Office of Public Sector Information
Information about, and convictions of, applicants for and holders of operators' licences.
Transitional provisions, transitory modifications and savings.
Part I
Enactments repealed.
Part II
Subordinate legislation revoked.
An Act to consolidate Part V of the Transport Act 1968 and related provisions concerning the licensing of operators of certain goods vehicles.
[19th July 1995]
Be it enacted by the Queen’s most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:—
(1) The traffic commissioner for any traffic area constituted for the purposes of the [1981 c. 14.] Public Passenger Vehicles Act 1981 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 the Secretary of State.
(1) Subject to subsection (2) and section 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”.
(2) Subsection (1) does not apply to—
(a) the use of a small goods vehicle within the meaning given in Schedule 1;
(b) the use of a goods vehicle for international carriage by a haulier established in a member State other than the United Kingdom and not established in the United Kingdom;
(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.
(3) In subsection (2)(b) and (c) “established”, “haulier” and “international carriage” have the same meaning as in [O.J. No. L95.] Community Council Regulation (EEC) No.881/92 dated 26 March 1992 concerning access to the market in the carriage of goods by road within the Community to or from the territory of a member State or passing across the territory of one or more member States.
(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 4 on the standard scale.
(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 section 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.
(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.
(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) A temporary exemption has effect until consultations with the European Commission for the purposes of Article 2(2) of the 1974 Council Directive are completed.
(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 vehicle unless the place which is for the time being its operating centre—
(a) is in the area of the traffic commissioner by whom 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) (if later) the day on which the licence came into force,
unless, during that period, the licence-holder has given to the traffic commissioner by whom the licence was issued a notice in such form and containing such information about the vehicle as the commissioner may require, and has paid to him a prescribed fee.
(7) Where notice of a vehicle has been duly given and the prescribed fee has been duly paid under subsection (6), the 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 the traffic commissioner by whom an operator’s licence (“the first licence”) was issued that a vehicle specified in that 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.
(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.
(1) A person may not use a place in the area of any traffic commissioner as an operating centre for vehicles authorised to be used under any operator’s licence issued to him by that commissioner 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 vehicle, means the base or centre at which the vehicle is normally kept, and references to an operating centre of the holder of an operator’s licence are references to any place which is an operating centre for vehicles used under that licence.
(1) An application for an operator’s licence shall be made to the traffic commissioner for each area in which, if the licence is issued, the applicant will have an operating centre or operating centres.
(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) containing such particulars as the commissioner may require of each place in the area of the commissioner 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 a traffic commissioner under this section shall be given in such form as the commissioner may require.
(1) A person who has made an application for an operator’s licence shall forthwith notify the traffic commissioner to whom it was made 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.
(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 to whom the application was made 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
(b) knowingly fails to comply with subsection (2) in a case where the event which occurs as mentioned in that subsection is the conviction of the transport manager of an offence such as is mentioned in paragraph 5 of Schedule 2;
and a person who is guilty of an offence under paragraph (a) or (b) is liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding level 4 on the standard scale.
(4) For the purposes of this section an application shall be taken to be disposed of—
(a) in a case where the traffic commissioner is required, by virtue of regulations under section 57(2)(a), to cause a statement containing his decision on the application to be issued, on the date on which that statement is issued, and
(b) in any other case, on the date on which the applicant receives notice from the traffic commissioner of his decision on the application.
(1) A traffic commissioner shall publish in the prescribed manner notice of any application for an operator’s licence made to him.
(2) The notice shall state—
(a) the time within which, and
(b) the manner in which,
any objection to, or representations against, the grant of the application is or are to be made under section 12 (that is to say, the time and manner prescribed under subsection (6) or, as the case may be, (7) of that section).
(1) Subject to subsection (3), the traffic commissioner to whom an application for an operator’s licence is made shall refuse the application without considering the merits unless he is satisfied that subsection (2) has been complied with in respect of each locality affected by the application.
(2) This subsection has been complied with in respect of a locality affected by an application if, within the period beginning 21 days before the date on which the application is made and ending 21 days after that date, notice of the application in such form and containing such information as may be prescribed has been published in one or more local newspapers circulating in the locality.
(3) The traffic commissioner is not required by this section to refuse an application if—
(a) he is satisfied as mentioned in subsection (1), save only that the form or contents of the notice of application as published in any newspaper did not comply with the prescribed requirements, and
(b) he is satisfied that no person’s interests are likely to have been prejudiced by the failure to comply with those requirements.
(4) For the purposes of this section a locality is affected by an application for an operator’s licence if it contains any place in the area of the traffic commissioner that will be an operating centre of the licence-holder if the application is granted.
Goods Vehicles (Licensing of Operators) Act 1995