Operator's licence holder must be permit holder
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by CM reporter AN OWNER-DRIVER who uses his tra.ctive unit to pull another operator's trailer abroad—and uses that operator's International Road Haulage permit—is breaking •the law. So is the owner of the trailer.
This is a point brought since CM's reports (March 12 and 19) on the Dover permits purge. Owner-drivers have been asking how they would be affected, and the Department of the Environment has told us that both would be penalised.
"I can see what's happening now," one owner-operator from Essex, who has been applying unsuccessfully for years for a permit, told us.
"The big boys are getting allocations and they corner the permits market—then they pass on the work to us at cut rates, with permits.
"As long as we can't get permits, they must win."
Several owner-drivers said they did not know they were breaking the law. "We thought that the permit was to cover the loaded trailer," said one. "That's what I was told." This driver disclosed the identity of the company who passed permits to him, but asked that we should not disclose it.
The drivers are concerned because DoE said there will be a weekly purge at the ports.