Driving empty PCVs
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I have a full class one HGV licence and for the past 12 years I have delivered new and unregistered buses and coaches on trade plates.
I have had conflicting advice about the category D licence. The local Department of Transport office says I do not need a category D licence.
What is the legal position?
A At present you can drive the
unregistered buses and coaches by virtue of your HGV licence or, if you still have one, a group A ordinary driving licence. But it would be advisable to apply for a category D licence on grandfather rights. Category D vehicles are those with more than 16 seats.
The Motor Vehicles (Large Goods and Passenger-Carrying Vehicles) Regulations 1990 provide that a person who holds a full HGV licence or a category C licence can drive a passenger vehicle with more than 16 seats as long as it is not being used for hire or reward or to carry more than eight passengers.
Regulation 33(1) of the Motor Vehicles (Driving Licences) Regulations 1987 states that a driving licence issued before 1 June 1990 for group A now entitles the holder to drive vehicles in category B in addition to the vehicles he could drive with the group A licence. But, from October 1992, it will not authorise the driving of a passenger vehicle with more than 16 seats.
The latter provision does not apply where a group A licence has been changed for a category B licence since 1 June 1990.
To "insure" yourself against any future change in the HGV concession it would be in your interests to obtain a category D licence under the right given in Regulatioin 28(1) of the above 1990 Regulations It enables a person who held a full licence to drive vehicles in category B and D1 on 31 May 1990 (covered by a group A Licence) to obtain a category D licence (restricted to non-hire or reward work) if he can show that during the three years immediately before his application he had been regularly driving category D vehicles. The application must be made before I October 1992.