Goods Vehicles (Licensing of Operators) Act 1995

Functions of traffic commissioners

Functions of traffic commissioners.

1

• (1) A traffic commissioner shall exercise the functions conferred on him by this Act.

• (2) In the exercise of his functions under this Act a traffic commissioner shall act under the general directions of, and shall have regard to any guidance given by, the senior traffic commissioner.

Operators’ licences

Obligation to hold operator’s licence.

2

• (1) Subject to subsection (2) and sections 3A and 4, no person shall use a goods vehicle on a road for the carriage of goods—

• (a) for hire or reward, or

• (b) for or in connection with any trade or business carried on by him,

except under a licence issued under this Act; and in this Act such a licence is referred to as an “operator’s licence”.

• (1A) Subsection (1) applies in spite of Article 1.4(c) of the 2009 Regulation (exemption for slow vehicles unless otherwise provided in national law).

• (1B) Subsection (1)(a) does not apply to the use of a small goods vehicle falling within paragraph 1A or 1B of Schedule 1.

• (1C) Subsection (1)(b) does not apply to the use of a small goods vehicle falling within any of paragraphs 2, 3 or 4 of Schedule 1.

• (2) Subsection (1) does not apply to—

• (a) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

• (b) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

• (c) the use of a goods vehicle for international carriage by a haulier established in Northern Ireland and not established in Great Britain; or

• (d) the use of a vehicle of any class specified in regulations.

• (2A) A class of vehicles that may be specified in regulations under subsection (2)(d) includes goods vehicles used for international carriage by a haulier established in a member State.

• (3) In subsection (2)(c) and (2A), “established”, “haulier” and “international carriage” have the same meaning as in Regulation (EC) No 1072/2009 on common rules for access to the international road haulage market.

• (4) It is hereby declared that, for the purposes of this Act, the performance by a local or public authority of their functions constitutes the carrying on of a business.

• (5) A person who uses a vehicle in contravention of this section is guilty of an offence and liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding level 5 on the standard scale.

Detention of vehicle used without operator’s licence.

2A

Schedule 1A (which relates to the detention, removal and disposal of goods vehicles in respect of which it appears that section 2 is contravened) shall have effect.

Power to stop

2B

• (1) Subsection (2) applies if it appears to a stopping officer that a vehicle is being used in circumstances such that an operator’s licence could be required.

• (2) The officer may direct the driver to stop the vehicle for the purpose of enabling checks to be carried out to establish whether the use of the vehicle is in contravention of section 2(1).

• (3) In this section “stopping officer” means an officer appointed under section 66B of the Road Traffic Act 1988.

“Standard” and “restricted” licences.

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• (1) An operator’s licence may be either a standard licence or a restricted licence.

• (2) A standard licence is an operator’s licence under which a goods vehicle may be used on a road for the carriage of goods—

• (a) for hire or reward, or

• (b) for or in connection with any trade or business carried on by the holder of the licence.

• (3) A restricted licence is an operator’s licence under which a goods vehicle may be used on a road for the carriage of goods for or in connection with any trade or business carried on by the holder of the licence, other than that of carrying goods for hire or reward.

• (4) Notwithstanding subsections (2) and (3), a company may use a goods vehicle on a road for the carriage of goods for hire or reward under a restricted licence instead of a standard licence if (but only if) the goods concerned are the property of a company which is—

• (a) a subsidiary of the first company,

• (b) a holding company for the first company, or

• (c) a subsidiary of a company which is a holding company both for that subsidiary and for the first company.

• (5) A standard licence may authorise a goods vehicle to be used for the carriage of goods—

• (a) on both national and international transport operations; or

• (b) on national transport operations only.

• (6) Except as provided in subsection (4) and subject to sections 3A and 4, a person who uses a goods vehicle under a restricted licence for carrying goods for hire or reward is guilty of an offence and liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding £500.

• (7) A person who uses a goods vehicle for carrying goods for hire or reward on international transport operations under a standard licence which covers the carriage of goods on national transport operations only is guilty of an offence and liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding £500.

Temporary exemptions for international operators

3A

• (1) The Secretary of State may grant an international operator a temporary exemption from any requirement to hold a standard licence which would otherwise be imposed by sections 2 and 3, for the purpose of—

• (a) enabling an emergency to be dealt with, or

• (b) enabling some other special need to be met.

• (2) A temporary exemption under subsection (1) may be granted—

• (a) by giving a notice in writing to the operator to whom it relates, or

• (b) by publishing a notice specifying the class of operators to whom it relates.

• (3) A notice under subsection (2) must specify—

• (a) the vehicle or class of vehicles to which it relates;

• (b) the transport operations to which it relates, or that it relates to all transport operations.

