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As solicitors working only in the specialist area of Transport Law our focus and expertise are driven towards getting the best result for you by understanding how your business really operates. 

Operating Light Goods Vehicles in the EU | C E Transport Law

From NEXT WEEK (the 21st of May 2022), you will need a standard international goods vehicle operator license to transport goods for hire or reward in the EU, Iceland, Lichtenstein, Norway, and Switzerland.

It is less than a week until the new rules come into effect. If you want to continue operating in the EU without interruption from the 21st of May 2022, you will need to apply for an interim licence on the government website using the following link: Apply for a vehicle operator licence - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

The Department for Transport (Dft), published an article, (https://www.gov.uk/guidance/transport-goods-in-and-out-of-the-uk-using-vans-or-car-and-trailers-from-21-may-2022), on their website on the 26th of August 2021, which outlines that the new rules will only apply to you if you are based in England, Scotland or Wales and use vehicles between 2.5 and 3.5 tons maximum gross vehicle which are:

·       vans or other light goods vehicles (sometimes called ‘light commercial vehicles’)

You will not need a goods vehicle operator licence if you only use your vehicles in the UK or you are transporting goods not for ‘hire or reward’.

What do you need to do to apply for an Operator’s Licence?

The DfT outlined in the article that you will need to do one of the following:

·       apply for a standard international goods vehicle operator licence for the first time

·       add the vehicles to your standard international goods vehicle operator licence (if you already have one)

·       apply to upgrade your standard national goods vehicle operator licence (if you have one) to a standard international goods vehicle operator licence

·       apply to upgrade your restricted goods vehicle operator licence (if you have one) to a standard international goods vehicle operator licence

The DfT emphasises in the article, you can be fined by the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) if you operate without the right licence. You can also be prosecuted in the European countries you drive through.

There is no fee to add the vehicles to your licence if you have not reached your vehicle limit.

However, you will need to pay £257 if you need to increase the vehicle limit on your operator’s licence. If the licence is granted, you must pay £401 for the licence itself.

You need to be able to prove that you have access to a set amount of finance to run your business (‘financial standing’). The amount depends on how many vehicles you have.

For the first vehicle, you must have £8,000 available, then £4,500 per additional heavy goods vehicle (HGV) in your fleet. For every additional van or car and trailer, you must have financial standing of £800.

Your transport manager will become legally responsible for all the vehicles on your operator’s licence, in addition to the HGVs and trailers already on it.

You need a transport manager to get a standard international goods vehicle operator licence, which involves employing a Transport Manager. You can either nominate an experienced member of staff to cover the role or appoint a Transport manager. The two options are set out below: 

1.     Apply to get an existing member of staff (including yourself) temporarily recognised as a transport manager.

If a member of staff can show that they have at least 10 years of experience in managing fleets of vehicles before the 20th of August 2020 they will be able to apply to have their experience recognised. They can apply (by the 24th of May 2024) for their experience to be recognised as ‘acquired rights’. They will then be treated as having the Transport Manager CPC until the 21st of May 2025, by which time they must pass the transport manager CPC exam.

Once qualified, they must keep up a high-quality professional knowledge of transport industry rules and policies, which can be aided by taking up transport manager refresher courses. 

2.     Employ someone with a Transport Manager Certificate of Professional Competence (CPC) qualification. 

As an operator you can employ the services of either an external or internal Transport Manager who holds the certificate of professional competence. You need to make sure they keep up a high-quality professional knowledge of transport industry rules and policies. 

Drivers will need to carry a certified copy of their UK Licence for the Community during international journeys, there is no extra fee for this type of Licence as they are provided as part of the application for a standard international operator’s licence.

C E Transport Law has extensive experience in Operator Licencing, if you need any assistance then please call us to discuss further.  

Operating Light Goods Vehicles in the EU – Rule Changes

Bus expert Chris was and still is a bus driver who became a transport solicitor and lecturer before his retirement

Vocational Licence Renewal | C E Transport Law

It’s that time of year – for me, anyway.  Any reader over 65 who holds a vocational licence will have the same experience: an annual invitation from Swansea to renew his or her licence.  DVLA plans to send out a reminder 56 days before expiry of the existing licence.  And in my experience, it acts quite promptly: about 7 weeks before my licence runs out, I can expect to receive the brown envelope.  

Two forms arrive: D47P headed Renewal of your lorry and bus driving licence/entitlement and D4 Medical examination report.  So this is the cue to book a doctor’s appointment.  Or is it?

In fact you should start long before that. It was about 3 months before my licence expired that I telephoned for an appointment.  An apologetic voice told me they were fully booked for the next month, but that was no problem – I had plenty of time.  I downloaded and printed form D4 and my medical was duly completed over a week before I heard from DVLA.  You cannot download form D47P, but I completed that and posted it with my form D4 on the day it arrived.  And my new licence was issued a fortnight before the existing one was due to expire.

A friend who had to renew his HGV entitlement at the same time had a less happy experience.  He waited until both forms arrived and then set about getting a doctor’s appointment.  The earliest available date was 3 days after his licence expired, so he was unable to drive for that period.  It is possible to drive while a licence renewal is pending, but only if an application has been sent to and received by DVLA and if there are no medical obstacles to renewal. The full rules are set out in DVLA leaflet INF 188/6.

