No need rent you to flag out—just r trucks abroad!
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• by Ian Wylie Flagging-out part of your fleet to the Continent to save money on tax and duties might be unnecessary, says a transport consultant who clams hauliers can cut costs by simply adding foreign-registered trucks to their British Operator's Licences.
Colin Ward, of Ward International, says hauliers can make huge savings on VED and insurance by renting trucks on the Continent and adding them to their 0-licences. "We Stumbled across the possibility after we had been approached by a couple of operators who wanted to cut their costs," he explains. "No-one had tried it before, but adding foreign vehicles to a UK licence seemed obvious so we said, let's give it a go."
One of Ward's clients, a
Portsmouth
based haulier, has just added two Spanish registered trucks to his UK licence and
reckons that the move is saving him £5,000 per truck per year. "The savings are huge and will be even larger if British VED rates go up in next month's Budget," he says. His company regularly runs trucks to Spain and has a Spanish operating base. It decided to seek Ward's advice when it encountered difficulties obtaining a Spanish Operator's Licence.
"0-licences in Spain are strictly rationed, so we decided instead to hire Spanish vehicles for our Portsmouth operation and place them on our UK licence," says the haulier. The licensing authorities have approved it and it seems there is nothing to stop other UK hauliers from renting trucks from Continental leasing companies and doing the same." There is a temporary import rule which requires foreignregistered vehicles to return to their country of origin every three months, but this is unlikely to be a problem for most hauliers.
The Portsmouth haulier says: "Europe is supposed to be a free market, yet it's tilted against us. All we are doing is trying to take advantage of that free market."
• The Department of Transport confirms that adding a foreign-registered vehide to a UK operator's licence is legal. "Provided the operator is running trucks between Britain and another EU country, this is perfectly acceptable," says a spokeswoman. "However, it would not be acceptable for a haulier whose business was solely in the UK."