Road Traffic Act 1960

164 Users of goods vehicles to hold carriers' licences

(1) Subject to the provisions of this Part of this Act, 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 granted under this Part of this Act (hereafter in this Part of this Act referred to as a " carrier's licence "):

Provided that this subsection shall not apply to the use of a vehicle in any case such as is mentioned in the Thirteenth Schedule to this Act.

(2) A person who uses a vehicle in contravention of the foregoing subsection shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding twenty pounds, or in the case of a second or subsequent conviction to a fine not exceeding fifty pounds.

(3) For the purposes of this Part of this Act, the driver of a vehicle, if it belongs to him or is in his possession under an agreement for hire, hire-purchase or loan, and in any other case the person whose agent or servant the driver is, shall be deemed to be the person using the vehicle.

(4) Where at any time goods are carried in a goods vehicle, being a vehicle which has been let on hire by the person who, at the time of the carriage of the goods, is within the meaning of this Part of this Act the user of the vehicle, the goods shall be deemed to be carried by that person for hire or reward.

(5) Where goods are carried in a vehicle, those goods shall not, for the purposes of this Part of this Act or the Thirteenth Schedule thereto, be deemed to be carried for hire or reward if—

(a) they are goods sold, used or let on hire or hire-purchase in the course of a trade or business carried on by the person using the vehicle, and are being delivered or collected by him ; or

(b) they are goods which have been, or are to be, subjected to a process or treatment in the course of a trade or business carried on by the person using the vehicle, and are being delivered or collected by him; or

(c) they are carried, by a person engaged in agriculture in any locality, for or in connection with the business of agriculture carried on by another person in that locality, and the vehicle in which they are carried is one which the person carrying them is authorised by a carrier's licence to use for the carriage of goods for or in connection with his agricultural business; or

(d) they are carried in a vehicle which is being used under, and in accordance with the regulations applicable to, a licence taken out by a manufacturer or repairer of, or dealer in, mechanically propelled vehicles under section ten of the Vehicles (Excise) Act, 1949; or

(e) they are carried in a vehicle which is being used by a manufacturer, agent or dealer for demonstration purposes.

(6) It is hereby declared that, for the purposes of this Part of this Act, the performance by a local or public authority of their functions shall be deemed to be the carrying on of a business.