The moral is clear.  Start the renewal process well in advance.  The medical report is valid for 4 months, so there is no harm in seeing a doctor many weeks before your licence expires.  And if you have some medical history that means you have to go to your own doctor this is particularly important, as you will have to fit in with his or her available appointments.  You won’t have the option of going to one of the doctors who specialise in vocational licence medicals and who might be able to fit you in sooner.

I was fortunate in getting my new licence swiftly.  A colleague who posted his forms 3 weeks before I posted mine was still waiting a week after my licence arrived.  There is a website (at any rate it is still live at the time of writing) to check on the progress of applications.  It is entitled DVLA Coronavirus (Covid 19) update and can be found at https://www.gov.uk/guidance/dvla-coronavirus-covid-19-update. Select Where’s my application from the contents list and you will see the order in which applications are being processed.  It seems clear that vocational licence renewals are being given priority.

Despite clear guidance regarding ‘fronting’ in the public domain it is a frequently misunderstood issue, which regularly crops up at hearings in front of the Traffic Commissioner. It is usually a case of either licence ‘loaning’ or one person obtaining a licence on behalf of another.   

We have attempted to provide a summary of the relevant cases and Guidance here in order to assist you in determining whether your business arrangement is a legitimate one in the eyes of the Traffic Commissioner.  

The Senior Traffic Commissioner’s Statutory Document 1: Good Repute and Fitness, defines Fronting as “where a person, partnership or company, which does not have an operator’s licence, uses the operator’s licence held by another entity to conceal the fact that they are behaving in a way which requires them to have an operator’s licence of their own, is considered to be serious. Fronting deprives the traffic commissioner of the opportunity to oversee an ‘operator’.

‘Fronting’ is aggravated and very much more serious where it is apparent that the entity hiding behind the legitimate ‘front’ would be unlikely to obtain or would be debarred from holding their own operator’s licence. The Upper Tribunal has given clear guidance that evidence of fronting can, on its own, provide justification for deciding that the operator being used as a ‘front’ has lost its good repute.”

Fronting is further defined in the case of 2011/34 Utopia Traction Ltd (paragraphs 8 & 9): “In the context of vehicle operator’s licensing ‘fronting’ means that a person, partnership or company, which does not have an operator’s licence, uses the operator’s licence held by another entity to conceal the fact that they are behaving in a way which requires them to have an operator’s licence of their own. In other words it deprives the Traffic Commissioner of the right to control an ‘operator’, when Parliament has said that such an entity should be within his or her jurisdiction”.

This approach was followed in the case T2012/71 Silvertree Transport Ltd (paragraph 4), the Tribunal provided another description of ‘Fronting’: “Another way in which to describe the same situation would be to say that: ‘fronting’ occurs when appearances suggest that a vehicle, (or fleet), is being operated by the holder of an operators licence when the reality is that it is being operated by an entity, (i.e. an individual, partnership or company), which does not hold an operators licence and the manner in which the vehicle is being operated requires, if the operation is to be lawful, that the real operator holds an operator’s licence”.

Once a Traffic Commissioner is satisfied that the evidence establishes that “fronting” has taken place, he/she can take a serious view of such conduct as it involves deception and can seriously undermine the powers held by a Traffic Commissioner.  

In the recent case of Wayne Wood t/a Woodys Haulage OD2013744, which was heard before Mr Nick Denton, (Traffic Commissioner for the West Midlands), on the 17th of March 2022 at a Public Inquiry, he told the operator that he was using another company to hide the fact they were continuing to operate illegally and it was a clear case of fronting.

The operator (a sole trader who held a standard national licence) lost his good repute. The decision was made to disqualify him “from holding or obtaining any type of operator’s licence in any traffic area and from being a director of any company holding or obtaining such a licence” for 3 years. The Commissioner also decided to disqualify him for 3 years as a transport manager on any operator’s licence.

The reasoning for the decision was outlined under Paragraph 4 of the Commissioner’s decision:

“The principal reason for the revocation of the licence is that Wayne Wood has essentially been lending his operator licence to Slumberdreams (UK) Ltd, a company controlled by Sharez Hussain which does not have an operator’s licence. Mr Hussain has been associated with multiple revoked licences, held by Slumberdream Ltd, Slumberzone Beds Ltd, Health Therapy Ltd and Midlands Logistics UK Ltd amongst others. He has impersonated another director in an interview under caution with DVSA. He has an utter disregard for the laws pertaining to operator licensing or the roadworthiness of vehicles.”

The Commissioner further stated, “Whether Mr Wood entered into an arrangement which he knew was illegal, or whether he was so naïve and incompetent that he failed to realise that the arrangements amounted to lending his licence, scarcely matters. Neither possibility reflects any credit on Mr Wood.”

Operators need to be cautious to make sure they do not become unintentionally involved in a case of fronting.

C E Transport Law has extensive experience in cases where fronting is alleged. If you need any assistance, then please call us to discuss further.

Fronting - what is it and what are the risks?

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