FUTURE LEGISLATION
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• 4th Motor Insurance Directive: Directive 2000/26/EC, comes into effect from 20 January 2003. By this time all fleet vehicles licensed for road use will need to be registered on a new Motor Insurance Database.
• Registration plate national identifiers: The DVLA proposes to amend the regulations to permit the voluntary display of the national flag and national identifiers.
• Registration of number pieta supplers The target date for Introducing a register of number plate suppliers is 1 January 2003. It will be illegal for a business to sell number plates unless they are registered with the OVLA, although the supply of plates for vehicles at first registration will be exempted from the scheme.
• Operator licence fees An increase of 5% in 0-licence fees will come into effect on 1 December, pending a complete fees review by the DoT.
• Tachograph calibration fees: Following the consultation paper issued by the VI, fees will rise from 1January 2003 as follows: calibration and six-yearly inspection fees will increase from £31.50 to 243: the two-yearly inspection fee will go up from 224 to 129.
• Brit disc: The government is to take forward the introduction of a road-user charge for foreign operators, similar to the Continental Eurovignette. UK operators would also have to pay the new fee of about IMO a year, but this would be offset by reductions in other taxes.
• EU drivers' hours rules: The European Commission has puolished proposals for updating regulation 3820/85. These include a 30-minute break requirement after three hours' driving; a daily rest period of 12 hours; and the removal of the 36-hour weekly rest provision. Anticipated date of implementahon is from January 200d.
• Driver trebling A draft EU Directive requiring compulsory basic and on-going training for vocational drivers has been published, with a consultation paper from the Driving Standards Agency. This seeks views on several proposals including hours of training, syllabus content and grandfather rights.
• Trailer registration The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency has announced proposals to introduce requirements for trailers over 1,020kg unladen weight to he registered.