Test date discs for trailers
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• The Minister of Transport has circulated for comment proposals for regulations which will require goods vehicle operators to display a disc showing the date of expiry of their test certificates on trailers and semi-trailers. He also proposes to amend the Plating and Testing Regulations so that operators can get trailers and semi-trailers used in permanent combination with a tractive unit tested on the same day as the tractor.
The proposal to make the display of test date discs compulsory will make for easier enforcement of the regulations for the plating and testing of trailers. Since these vehicles do not have to be licensed, there can be no enforcement link by means of excise licensing as is the case with motor vehicles. Test date discs will be issued from January 1 next with any test certificate for a trailer which is due to expire after December 31 1970, and will have to be displayed until they expire or until a new disc is issued whichever is the earlier. It will be an offence to display an expired disc. The issue of decals, which have no statutory backing, will cease.
It is likely that the •colour of the discs will vary from year to year and match the colour of the excise licence for the particular year concerned. The discs will be printed on the bottom of the test certificate. They will be issued as part of the certificate by testing stations and will be laminated with a transparent plastic cover for protection. Operators will then have to cut them out and fix them on the nearside of their trailers so that they can be seen when the vehicles are on the road. In designing the discs, account has been taken of the fact that many operators have already provided themselves with holders to take the existing decals, but the discs may be fixed direct on the trailer if the operators so wish.
If a test date disc is lost it will be possible to get a replacement from the Goods Vehicle Centre at Swansea on payment of a fee of 10s.
Operators who have tractive units and trailers or semi-trailers which are used in permanent combination may apply for an "expedited testfor the trailer to coincide with the test of the drawing vehicle with which it is used. If it passes the test and a test certificate is issued two months or more before the date by which the trailer would normally be due for its next periodical test, the certificate will be valid for 12 months from the last day of the month of issue, and the trailer will be due for re-testing by the end of the same month as that in which the early test was carried out, in the next year.
Interested organizations have been asked to send any comments they may have on the draft regulations to Room 9/44, Ministry of Transport, St. Christopher House, Southwark Street, SE1, not later than October 31 1969.