• (4) A temporary exemption under subsection (1) permits the person to whom it relates to use the specified vehicle or (as the case may be) any vehicle of the specified class for the carriage of goods for the purposes of the transport operations to which it relates.

• (5) Accordingly, sections 2(1) and 3(6) do not to that extent apply to that person’s use of goods vehicles.

• (6) In this section “international operator” means a person who has an effective and stable establishment in a country or territory other than the United Kingdom that is comparable to an effective and stable establishment in Great Britain (as determined in accordance with paragraph A1 of Schedule 3).

• (7) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Other Temporary exemptions.

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• (1) A traffic commissioner may, for the purpose of—

• (a) enabling an emergency to be dealt with, or

• (b) enabling some other special need to be met,

by notice in writing grant to any person falling within subsection (2) a temporary exemption from any requirement to hold a standard licence which would otherwise be imposed on him by sections 2 and 3 in respect of any vehicle specified in the notice or any vehicle of a class so specified.

• (1A) Where the traffic commissioner considers it appropriate (for example because an exemption is to be granted to all persons falling within subsection (2)), an exemption under subsection (1) may be granted by publishing a notice in writing instead of by giving notice in writing to the persons to whom the exemption is granted.

• (2) A person falls within this subsection if he is engaged exclusively in national transport operations which have only a minor impact on the transport market because of the nature of the goods carried or the short distances over which goods are carried.

• (3) A temporary exemption granted under subsection (1) permits the person to whom it is granted to use the specified vehicle or (as the case may be) any vehicle of the specified class for the carriage of goods for hire or reward for the purposes of transport operations of his such as are referred to in subsection (2) (and, accordingly, sections 2(1) and 3(6) shall not to that extent apply to that person’s use of goods vehicles).

• (4) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Vehicles authorised to be used under a licence

Vehicles authorised to be used under operator’s licence.

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• (1) Subject to the following provisions of this section, the vehicles authorised to be used under an operator’s licence are—

• (a) any motor vehicle in the lawful possession of the licence-holder (whether that motor vehicle is specified in the licence or not); and

• (b) any trailer in the lawful possession of the licence-holder.

• (2) An operator’s licence may provide—

• (a) that no motor vehicle, or no trailer, whose relevant weight exceeds a weight specified in the licence is authorised to be used under it;

• (b) that no trailers are authorised to be used under the licence; or

• (c) that no motor vehicle that is not specified in the licence is authorised to be used under it.

• (3) In subsection (2) “relevant weight”, in relation to a motor vehicle or trailer of any prescribed class, means a weight of the description specified in relation to motor vehicles or trailers of that class by regulations.

• (4) An operator’s licence shall not authorise the use of any heavy goods vehicle unless the place which is for the time being its operating centre—

• (a) is in a traffic area in respect of which the licence was issued; or

• (b) is outside that area but has not been the operating centre of that vehicle for a period of more than three months.

• (5) For the purposes of subsection (4)(b), two or more successive periods which are not separated from each other by an interval of at least three months shall be treated as a single period having a duration equal to the total duration of those periods.

• (6) A motor vehicle which is not specified in an operator’s licence is not authorised to be used under that licence by virtue of subsection (1) after the period of one month beginning with—

• (a) the day on which the vehicle was first in the lawful possession of the licence-holder, or

• (b) has paid the prescribed fee (if any) to a traffic commissioner.

unless, during that period, the licence-holder has given to a traffic commissioner a notice in such form and containing such information about the vehicle as is required by a traffic commissioner , and has paid the prescribed fee (if any) to a traffic commissioner .

• (7) Where notice of a vehicle has been duly given and the prescribed fee (if any) has been duly paid under subsection (6), a traffic commissioner shall vary the licence by directing that the vehicle be specified in it.

• (8) A motor vehicle specified in an operator’s licence shall not, while it remains so specified, be capable of being effectively specified in any other operator’s licence.

• (9) Where it comes to the knowledge of a traffic commissioner that a vehicle specified in an operator’s licence (“the first licence”) —

• (a) has ceased to be used under the licence (otherwise than because of a fluctuation in business or because it is undergoing repair or maintenance), or

• (b) is specified in another operator’s licence,

he may vary the first licence by directing that the vehicle be removed from it.

Maximum numbers of vehicles.

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• (1) An operator’s licence—

• (a) shall specify a maximum number for motor vehicles, and

• (b) may specify a maximum number for motor vehicles whose relevant weight exceeds a weight specified in the licence.

• (2) An operator’s licence that does not contain a provision such as is mentioned in section 5(2)(b)—

• (a) shall specify a maximum number for trailers, and

• (b) may specify a maximum number for trailers whose relevant weight exceeds a weight specified in the licence.

