BUYING A LICENCE-YOU MUSTN'T
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ADVICE given in the consulting column of a weekly transport newspaper recently on the value of an A licence has caused concern among several licensing advocate colleagues of mine.
I repeat what has been said in " Licensing Casebook" on several occasions: carriers' licences are not negotiable assets. They are not transferable in any shape or form as such.
It may well be argued that, when a business is sold, the licence must be taken into consideration in assessing the value of that business. The usual practice seems to be to take it for granted that the purchaser will get authority to run the vehicles he has purchased. As many hauliers know, to their expense, this is not always the case, particularly when the " business " being sold is a one
vehicle business. A would-be purchaser of this kind of business would be well advised to ignore the existence of any licence (because it ceases to exist when the business is sold); to apply to the Licensing Authority under section 173(1)(c) of the 1960 Act—the business take-over section; and to ensure that the agreement for sale includes a "get out" clause that the deal is off if the application is refused.
I stress again that this applies only to the sale and purchase of a business, not an individual vehicle in a fleet. Any grant under Section 173 would only allow the successful applicant to operate the vehicle(s) for the customers of the previous owner. In other words, the nature of the work carried out by that vehicle would remain unchanged.
Licences are not for sale.