Operating a goods vehicle without the operator licence the law requires is not a paperwork slip. DVSA has the power to detain and impound the vehicle itself, and the process for getting it back is slow, formal and stacked against the owner. The Senior Traffic Commissioner’s Statutory Document 7 sets out how the system works, and it makes uncomfortable reading for anyone tempted to run an unlicensed truck.
The Goods Vehicles (Enforcement Powers) Regulations 2001, amended in 2009, allow DVSA to detain and dispose of vehicles that are not being operated legally, meaning vehicles used on a road in contravention of section 2 of the Goods Vehicles (Licensing of Operators) Act 1995: using a goods vehicle for carrying goods in connection with a trade or business without an operator licence. There are equivalent powers for passenger carrying vehicles used without a PSV licence under the Public Service Vehicles (Enforcement Powers) Regulations 2009.
Once a vehicle is detained, a notice is published. That notice must describe the procedure for applying for the return of the vehicle and its contents, and make clear what happens if nobody claims it. The claim window, the specified period, must be a minimum of 21 days from publication of the notice or, if later, from service of a copy of the notice. If no valid claim succeeds, the vehicle can be disposed of.
Only the owner of the vehicle can apply to the traffic commissioner for its return. The application goes to the commissioner for the traffic area where the vehicle was detained, must be in writing, must state one or more of the statutory grounds, and must say whether the applicant wants a hearing.
Regulation 4 sets out the only grounds available:
There is no residual discretion. If the applicant fails to make out one of those grounds, the traffic commissioner cannot return the vehicle as a matter of fairness or proportionality. The Upper Tribunal has confirmed this repeatedly.
The traffic commissioner must hold a hearing if the applicant requests one, or if the commissioner decides one is appropriate. Hearings should be held within 28 days of the application. The process is adversarial: DVSA gives evidence first and must show its officers had reason to believe the vehicle was being, or had been, used in contravention of the legislation. The burden then shifts to the applicant to prove their ground for return.
Determinations must be notified in writing as soon as reasonably practicable, within 21 days of the application where no hearing is held, or within 14 days of the conclusion of a hearing.
Most applications are fought on the third ground: the owner says they did not know the vehicle was being used unlawfully. Statutory Document 7 is clear that this burden sits squarely on the applicant, and it is a hard one to discharge. The question the commissioner must answer is deceptively simple: “Has the claimant satisfied me that he, she or it probably did not know that the vehicle was being or had been used in contravention of the Act?”
Knowledge includes actual, imputed and constructive knowledge. The test the case law applies is what inquiries an honest and reasonable person would have made in the circumstances. A finance company or leasing business that owns the vehicle cannot simply say it never checked whether its customer held a licence; everyone is taken to know the law, including that operating without a licence is unlawful and exposes the vehicle to impounding. A cavalier approach to checking the status of customers can itself count against the owner.
Applicants who skip the hearing take a serious risk: the Upper Tribunal has warned that a claimant who fails to attend runs a significant chance of the application failing, because there is no evidence to prove the ground relied on and nobody to answer the commissioner’s questions.
Impounding exists to stop owners knowingly permitting or facilitating unlawful use. The system assumes that if you own the truck, you are responsible for knowing what it is doing.