Q In a recent Q & A you quoted the relevant
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regulation to indicate how it was possible, despite what a local authority taxation department official had said, for a motor trader to have more than one set of trade plates. I am having dculty in obtaining a set of trade plates for a service van which I use in connection with my business as a motor trader. Can you explain why I should not use trade plates on this vehicle?
AIn order to qualify for the grant of trade plates it is necessary for the local taxation department to be assured firstly that you are a bona fide motor trader. The definition given in the Vehicles Excise Act 1971, Section 16 (8), for a motor trader is "a manufacturer or repairer of, or dealer in, mechanically propelled vehicles; and a person shall be treated for the purposes of this section as a dealer in such vehicles if he carries on a business consisting'wholly or mainly of collecting and delivering mechanically propelled vehicles, and not including any other activities except activities as a manufacturer or repairer of, or dealer in, such vehicles".
Secondly, the local taxation department will be prepared to allow you trade plates only if they are satisfied as to the use to which you intend to put them — namely that they will be used only on a vehicle which is temporarily in your possession in the course of your business as a motor trader.
The important point to note here is the emphasis on "temporarily in your possession" which obviously means that a vehicle permanently owned by you and registered in your name — such as your service van — would not qualify for use on trade plates.
In any case the only purposes for which a vehicle may be used on trade plates are specified in regulations as follows:—
a) for its test or trial or the test or trial of its accessories or equipment in the ordinary course of construction or repair or after completion in either such case; b) for proceeding to or from a public weighbridge for ascertaining its unladen weight or to or from any place for its registration or inspection by a person acting on behalf of the Secretary of State; c) for its test or trial for the benefit of a prospective purchaser, for proceeding at the instance of a prospective purchaser to any place for the purpose of such test or trial, or for returning after such a trial, or for returning after such test or trial; d) for its test or trial for the benefit of a person interested in promoting publicity in regard to it, for proceeding at the instance of such a person to any place for the purpose of such test or trial, or for returning after such test or trial; e) for delivering it to the place where the purchaser intends to keep it; 0 for demonstrating its operation or the operation of its accessories or equipment when being handed over to the purchaser; g) for delivering it from one part of his premises to another part of his premises, or for delivering it from his premises to the premises of, or between parts of premises of, another manufacturer or repairer of or dealer in mechanically propelled vehicles or removing it from the premises of another manufacturer or repairer of or dealer in mechanically propelled vehicles direct to his own premises; h) for proceeding to or returning from a workshop in which a body or a special type of equipment or accessory is to be or has been fitted to it or in which it is to be or has been painted or repaired; i) for proceeding from the premises of a manufacturer or repairer of or dealer in mechanically propelled vehicles to a place from which it is to be transported by train, ship of aircraft or for proceeding to the premises of such a manufacturer, repairer or dealer from a place to which it has been so transported; j) for proceeding to or returning from any garage, auction room or other place at which vehicles are usually stored or usually or periodically offered for sale and at which the vehicle is to be or has been stored or is to be or has been offered for sale as the case may be; k) for proceeding to or returning from a place where it is to be or has been tested, or for proceeding to a place where it is to be broken up or otherwise dismantled.