trailer that has been loaded with goods before it is attached.
In the Lancaster case, the evidence was that the tractive unit returned to the island at least once a week. The police, however, who admitted bringing the prosecution as a result of complaints from local hauliers, argued that the Fatstock Marketing Corporation had been using the docks car park as the "operating centre of the tractor concerned.
The corporation required an 0-licence, claimed the police, as it had set up an operation on the dockside in this country. The tractor was loading and delivering goods in this country because it was picking trailers up from the docks and bringing other trailers back to the docks.
The legal complexities of such a situation were perhaps highlighted even more by the second prosecution, this time brought by the North Western Traffic area. Manx Sea Ferry Freight Ltd was given an absolute discharge and ordered to pay £120 prosecution costs when the company admitted before Rochdale magistrates in August using a vehicle without an excise licence.
The circumstances were very similar to those of the Fatstock Marketing Corporation case, with unaccompanied trailers being collected, from, and taken to, the ferry by tractors operating on this side of the water.
The Rochdale magistrates were told that when the vehicle concerned in the prosecution had been stopped in a weight check it was seen to be displaying an excise license issued in the Isle of Man. There was a considerable difference in the duty payable, some £487 a year in the Isle of Man compared to the £2,450 a year payable at the time in this country.
In this case it was said the prosecution resulted from complaints from Liverpool hauliers who had lost a considerable amount of traffic following the closure of Liverpool docks.
When Manx Sea Ferry Freight was advised it needed to tax and licence its vehicles in this country, it took legal advice. The company was told that it was a grey area and that the only way to obtain a definitive ruling would be to invite criminal proceedings and seek a declaration in the High Court — an expensive exercise.
Consequently, the company decided to appy for an 0-licence. That application was granted despite the fact that the company's premises and transport manager were on the Isle of Man. The operating centre specified on the licence was the harbour lorry park, Heysham. The three vehicles specified on the licence were Manx registered. Because they were Manx registered, those vehicles could not be taxed in the UK. So even on the face of the licence issued by the North Western Traffic Area, the vehicles were technically being operated illegally.
The next stage was that the company was told that it must tax its vehicles in this country. There is, however, a "common purse" agreement between the Manx government and the UK, and Manx Sea Ferry freight did not feel it should be regarded as a 'foreign' operator in the same way as a European operator. It could not see how, having paid road tax on the Isle of Man, it had to tax its vehicles again when English operators could operate on the Island with UK excise licences. This was a basic point which no one had appeared to know the answer to. It was during discussions with the Traffic Area that the vehicle concerned in the case was checked and the prosecution was brought as something in the nature of a test case.
The third case, which took place a week later before Knutsford magistrates, is more extreme, H W Services (Containers) Ltd was ordered to pay fines, costs and back duty totalling £2,116-32 after being convicted of two overloading offences, 11 offences of using vehicles without excise licences, 12 of using them without plating certificates, and 12 of using them without test certificates. The magistrates dismissed an allegation that the company had used a vehicle without an 0-licence.
The case arose similarly in that a vehicle stopped in a weight check was seen to be displaying a Manx excise licence, the comparable rates of duty in this instance being £431 a 10. year in the Isle of Man and £3,100 a year in the UK.
Further inquiries revealed that all five of the company's vehicles, French-built lefthanddrive Renaults leased to H W Services by a Dutch company, were Manx registered, The vehicles had apparently been imported into the UK and taken to the Isle of Man to be registered, that being the last time they had been on the island.
The vehicles were mainly engaged on Continental traffic to and from the UK. It was said they were registered in the Isle of Man because of difficulties in getting lefthand-clrive vehicles registered in the UK.
At the time, the vehicles were operating under the authority of an interim 0-licence issued by the North Western Traffic Area, although that was subsequently revoked after it was revealed that they were effectively based in the South East These three cases illustrate the complexities of the situation. Since those proceedings were instituted, however, the Isle of Man Government has announced that it is taking firm action against operators who register their vehicles on the island to avoid 0-licensing restrictions and to gain tax benefits.
For the future, vehicles registered in the Isle of Man must be used mainly on the island, otherwise their excise licences will not be renewed, says the Manx Government.
That action, together with the willingness of the enforcement authorities on this side of the water to prosecute, should prevent what many have seen as "pirating" by Manx registered vehicles taking place in the future. For once, it seems, the authorities have listened to complaints from British hauliers.
by Insider