Vehicle Excise and Registration Act 1994 section 12

Use of vehicles by holders of trade licences

Section 12 sets out the restrictions on how trade licence holders may use vehicles, including limits on the number of vehicles used at once, the permitted purposes of use, and the types of loads that may be carried.

• A trade licence only permits the use of one vehicle at a time, and that vehicle may only be used for purposes specified in regulations made by the Secretary of State.
• A vehicle covered by a trade licence generally cannot simply be kept (parked) on a road unless it is actually being used, except in circumstances allowed by regulations.
• Goods or loads may only be carried in very limited circumstances — essentially for testing or demonstrating the vehicle, delivering another vehicle, or carrying parts and accessories permanently attached or intended to be fitted to the vehicle.
• A trailer that is abandoned, scrap, or otherwise disabled cannot be carried as a permitted load under a trade licence; and where a trailer is partially superimposed on a vehicle so that the vehicle bears a substantial part of the trailer's weight, the two are treated as a single vehicle.

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