SHUNTER PROBLEMS
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• We are hauliers and, as repairers of goods vehicles, we also hold a trade licence. Like many other operators we have an old tractive unit which is not taxed or tested but is used for shunting and taking trailers to and from annual test.
The police stopped this tractor when it was taking a semi-trailer for test on trade plates. They said trade plates were not authorised for that journey and the tractor should have been taxed at the goods rate and tested. They said the tractor also needed an Operator's Licence, although the trailer was unladen, and we might be prosecuted. Has the law changed? • There has been no change to the law governing the purposes for which a trade licence can be used, but there has been a High Court decision on a tractor/trailer outfit going for test on trade plates.
Regulation 35 of the Road Vehicles (Registration and Licensing) Regulations 1971 sets out the purposes for which a vehicle used under a trade licence is authorised to be used. And Regulation 35(2) states that where a vehicle draws a trailer, the vehicle and trailer are deemed to constitute a single vehicle.
Regulation 35(4)(k) authorises the use of a vehicle "for proceeding to or returning from a place where it is to be or has been tested".
Because the trailer was going to be tested and, for this purpose, the vehicle and trailer are deemed to be one vehicle, the use of trade plates was authorised.
Consequently, a licence was in force for the vehicle and no offence arises under the Vehicle Excise and Registration Act 1994.
The matter of a test certificate and 0-licence for the tractor appear to be based on a High Court decision which arose a couple of years ago.
Regulation 44(1)(c) of the Goods Vehicles (Plating and Testing) Regulations 1988 allows exemption from the test certificate requirement for an unladen vehicle being used under a trade licence. And the requirement for a vehicle to be authorised on an 0-licence applies only where a vehicle is used to carry goods.
It has been the general view for many years that an unladen artic is simply two unladen vehicles; that is, a tractive unit and a semi-trailer.
Until the High Court case of Booth vs DPP (1993) AIR 379, it had never been envisaged that an unladen semi-trailer would be regarded as goods carried by the tractive unit.
In that case, Booth carried on a business of repairing and testing trailers. His tractive unit was stopped while taking an unladen trailer for test. Though the tractor was being used under trade plates, Booth was prosecuted for having no goods-rate excise licence and no 0-licence.
He was convicted in the magistrates court and appealed to the High Court.
The prosecution argued that the trailer was goods or burden carried by the tractive unit and, as such, the tractive unit should have been taxed at the goods rate and authorised on an 0-licence. The defence argued simply that no goods were being transported.
The judge ruled that the trailer was goods or burden being carried by the tractive unit and dismissed the appeal.
On the basis of that decision, your tractive unit should have been tested because it was not unladen. The regulation which deems the artic to be one vehicle relates only to trade-plate law; not to plating and testing.
But we consider that the use of trade plates is authorised on such journeys and no vehicle excise duty offence arises. Also, paragraph 9 of Schedule 3 of the Goods Vehicles (Licensing of Operators) Regulations 1995 exempts from 0-licensing a vehicle being used under a trade licence.
The report of the Booth case does not say why the trade plates on the tractor did not authorise the use of that vehicle for excise duty purposes, and no mention is made of the 0-licensing exemption.