An operators licence is required if a vehicle over the weight of 3500kg (3.5tonnes) is used with the purpose of carrying goods or products in a trade or business.
A restricted operators licence allows the licence holder to carry their own goods and products that they have manufactured or to carry equipment that they hired. It is strictly forbidden to carry goods of other businesses and people for delivery purposes.
There are mainly three types of licence. They are:
- Standard National Licence
- Standard International Licence
- Restricted Licence
Most businesses that apply for the restricted operator’s licence usually do not have a transport manager of their own, but some individual companies hire transport managers to supervise their product. These businesses that use this restricted licence are generally small. Restricted operators licence usually includes Scaffolders, Caterers and Shopfitters.
The applicant of the licence should be considered the user of the vehicle which means the application should be in the name of the owner, partner or business.
To be considered as the user of the vehicle, the applicant should be:
- The owner of the vehicle
- The vehicle has to be hired or loaned under a legal agreement
- The driver is an employee of the business.
A licence will remain valid as long as the licence holder pays a fee in every 5 years for the continuation of the existing licence and as long as the holder operates the licence without abusing any terms of the licence.
Read Also: How much does a standard operator’s licence cost in the UK?
What are operating centres?
An operating centre is a place where the business vehicles are kept when they are not being used. While applying for a licence, the applicant needs to provide information such as the address of the proposed operating centre and how many vehicles the applicant will keep there.
The centre needs to be in an environmentally friendly location, be large enough and must be safe. The applicant needs to submit an approval letter that states that the applicant has permission to use the operating centre if they don’t own the centre.
To apply for a restricted operators licence, the applicant needs to:
- Advertise their licence application
- Announce their business operating centres.
- Submit the financial information of their business
- Prepare a supervision policy with a garage to inspect the safety conditions and repair the vehicles.
- Pay an application fee
The license application can be done online. It usually takes 7 weeks to get a decision on the online application and 9 weeks to get a decision on the application if applied by post.
An application for an interim licence can be done if a licence is urgently needed. This licence is valid until the proper licence is received. The interim licence is issued by the traffic commissioner after considering the operator’s licence application. Even if an interim licence is issued, it does not guarantee that the business will surely receive a full licence, so before committing to long term projects make sure that a full licence is issued to the business.
Read Also: How to Get an Operator’s Licence
What Are The Requirements For An Operators Licence?
It is important to maintain the vehicles keeping them safe and in decent conditions all the time. The owner must have all records of the vehicles for at least 15 months.
The inspection records that the owner must keep are:
- Details of the vehicle
- List of all the items that need to be inspected
- When and who carried the inspection
- the result of the inspection
- Details of any work done on the vehicle
- Details of the fixation of any defects on the vehicle.
Cost of a licence:
- A fee needs to be paid when a new licence application is submitted.
- A licensing fee needs to be paid when a licence is successfully issued. This fee covers a period of five years.
- A renewal fee needs to be paid if the holder wants to renew the existing licence for five more years.
- If a business needs an interim licence then a fee needs to be paid for the interim licence.
If a licence has to be renewed, then the holder has to submit a completed licence checklist and has to pay the renewal fee before the licence expires or else the licence will no longer be valid. If the licence expires then a new licence application has to be done and that can require time.
Operating a vehicle before a licence is issued is illegal. A commercial vehicle cannot be loaned or hired if the business does not have an issued license.
Restricted operators licence management and compliance solutions offer professional guidance for a restricted operator licence. This guidance is given by performing a compliance audit on the system of work of the licence holder.
A certain number of standard commitments need to be maintained to keep your licence. They are:
- Maintaining the tax and insurance of the vehicles
- The drivers must have a proper licence to drive the vehicle
- Not to overload the vehicles
- Operate only vehicles that are registered under the licence
- Use the only operating centres that are mentioned on the licence
- Inform the Traffic Commissioner about any change in the maintenance agreement, change in the entity and financial status.