The towing rules changed, and a lot of drivers never noticed

The separate trailer test was scrapped, which sounds like a simplification and mostly is. What did not change is the weight arithmetic that decides whether you are legal.

The Milesheet Team18 May 2023 · 3 min read

Photo by Andrew (Tawker), croppedCC BY 2.5

If your work involves a trailer, a plant machine or a site tow, the entitlement on your licence changed and the physics did not.

What changed

For years, a driver who passed a car test after a cutoff in the late 1990s needed an additional category on their licence, obtained by a separate practical test, before towing anything substantial.

That separate test was scrapped. Drivers with an ordinary car entitlement may now tow larger trailers without taking it, and the additional category is granted automatically rather than examined.

The practical effect is that a great many people who could not legally tow a heavy trailer in the morning could in the afternoon, with no additional training and no test.

What did not change

Everything that actually determines whether the outfit is safe and legal.

The weight limits still apply. The entitlement lets you tow. It does not exempt you from the maximum authorised mass of the combination, the towing limit of the vehicle, or the noseweight limit of the towbar. These are three different numbers, they are all on paperwork rather than in your head, and exceeding any of them is an offence regardless of what your licence says.

The trailer still has to be roadworthy. Lights, tyres, brakes and coupling are the driver's responsibility, and trailer tyres fail from age rather than wear, so a trailer used twice a year is a more likely defect than one used weekly.

The speed limits are lower. Towing reduces the applicable limits on several road types, and the reduction applies to the outfit rather than to the tow vehicle's own class.

Loading is still the driver's problem. Weight distribution over the axle, and enough noseweight, are what determine whether a trailer tracks straight or begins to snake. Nothing about the licence change made that easier.

The gap this created

Removing a test does not remove the skill it examined. Reversing an articulated outfit, judging swept path at a junction, and loading a trailer so it is stable are learned skills, and the mechanism that used to force people to acquire them is gone.

If you tow for work, that is an argument for training rather than against the change. It is also an argument your insurer may make: an entitlement on a licence and demonstrable competence are not the same thing, and after an incident the difference gets examined.

For anyone towing on business

The tow itself is business travel like any other, and the miles count. Two things are worth recording that would not matter on an ordinary journey.

Which vehicle. Towing changes consumption dramatically, often by a third or more. If your fuel cost per mile is calculated across a mixture of towing and solo running, it is an average of two very different numbers and describes neither.

What it cost. Site access, weighbridge fees, ferry surcharges for a longer outfit. These attach to a specific job and are exactly the sort of cost that is never reconstructed later.

Before the first tow of the season

Check the towing limit of the vehicle and the maximum authorised mass of the combination, from the paperwork rather than memory
Check trailer tyres for age, not just tread
Check lights on the trailer, with the trailer connected
Check the noseweight with the trailer loaded as you intend to use it