Bluest wrote:

You are probably ok with many classics on a 3.5t transporter. Just depends what you are carrying. Modern cars have just got really heavy and it’ll get worse with electric ones. The key is making sure you know the payload of your van and the actual weight of what is being carried. The trouble is you’ll be running so close the limit a lot of the time that ensuring you are never over on at least an axle if not gross, will be hard.

Towing with a car trailer is still potentially problematic as you’ll probably need a tachograph and o-license if the max weight of the combination is over 3.5t. So, whilst you might be running comfortably within the legal weights for your vehicle, you are not meeting the regs for operating a commercial vehicle. The Traffic Commisioners do not have much of a sense of humour about this stuff and your vehicle can be scrapped. This catches a lot of people out who tow commercially using an SUV, or they hope they’ll be able to convince the authorities they are towing for leisure if they get pulled.

Really a lot of these businesses ought to just bite the bullet, get a bigger truck and an o-license.

22900013A wrote:

...However if you are doing the job as a favour and no money or goods changes hands (ie not for hire or reward) then one is not needed, nor for personal use. ...

22900013A wrote:

Back when I was running my towing business it was not required to have an O licence for towing if the tow vehicle was a 4x4. I doubt that has changed. The reasoning being that there would have been hell to pay if they told all the farmers they had to get an O licence. ...

blackwolf wrote:

22900013A wrote:

Back when I was running my towing business it was not required to have an O licence for towing if the tow vehicle was a 4x4. I doubt that has changed. The reasoning being that there would have been hell to pay if they told all the farmers they had to get an O licence. ...

Be careful with this one too. Dual Purpose Vehicles as defined by Road Vehicles (Construction & use) Regulations 1986 are exempt from most of the O-Licencing regulations (but not all), but the key point is that to benefit from these exemptions the vehicle in question must be a DPV. Whilst this will be the case for most classic Defenders, it will most certainly not be the case for Discovery 3 and 4, probably the new Defender, most of the current 4x4 double-cab pickups, and almost certainly the Grenadier, since the unladen weight of these is sufficient to mean that they are not DPVs. Since the O-Licence exemptions were based on the vehicle being a DPV, tax class and type approval categories have no bearing on this matter.

Agricultural vehicles registered and taxed as such are exempt from O-Licencing, but not if they are taxed otherwise. A farmer who uses a new Defender with an unladen weight in excess of 2040kg taxed as N1 Light Goods would not be exempt from O Licencing so far as I know. The issue of O-Licencing in the Ag industry is a matter of considerable concern to both the transport industry and the regulating authorities, since you will see many farmers engaged in what are prima facie transport operations using a large modern high-speed tractor and plant trailer, operating without tachos etc, and arguing that it is Ag purposes, when it probably isn't. It is an area where revisions to the current legislation is highly likely.