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Tue 8 Mar 2011 12:54

B Category Driving Licence - Nezza

It suprises me how few people know about the rules regarding towing for people who passed their driving test after 1st Jan 1997. I passed myself in 1998 and a couple of years back bought a caravan. I was not aware at the time that the gross weight of the outfit, (car & trailer) has to be 3500kgs or lower. (Exceptions for a trailer under 750kgs where GW can be 4250kgs as long as the towing vehicle does not exceed 3500kgs.) I checked the cars ability to tow (1500kgs) and the caravan max weight (950kgs) so all was ok in my mind. It was only after caravanning for a while I noted the exact rules. (I am complying thankfully).

Recently being a father of two, the tow car has changed from my Astra to the wifes Galaxy for the space and we now just come under the limit with a Gross Weight of 3455kgs. Again we are looking at upgrading the caravan to something bigger which means a larger Gross Weight. Due to this I will be doing my B+E test shortly. The point is, if we bought a caravan with GW of 1300kgs we could legally tow on a B licence with the Astra, but not the Galaxy which is ridiculous as the Galaxy is the safer car to be towing with due to the extra weight. I thought laws were there to make the roads safer.

Anyway to cut to the chase, I have spoken to various people about this and very few know of these rules and some are actually breaking the law, whether it be at work by driving a van and trailer etc or for pleasure. I thought it was worth mentioning as it may be relevant to some of the forum users.

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Tue 8 Mar 2011 13:54

B Category Driving Licence - Dwight Van Driver

DVLA/HMG go to great lengths to educate the public with a plethora of information leaflets

such as INS57P which deals with Driving Licences where all matters are explained.

A use ful reference is here:

http://tinyurl.com/8rq4t2

whicvh includes towing.

dvd

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Wed 9 Mar 2011 10:05

B Category Driving Licence - RT

This issue is repeatedly discussed and explained on caravan forums.

The rules are part of EU harmonisation - I personally feel that pre-1998 drivers shouldn't have got the "grandfather" rights to a B+E even though I'm one of them. We should all have to take the Towing Test to get B+E.

The thought of a complete novice driving a 1500kg kerbweight car (MAW 2000kg) towing a 1500kg trailer at 60mph without any training is frightening enough and that's legal on a B licence!

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Wed 9 Mar 2011 10:34

B Category Driving Licence - NARU

The rules are rather complicated!

The best explanation I've seen is on the Ifor Williams trailers site:

www.iwt.co.uk/1769.file.dld

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Wed 9 Mar 2011 23:41

B Category Driving Licence - Bilboman

A set of already pretty complicated rules becomes even more complicated if you change country! When I swapped my (1983 vintage) UK licence for a Spanish one in 1999, I lost a lot of "entitlements" such as the 15 seater not-for-reward minibus and 3.5 T lorry. (Faint memories of driving Bedford TK trucks on a soft drink round in my student days in Nottingham...)

So much for EU harmonisation, as I can lawfully drive either of these behemoths on a trip to the UK, as my Spanish licence refers to my original UK one from 1983 - my copy of the original DVLA licence shows all the details - but not in Spain where I'm a humble "B+E" only. And as for the hassle every time I hire a car in Spain and my driving licence "date test passed" details show me as an under-age driver on every computer in the land!

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Fri 18 Mar 2011 09:06

B Category Driving Licence - Pizza man

careful towing with a Galaxy some of them have very low weights for max towing.

www.cuddles.abelgratis.net/ford.htm#galaxy97

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Fri 18 Mar 2011 19:22

B Category Driving Licence - Nezza

Good link. Ours is the 1700kg limit. Surprising to see some Galaxy's with such a low limit. Even our Astra is limited to 1500kgs, though I would not tow such a heavy unit as it is more than the kerb weight of the car.

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Tue 26 Apr 2011 21:48

B Category Driving Licence - alfatrike

The thought of a complete novice .. towing a 1500kg trailer at 60mph without any training is frightening enough and that's legal on a B licence!

only 60? most i see are doing well over that and sometimes in the third lane.

personally i feel anyone wanting to tow a trailer should have to pass a test or atleast have a day training, something like the cbt for new motorbike riders

i know this will get me a deluge of abuse but i had to do 2 seperate tests to get to the level of grandfathers rights.

i now have my full motorbike, psv and class 1 licences. 7 tests with all but one passed first time.

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Fri 22 Apr 2011 02:15

B Category Driving Licence - stampy

people should also remember if your towing and dont have the right category on your licence then whatever driving insurance you have is invalidated, so you are not insured,

Edited by stampy on 22/04/2011 at 02:18

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Fri 22 Apr 2011 02:39

B Category Driving Licence - stampy

another law few seem to know about or turn a blind eye to,If your towing for commercial gain and the train weight ( combined vehicle and trailer weight ) is over three and a half tons but less than seven and a half tons, then your vehicle must be fitted with a tachograph and you must comply with driving hours and rules regulations the same as a truck driver,

Edited by stampy on 22/04/2011 at 02:50

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Fri 22 Apr 2011 08:28

B Category Driving Licence - RT

another law few seem to know about or turn a blind eye to,If your towing for commercial gain and the train weight ( combined vehicle and trailer weight ) is over three and a half tons but less than seven and a half tons, then your vehicle must be fitted with a tachograph and you must comply with driving hours and rules regulations the same as a truck driver,

There's no blind eye turned there - the police are well aware and regularly stop vans and Land-Rovers towing what might be a commercial load, particular when the solo vehicle would be under 3500kg gross and not require a tacho unless towing.

Many years ago a neighbour was a senior demonstrator for ride on cleaning machines - if they fitted in the Transit no tacho was needed but using a trailer required a tacho - he and his employer found out when he was stopped.,

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Fri 22 Apr 2011 22:29

B Category Driving Licence - stampy

so when the cleaning machines were fitted in the transit was the vehicle not overloaded?

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Fri 22 Apr 2011 23:05

B Category Driving Licence - RT

so when the cleaning machines were fitted in the transit was the vehicle not overloaded?

No, they were within the Transit's payload - but when customers wanted demonstrations of more than one type the trailer had to be used.

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Fri 22 Apr 2011 08:23

B Category Driving Licence - RT

people should also remember if your towing and dont have the right category on your licence then whatever driving insurance you have is invalidated, so you are not insured,

You're always insured for third party risks - unless and until the insurer cancels the policy - own damage on a comprehensive policy could be voided though.

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Sat 23 Apr 2011 00:25

B Category Driving Licence - stampy

people should also remember if your towing and dont have the right category on your licence then whatever driving insurance you have is invalidated, so you are not insured,

You're always insured for third party risks - unless and until the insurer cancels the policy - own damage on a comprehensive policy could be voided though.

ALWAYS insured for third party risk? though you may not be qualified to drive such a combination of car- trailer B+E? you must give me the name of your insurers,

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Sat 23 Apr 2011 09:27

B Category Driving Licence - RT

The whole point about TP is that an insurer can't refuse to pay out to the third party just because the driver broke the law - same as TP claims are still paid even if the driver is speeding or driving carelessly.

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