VEHICLE EXEMPTIONS • I have some old tractive units dating
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from the 1970s which are used for show purposes only and taxed at the PLG rate. One of them was built with a tachograph. Does it have to be used and be calibrated? Does the hours law apply
while driving these vehicles?
I also have a newer tractor which tows a lowloader trailer for carrying two vehicles to shows. Can this be taxed at the PLG rate as It will not be used for any business activity? My question about hours and tachographs applies to this vehicle too. Also, does it need a speed limiter in working order?
• Vehicles used for non-commercial carriage of goods for personal use are exempt from the EC drivers' hours and tachograph regulations.
On the information you give, the EC law does not apply to the vehicle driver and even if a tachograph is fitted in the vehicle it does not have to be used or kept in working order—except the speedometer part if no separate speedometer is fitted.
Exemption from the EC law makes the vehicles subject to the British hours and records law. The British hours law is that a driver must not, in a working day, drive for more than 10 hours and the working day must not exceed 11 hours. A working day is defined as: • A working period which does not have to be added to another period (eg a straight-through shift); or • Where a working period is followed by one or more working periods in the 24 hours beginning with the start of the first working period (eg a split-shift), the total of the work periods falling within that 24 hours. There is no requirement to take breaks from driving or daily or weekly rest breaks.
The British records law requires a specified type of weekly summary sheet to be kept but the requirement does not apply where, in a working day: • A driver does not drive a goods vehicle for more than four hours and outside a radius of 50km of the vehicle's base; or • In a working day a driver does not drive any vehicle other than one exempt from 0-licensing.
The tractive unit you propose to use with the trailer for carrying old vehicles could be taxed at the special vehicle rate of 2160 as long as it is not used for carrying goods for hire or reward, or in connection with a trade or business. The same exemptions from the hours and records law described above would apply to it.
If the newer tractor was first used before January 1988 it would not be subject to the speed limiter rules.
You refer to your tractors from the 1970s being taxed at the PLG rate. You might bear in mind that an exemption from VED is provided for old lorries first used before 1973 which are used unladen and not used for a commercial purpose.