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Q Returning on trade plates with a used chassis-cab taken
Page 131
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in part exchange from a customer, our driver was stopped by the police because the chassis had no rear mudguards. They later said it is quite legal to deliver new chassis without rear mudguards, but a used vehicle, even when being returned to a bona fide motor dealer, must have rear mudguards. But our opinion is that if the vehicle had been taxed and not on trade plates we should be breaking the law. Who is right?
ARegulations 56 and 61 of the Motor Vehicle (Construction and Use) Regulations 1973 deal with this subject; the former deals with heavy motor cars and the latter with motor cars. The law is the same for both types of vehicles and the lorry you were using would fall within one of these classes.
The Regulations require that these vehicles be fitted with wings or other similar fittings to catch, as far as practicable, mud or water thrown up by the rotation of the wheels, unless adequate protection is afforded by the body of the vehicle.
Among the exemptions to this requirement is one for "a vehicle in an unfinished condition proceeding to a works for comple, tion", This is probably what the police were referring to and the exemption covers particularly a chassis being driven to a bodybuilder for a body to be fitted. There is no special exemption for vehicles being driven with trade plates.
It would seem therefore that you were committing an offence on the day in question. We can only suggest that you put forward, in mitigation, the special circumstances under which the vehicle was being driven at the time of the offence.