A third of Northern Ireland operators still don't have restricted licences

As many as a third of operators in Northern Ireland who should have a restricted operator’s licence don’t have one, the DVA has revealed.

According to the DVA, there were 2,914 restricted operator’s licences in force in Northern Ireland in the first quarter of 2014, and 1,113 temporary permits awaiting conversion to a restricted licence – 4,027 in all.

The total is little changed from that in the first quarter of 2013, when there were 993 restricted licences in force and 2,991 temporary permits –3,984 in all.

However, it remains significantly below the 6,000 to 7,000 firms TRU chief Donald Armstrong told Motortransport.co.uk in June last year that he expected to apply, following the changes to Northern Ireland’s licensing regime in July 2012.

A DVA spokesman said it could not comment on the shortfall. However, he said that roadside observations during 2013-2014 suggested 88.9% of trucks over 3.5-tonne GVW had a valid operator’s licence in place, “indicating a high level of compliance with the operator licensing scheme”.

He added that the DVA had issued 26 warning letters to unlicensed restricted operators detected at the roadside and forwarded 116 files relating to such operators to the Public Prosecution Service.

In response, Martin Reid, RHA director for Scotland and Northern Ireland, said: “We’d like [the figures] to be further forward than they are now, but they’re only two years into what is a massive operation and we fully understand that.”

FTA policy manager for Northern Ireland, Seamus Leheny, stressed that Armstrong’s estimate of the number of licences required dated back some years, and suggested many operators had since downsized or gone out of business.

However, he added that there remained a number of “unsavoury vehicle operators” in Northern Ireland who are “tactically avoiding operator licensing”.