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A In your case the police

12th March 1998, Page 46
12th March 1998
Page 46
Page 46, 12th March 1998 — A In your case the police
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

are correct about the licence but not about the insurance.

Until 1990 a person required a Group A licence to drive most vehicles with four wheels or more and, if he drove a heavy goods vehicle, he needed a separate HGV driving licence.

An HGV was defined, apart from articulated vehicles, as a goods vehicle with a permissible maximum weight exceeding 7.5 tonnes.

Permissible maximum weight (PMW) was defined—and still is—so that when a rigid truck towed a trailer, the PMW of each vehicle had to be added together.

This meant that if a 7.5tonne truck towed a trailer (which includes a towed motor vehicle) the driver required an HGV licence.

In June 1990 the British driving licence groups were changed to EC Categories. The Group A licence became Category B and the regulations listed a number of other categories which Category B also covered.

One of them was known as Category Cl+E, which was described as a combination of a goods vehicle with a PMW over 3.5 tonnes but not over 7.5 tonnes and a trailer with a PMW exceeding 750kg.

The British HGV licence law was not changed at that time so an HGV licence was still required if that combination exceeded a total of 7.5 tonnes.

In April 1991, the British HGV licence law was changed with HGV licence Classes 1. 2 and 3 being replaced by EC Categories C and C+E.

The separate HGV licence was phased out.

This 1991 change meant that people who held a Category B licence (previously Group A) could then drive a 7.5-tonne truck towing a trailer of any weight— because their licence covered Category C1+E.

When the old British HGV licence law was in force they could not do so without holding the separate licence. However, the newly introduced Categories C and C+E did not apply to such a combination because they did not apply to motor vehicles of 7.5 tonnes or less.

This was a loophole in the law which the DVI,A had not intended.

On 1 January 1993 action was taken to close this loophole when regulations were adopted applying a combination weight limit of 8.25 tonnes to the definition of a Category Cl +E vehicle.

On 1 January 1997 a number of major changes were made to the law governing driving licences and Category C1+E authorised on a licence issued before that date became Category Cl+E (8.25 tonnes).

The weight restriction was added because on 1 January the combination weight of Category Cl+E was increased to 12 tonnes.

So a person who passes a Cl+E driving test after 1 January can drive such combinations up to a maximum of 12 tonnes, but a person who passed the test before 1 January will still be restricted to 8.25 tonnes.

The Ford Cargo in question had a PMW of 7.5 tonnes so the only trailer you could legally draw with it was one with a PMW not exceeding 750kg.

Any vehicle towed by a motor vehicle counts as a trailer so for the purposes of the law the car you were pulling by suspended tow counted as a trailer.

The police statement you forwarded indicates the PMW of the suspended car would be well over 750kg. Because the combination would be over 8.25 tonnes you were not authorised to drive it on your licence.

I suggest you plead guilty to the driving licence charge but put forward the above complicated changes as mitigation—in particular the fact that between April 1991 and January 1993 your licence did indeed authorise you to drive that combination.

Your insurance certificate states that you are entitled to drive the vehicle "provided that the person driving holds a licence to drive the vehicle or has held and is not disqualified from holding or obtaining such a licence".

As was explained above. you did hold a licence to drive this vehicle towing such a trailer from April 1991 to January 1993 so you come within the certificate terms of a person "entitled to drive". You should therefore plead not guilty to the insurance charge.

C To have your licence uprated to 12 tonnes you would need to pass a test on a Cl +E vehicle meeting the new test-vehicle criteria.

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