Tougher law on hgv licensing but one year's grace for drivers
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TRAILERS on drawbar outfits will count towards gross weight for hgv licensing from January 1 under the new Bill before Parliament, but drivers have till January 1, 1977 to acquire hgv driving licences.
As copies of the Road Traffic (Drivers Ages and Hours of Work) Bill became available late last week it became clear that the new law will alter methods of establishing hgv driving licence requirements. New provisions also add causing or permitting a person to drive without an appropriate licence to the list of offences.
Schedule 1 of the Bill adds a whole list of vehicle definitions to Section 110 of the Road Traffic Act 1972 (definitions for the purposes of provisions about ordinary driving licences), but perhaps the most interesting of these is that which refers to permissible maximum weight. For motor vehicles (not being an articulated goods vehicle) which is drawing a trailer, for instance, the maximum permissible weight is defined as "the aggregate of the relevant maximum weight of the motor vehicle and the relevant maximum weight of the trailer." It is on permissible maximum weight that the requirement for an hgv licence is based.
Drawbar trailer counts
Thus, both the prime mover and the trailer of a drawbar outfit must be taken into account when deciding if a vehicle exceeds 7.5 tonnes gross (7.38 tons).
Till now, only the weight of the prime mover has had to be regarded when considering if an hgv licence was required or the class of licence appropriate.
After January 1, a drawbar outfit which was previously exempt from the provisions of the hgv driving licence regulations because the drawing vehicle weighed less than 3 tons unladen might need an hgv licensed driver even if the drawing vehicle does not exceed 7.5 tonnes gross without the trailer. Taken together with the trailer, in accordance with the new legislation, the chances are that such a vehicle will exceed the prescribed limit.
Paragraph 3 (2) of Schedule 2 removes the offence of driving without an hgv licence from a person who will need one under the new provisions during 1976.
When the Bill becomes law it will no longer be necessary for an incorrectly licensed driver to be employed by the owner of a vehicle for an offence to be committed by the vehicle owner.
Section 84 of the Road Traffic Act 1972 provides that it shall be an offence for a person to employ another person to drive a motor vehicle on a road if the person employed is not the holder of an appropriate licence.
Schedule 1 paragraph one of the Bill provides for this to be altered to "cause or permit another person" whether an employee or not to drive a vehicle on a road if he is not the holder of a licence authorising him to drive a vehicle of that class.
The Bill is now available from HMSO, price 28p.
The Bill was due to have its second reading in the House of Lords yesterday.