Goods and trade plates
Page 40
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My company is in haulage and plant hire. I bought a Bedford TK box van at an auction and drove it away on trade plates. On the way back I picked up a compressor I had bought elsewhere and was stopped by the police.
I have now received summonses for carrying the compressor when on trade plates, using the van without an 0-licence and not having a tachograph fitted. The TK was a Crown vehicle which had been exempt from tachograph rules.
How should I plead?
The use of trade plates on a vehicle returning from an auction where it has been offered for sale is authorised by Regulation 35(4)(j) of the Road Vehicles (Registration and Licensing) Regs 1971.
Because the compressor was being carried in connection with your business the van should have been authorised on an 0-licence. But paragraph 11, Schedule 5 of the Goods Vehicles (Operators' Licences, Qualifications and Fees) Regulations 1984 provides that an 0-licence is not required by a vehicle which is being used under a trade licence.
The vehicle was used under a trade licence for an authorised purpose and that was not invalidated by the fact that prohibited goods were carried. Regulation 35(4), which lists all the authorised purposes, is not subject to Regulation 38 being complied with, but stands on its own. The failure to comply with Regulation 38 is an offence in itself.
As a goods vehicle over 3.5 tonnes the Bedford TK is subject to the EC tachograph law. No exemption is provided for the journey from the auction, so it required a tachograph. The van's exemption as a Crown vehicle ceased when the Crown disposed of it.
I suggest that you admit the tachograph and trade licence offences but plead not guilty to the 0-licence charge on the basis that the use of the vehicle came within the exemption described.