DVLA licence categories and Commercial towing.

[PeterM]

Originally Posted by Tim M

I'm still confused.

If I'm towing one of my charter RIBs to the slipway, is that "commercial carriage of goods"? (If yes, it would seem I need a tacho.)

I'd say no - you are not any kind of Taxi , courier or Haulage contractor - thats the simplest & most accurate way I have ever had to explain it between usage of vehicles.

They (the boats) are your own merchandise. You have to be able to get them to where you need them in order to then use them for commercial reward. No-one is paying you to tow the boats around - hence not commercial carriage of goods.

Yes you are towing in connection with your business.........

[Tim M]

If I do need one, there must be thousands of other small businesses out there also breaking the law. Think of all those builders, gardeners, mechanics etc towing cars, lawn mowers, rubble etc around.

Might ring VOSA tomorrow and see if I can get any sence out of them.

[Trailer Bloke]

Tim

Taking into account my past and present carreer path I have been told the following:

If you are towing your own craft there is not a problem

However if you are delivering a boat for someone for reward ie they are paying, you will need a tacho

[Dry_Doc]

Originally Posted by Tim M

I'm still confused.

If I'm towing one of my charter RIBs to the slipway, is that "commercial carriage of goods"? (If yes, it would seem I need a tacho.)

Yes it is commercial as you're doing it as part of your job.

There is a derogation that allows you to carry tools, materials and machinary for use in the course of your work within a 50km radius of your 'base' without needing a tacho.

[UKPOWERBOAT]

Ok

I just spoke with a very helpful chap from VOSA and asked the question if I am towing in our case a large flat bed trailer with floats for either sale, hire or on loan for demo would we require a tacho.

We have two tow vehicles a Mitsubuishi L200 and a Dicso 3, so the gross vehicle and trailer (when empty) combination would exceed 3500kg. Obviously when the trailer is loaded we are pushing 5000kg.

His comments were if we are using the trailer for business then we would need a tacho fitted to our vehicles.

I then asked ok so if say I had driven for 9hrs (in two 4.5hrs sections) then decided to drive home having delivered the goods towing home an empty trailer, would the drive home be classed as personal use or business use as technically as self employed I personally decide to drive home then in "personal time" what would the outcome be if stopped? His comment was "well thats a grey area"

He also said that Disco 3 are very hard to find a tacho for if they have one as they have had a lot of issues where tacho's have not worked properly in those vehicles and they have had to keep a "Manual Record"

Anyway hope that helps

[m chappelow]

Originally Posted by Nauti Buoy

Ok


I then asked ok so if say I had driven for 9hrs (in two 4.5hrs sections) then decided to drive home having delivered the goods towing home an empty trailer, would the drive home be classed as personal use or business use as technically as self employed I personally decide to drive home then in "personal time" what would the outcome be if stopped? His comment was "well thats a grey area"



:

Dont know if it still applies you were allowed to drive up to 10 hours a day twice a week from the normal 9 hours per day ,,,,as long as you made up for it the following weekly rest period .
and in some cases depending on weight with some small vans /pick ups ect though you may not have use a taco for the driving hour regs it may still need to be fitted with one .

[ROG.]

Has anyone got the new O licence rules that were introduced late 2011?

Form what I gather, The 1020 unladen trailer rules no longer applies to those with full O licences but does still apply to those with restricted O licences ......

In regard to another post on this thread ...
Commercially driving to point B requires the corresponding drive back to point A - it cannot be commercial one way and private the other - the EU regs are clear on this point