• (3) The number of motor vehicles which at any one time are being used under an operator’s licence while not specified in that licence may not exceed the maximum number specified in the licence under subsection (1)(a) less however many motor vehicles are specified in the licence.

• (4) Where, under subsection (1)(b), an operator’s licence specifies a maximum number for motor vehicles whose relevant weight exceeds a specified weight—

• (a) the number of such motor vehicles which at any one time are being used under the licence while not specified in it may not exceed that maximum number less however many motor vehicles whose relevant weight exceeds the specified weight are specified in the licence, and

• (b) the number of such motor vehicles that are specified in the licence and are being used under it at any one time may not exceed that maximum number.

• (5) The number of trailers being used under an operator’s licence at any one time may not exceed the maximum number specified in the licence under subsection (2)(a).

• (6) Where, under subsection (2)(b), an operator’s licence specifies a maximum number for trailers whose relevant weight exceeds a specified weight, the number of such trailers being used under the licence at any one time may not exceed that maximum number.

• (7) The definition of “relevant weight” in section 5(3) applies for the purposes of this section as it applies for the purposes of section 5(2).

• (8) If subsection (3), (4)(a) or (b), (5) or (6) is contravened, the licence-holder is guilty of an offence and liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding level 4 on the standard scale.

Operating centres

Operating centres to be specified in heavy goods vehicle licences.

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• (1) A person may not use a place in a traffic area as an operating centre for heavy goods vehicles authorised to be used under a heavy goods vehicle licence issued to him in respect of that traffic area unless that place is specified as an operating centre of his in that licence.

• (2) Any person who contravenes subsection (1) is guilty of an offence and liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding level 4 on the standard scale.

• (3) In this Act “operating centre”, in relation to any heavy goods vehicle, means the base or centre at which the vehicle is normally kept, and references to an operating centre of the holder of a heavy goods vehicle licence are references to any place which is an operating centre for heavy goods vehicles used under that licence.

Applications for licences

Applications for operators’ licences.

8

• (1) A person who requires an operator’s licence must apply to a traffic commissioner.

• (1A) A separate application must be made in relation to each traffic area in which there is—

• (a) if the application is for a heavy goods vehicle licence, a place to be specified in the licence as an operating centre for the purposes of sections 7(1) and 13C(5); or

• (b) if the application is for a light goods vehicle licence, located premises of the kind described in paragraph A1(2)(a) of Schedule 3.

• (2) Accordingly, a person may hold separate operators’ licences in respect of different areas; but he shall not at any time hold more than one such licence in respect of the same area.

• (3) A person applying for an operator’s licence shall give to the traffic commissioner a statement—

• (a) containing such particulars as the commissioner may require of the motor vehicles proposed to be used under the licence and stating the number and type of any trailers proposed to be used under the licence; and

• (b) in the case of an application for a heavy goods vehicle licence, containing such particulars as the commissioner may require of each place in the traffic area concerned which will be an operating centre of the applicant if the licence is issued.

• (4) A person applying for an operator’s licence shall also give to the traffic commissioner any further information which the commissioner may reasonably require for the discharge of his duties in relation to the application, and in particular shall, if required by the commissioner to do so, give to him any of the information specified in paragraph 1 of Schedule 2.

• (5) Without prejudice to subsection (4), a person applying for an operator’s licence shall also, if required by the traffic commissioner to do so, give to him such particulars as he may require with respect to the use which the applicant proposes to make, for vehicles used under the licence, of any place referred to in the statement under subsection (3)(b).

• (6) Any statement, information or particulars to be given to the traffic commissioner under this section shall be given in such form as the commissioner may require.

• (7) In subsections (3) to (6), “the traffic commissioner” means the traffic commissioner dealing with the application in question.

Convictions etc. subsequent to the making of an application.

9

• (1) A person who has made an application for an operator’s licence shall forthwith notify the traffic commissioner dealing with the application if, in the interval between the making of the application and the date on which it is disposed of, there occurs a notifiable conviction within the meaning given in paragraph 4 of Schedule 2 or there is issued a notifiable fixed penalty notice within the meaning given in paragraph 7 of that Schedule.

• (2) A person who—

• (a) has made an application for a standard licence, and

• (b) has included in that application particulars of a transport manager,

shall forthwith notify the traffic commissioner dealing with the application if, in the interval between the making of the application and the date on which it is disposed of, there occurs any event affecting any information about the transport manager given to the commissioner under section 8.

• (3) A person is guilty of an offence if he—

• (a) knowingly fails to comply with subsection (1), or