Chassis-cab drivers are running illegally
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• Drivers of lorry chassiscabs — whether truck or bus — who have passed an ordinary driving test since last May, are breaking the law every time they drive one on a road because there is no driving licence for such vehicles, Commercial Motor has learned.
Until UK licence groups were replaced by EC-derived licence categories on 1 June last year, a chassis-cab with no goods-carrying capability could be driven by holders of Group A licences, because they covered any class of vehicle not included in any other group.
But there is no such catch-all in the EC categories. The nearest categories are B and C, but a truck chassis-cab cannot be in class B because it is designed for more than 3.5 tonnes GVW, and it cannot be in class C because it is not a goods vehicle.
The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency accepted that an HGV or LGV licence was not required for a chassis-cab, but believed that a category B licence was appropriate. But when CM pointed out that a truck chassis-cab was too heavy to qualify for that category, a DVLA spokesman said that further legal advice would have to be sought.