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Is the law an ass?
I have just purchased a new livestock trailer, only very small as I am heading to Cornwall at the end of the month to buy a new Devon & Cornwall longwool ram and didn't want to take my big trailer that far for one animal, right, that's the history of the purchase and totally irrelevant to what I am about to say!
My truck weighs roughly 2 ton the trailer weighs half a ton, unladen 2.5 tons, simples!
Both the truck and the trailer are allowed to carry 1 ton each, maximum payload 2 tons, keeping with this so far? This means that the maximum authorised mass of the unit (MAM) is 4.5 tons. Not what you are actually carrying but what you can carry.
Under the new rules for towing, any vehicle with a MAM of more than 3.5 tons must be fitted with a tachograph. Now, as always there are a few exceptions, probably more than you want to read here, but I will tell you a few of them.
Vehicles used for non-commercial carriage of goods, Vehicles used by agriculture, horticulture, forestry or fishery undertakings for carrying goods within a 50 kilometre radius from where the vehicle is based, vehicles used for milk collection, Vehicles used for carrying animals to or from local livestock markets, it seems almost anything to do with the railways, waterways or local authority and vehicles transporting circus or fun-fair equipment, in fact almost everyone is exempt except the private sector trying to earn a living in these hard times!
Now these laws apply whether you are loaded or not, if I head off to Cornwall and get pulled over, even empty, I will get nicked if I say I am going to fill the trailer up with beer barrels for my pub but not if I say I am off to buy a pet sheep. One way round this would be to purchase a small car with inferior towing capabilities to tow my trailer( thus taking the MAM under 3.5 tons) not a safe option.......look at all those caravans that go all over the place because they don't have a decent vehicle towing them!
If I put 20 casks of ale on my truck( although not phisically possible) that would be fine but as soon as I hitch the trailer up I would need a tachograph, how does any of this make sense?
You could have 2 identicle units carrying the same weight on the same road, one could need a tachograph and one could be legal without ???????????
How can you justify stopping someone when they are empty( this does happen I know of someone who was stopped and done) just because they could have a MAM of over 3.5 tons?
How can the law encourage people to use inferior towing vehicles to legally avoid tachographs?
I am sure, if you have bothered to read this far, that you get the gist of what I am saying, I think this law needs to be changed and would welcome any explaination from the authorities. Isn't it hard enough to earn a living at the moment?
Anyway I'm off to Cornwall to buy my pet sheep!
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M.P's My local M.P's office has promised to bring this to the attention of the minister for transport and will contact me as soon as they get a response..........shall I hold my breath? |
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Tachographs Wel of course these regulations are of EU origin. Now as we know all our european cousins slavishly follow such regs to the letter especially the French and Italians! Perish the thought that Johnny Foriegner would carry a cargo of cheese or wine in his trailer without using the tacho in his towing vehicle.
Under the old Domestic driving rules you were allowed to operate such a combination ie: Pick up and trailer so long has you used a Drivers hours Log book. Therefore an expensive tachograph ( all new tachos have to be Digital and Driver MUST have a registered Digi-Card) would not be needed.
As the rule does not apply to non goods carrying trailers you can tow a large caravan or indeed a Burgervan Trailer without said device.Perhaps even a Mobile Bar!!
Mr.Cammeron (The PM) recently invited opinion on which laws should be repealed. We should ask him to have a look at this one if he could understand it! |
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help still needed Not much response to this, nothing from the authorities, nothing from my m.p. which doesn't really suprise me, he hasn't replied to my previous correspondance yet, probably out buying a duck house or something. Does anyone know anybody who works for V.O.S.A? Can anyone tell me if you can get tachographs that work off the satalite and don't need calibrating and are remote from the vehicle and if so how many thousands they cost? Can I bring empty casks back from Devon as a favour to the brewers with impunity? If I bring them back and use them as seats in my garden at home does that make it personal use? Does anyone know any way to make these rules workable for your normal private sector business person struggeling in these tough times? |
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Madness Well Sara, all I can say is that it sounds like the body that invented that rule, must clearly be lager drinkers!!!
What is the world coming too! |
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