The Road Vehicles (Construction and Use) (Amendment) (No. 4) Regulations 1991

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

1.   These Regulations further amend the Road Vehicles (Construction and Use) Regulations 1986. The amendments relate to vehicle length, the carriage of long or wide loads and parking in darkness.

Vehicle length

2.   Regulation 3 of the 1986 Regulations is amended so that in determining the “overall length” of a vehicle any rearward projecting buffer made of rubber or other resilient material is ignored.

3.  Regulation 7 is amended so as to increase in certain circumstances, the maximum permitted overall length of a motor vehicle and a single trailer which do not form an articulated vehicle. The increase is from 18 to 18.35 metres. In so far as this amendment relates to vehicles registered or put into circulation in any Member State of the EEC other than the UK, it is made in consequence of Council Directive 91/60/EEC (OJ No L37, 9.2.91, p.37).

4.  The greater permitted length applies if one of the vehicles is not a goods vehicle. It also applies if both vehicles are goods vehicles and—

(a) the maximum distance from the foremost point to the loading area behind the driver’s cab to the rear of the vehicle, less the distance between the rear of the motor vehicle and the front of the trailer, does not exceed 15.65 metres, and

(b) the distance from the foremost point to the loading area behind the driver’s cab to the rear of the trailer does not exceed 16 metres.

The condition set out in paragraph (a) above does not apply if both vehicles in the combination are car transporters.

5.  The normal overall length restrictions on trailers and combinations of vehicles which include a trailer imposed by regulation 7 are subject to exceptions. A new provision is inserted into regulation 7 which makes it illegal for a trailer with an overall length exceeding 18.65 metres to be used on a road unless the police have been notified in the prescribed manner and an attendant is employed.

6.  Regulation 7 as amended is set out in the Schedule to these Regulations.

The carriage of long or wide loads

7.  Apart from drafting changes, the amendments to regulation 82 of and Schedule 12 to the 1986 Regulations are as follows.

8.  In certain circumstances where a load projects over the front or rear of a vehicle, the police have to be notified before the vehicle can be used on the road and, while the vehicle is being used on a road, an attendant has to be carried. The amendments make a small change to the circumstances in which these requirements apply.

9.  A new requirement applies where a load projects more than 305 millimetres on either side of the vehicle or the overall width of a vehicle or if any lateral projection exceeds 2.9 metres. In such a case, the load has to be fitted with markers of a prescribed type and in a prescribed manner.

Parking in darkness

10.  Regulation 101(1) made it an offence for a person, other than with the permission of a police officer, to cause or permit any motor vehicle to stand on a road at any time between half an hour after sunset and half an hour before sunrise unless the near side of the vehicle is as close as may be to the edge of the carriageway. The provision will now apply for the whole period between sunset and sunrise.