Forbidden to carry
Page 69
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by Les Oldridge, T. Eng (CH), M.1.M.1, A.M.1.R.T.E
LAST WEEK I set out the purposes for which a motor vehicle may be used with a trade licence and it must be emphasised that if a vehicle is used with "trade plates" for any other purpose than those listed, an offence is committed.
This is so even though the use is strictly a business one; taking a van to collect a spare part from the stores of a vehicle distributor; towing a trailer carrying a car for use in a rally or some other sporting event; taking rubbish to the tip or a fitter to a customer's yard to work on a lorry are all instances of the type of trade plate misuse which could lead to a prosecution.
Generally speaking the carriage of goods or burden of any kind is forbidden when a trade licence is used When a vehicle is being tested after a repair, or when on test or trial for the benefit of a person interested in promoting publicity or when being demonstrated to a prospective customer a load may be carried provided the load is returned to the place of loading, without having been removed from the vehicle, when the test is completed. It need not be so returned in the case of an accident.
Where a load is permanently attached to a vehicle, for example a compressor or concrete mixer built on and permanently attached to the frame of a lorry, then the vehicle can be driven on "trade plateseven though it is carrying a load. The use to which the vehicle is being put must, of course, be one of the permitted ones.
A load consisting of parts accessories or equipment designed to be fitted to a vehicle and the tools to fit them may be carried on a vehicle when it is travelling between a motor trader's premises, when it is going to or coming from a workshop to be painted or have a body fitted or when travelling to an airport, seaport or railway station for transport. A load consisting of a trailer can be carried in very similar circumstances.
Persons who may be carried on a vehicle operating under a trade licence are limited to the following : may be the holder of the licence, an employee of the licence holder or a person driving with the permission of the licence holder. In the latter case, except where the vehicle is constructed to carry only one person, the driver must be accompanied by the holder of the licence or his employee.
b. A statutory attendant.
c. A person being carried for the purpose of carrying out a statutory inspection of the vehicle or its trailer.
d. Any person in a disabled vehicle being towed.
e. The holder of the licence or an employee of his if their presence is necessary for the purpose for which the vehicle is being used.
f. An employee of the licence holder travelling to a place for the purpose of driving vehicles on behalf of the holder of the licence in the course of his business as a motor trader.
g. A prospective purchaser or his servant or his agent.
h. A person interested in promoting publicity respecting the vehicle.
From time to time the question is raised as to what is the legal position when a vehicle is used under a trade licence for a permitted business purpose but during the journey some other use is made of the vehicle by the driver. Supposing, for example, that an employee of the holder of the licence is collecting a new truck from the manufacturers at Birmingham and bringing it to his employer's premises at Plymouth.
On this day, let us say, there is an attractive football match at Bristol, and the driver deviates from his route off the motorway to attend the match. I think there is little doubt that that part of the journey from the motorway to the football ground and from the ground back to the motorway is a misuse of the "plates" and the driver certainly and perhaps the holder of the licence are guilty of offences.