I have mounted welding equipment on a 30ewt chassis, co
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that it can he movedfrom site to site. The vehicle is unable to carry, goods. Could I therefore tax it as engineering plant, could I use rebated ,fuel and vill 1 need an hgv driving licence?
A The Vehicles (Excise) Act 1971 makes no special arrangements for the duty payable on engineering plant. Paragraph 5(1) of Schedule 4, however, allows the weight of the machine or contrivance to be disregarded for the purpose of computing the unladen weight and this reduces the amount of duty payable.
The use of rebated fuel is outlined in Excise notice No. 75 which may be obtained free of charge from the Department of Customs and Excise. However, only if your vehicle was taxed at the reduced rate under the 1971 Act would you be able to do so.
Unless the vehicle exceeds 3 tons unladen, you will not require a heavy goods vehicle driving licence. No doubt you are referring to the exemption for drivers of engineering plant contained in Section 28(iXe) of the Heavy Goods Vehicles (Drivers' Licences) Regulations 1969.
Here, engineering plant has the same meaning as in Section 3(i) of the Motor Vehicles (Construction and Use) Regulations 1973.
If your vehicle is over 3 tons unladen, therefore, for you to take advantage of this exemption, it would have to be "movable plant or equipment being a motor vehicle or trailer specially designed and constructed for the special purpose of engineering and .. . which is not constructed primarily to carry a load ..."
Presumably your vehicle was constructed primarily to carry a load and was not specially designed and constructed for the special purpose of engineering work. Therefore, if it exceeds 3 tons unladen you will need an hgv driving licence.