Towing Disabled Vehicles : An Obscure Position,
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THE present position with regard to the towing of disabled vehicles is very obscure, and certain police prosecutions whin have recently taken place emphasize the need for an early clarification of the law, so that no doubt shall exist in the minds of commercial-vehicle owners as to their position.
In some instances the police have taken proceedings under Part II of the Road Traffic Act, which relates to insurance against third-party risks, and have endeavoured to prove that the insurance policy in force did not cover the vehicle when used for drawing a trailer. They regard a towed vehicle as a trailer, and as such argue that an additional duty of £6 per annum must be paid on the towing vehicle for the right to draw a trailer.
It is clear that the authorities regard a towed vehicle as falling within a different category from a trailer, for in the Construction and Use Regulations special provisions are made which are applicable to the former and not to the latter, although no definition of a towed vehicle is given.
It is not conceivable that a vehicle licensed and insured as an independent unit should be called upon to carry a further taxation burden because it may, on rare occasions, be used for towing a disabled machine. Furthermore, if a towed vehicle be regarded as a trailer, problems in respect of the combined length, in addition to the insurance difficulty, automatically arise further to complicate the situation.
In our opinion, the term " trailer " should be confined in its application to that type of vehicle which is ordinarily regarded as a unit built for attachment to a power-propelled vehicle for the purpose of enabling its pay-load capacity to be increased.
The importance of the question has been recognized by the Commercial Motor Users Association, which has taken up the matter direct with the Ministry of Transport.