Seems another grey area for the recovery lads. I ve spoken to a few in the recovery game and no one seems 100% on this.
Some have done it to be on the safe side and some dont want to spend the money if you dont have to…
I ve read and heard about this so called toolbox thing…
So I thought Id ask the Recovery boys on here there thoughts. opinions etc…
Driver or operator cpc?
Sorry, I guess Driver CPC (Owner driver) without O licence.
grumbo:
Seems another grey area for the recovery lads. I ve spoken to a few in the recovery game and no one seems 100% on this.Some have done it to be on the safe side and some dont want to spend the money if you dont have to…
I ve read and heard about this so called toolbox thing…
So I thought Id ask the Recovery boys on here there thoughts. opinions etc…
I can’t find any exemption from the driver CPC for recovery vehicle drivers.
I will have a look but I do not think there is a dcpc exemption for recovery
I dont think theres a get out for recovery as its commercial driving after all ie moving cars for cash
Thanks for the replys.
As an example a fitter/mechanic is asked to do a recovery in the lorry say once every six months. I take it he should have the CPC then ?
I believe they would as they are making money from recovering the car.if your driving to make a company money then a cpc is needed or am i getting it wrong
No you’re not getting it wrong, there’s an exemption for people taking vehicles for test or doing road tests but not for recovery work.
Thanks tachograph
You are exempt on the basis that driving is not your main activity and the vehicle you drive carries tools and equipment used in the course of your job as a recovery mechanic. This argument is particularly strengthened with a vehicle like a wrecker where much of the tools and equipment is fixed to the vehicle unlike other exemptions that rely on you putting tools in the vehicle.
For example , if you drove only a regular type unit and recovery trailer, and driving it is not your main activity, you would really need to have a decent amount of tools on board with you to ensure you could benefit from exemption.
If driving was your main activity in either scenario then you couldn’t argue exemption - it has not as yet been defined exactly how this is measured - for most involved in heavy recovery, driving will not probably be their main activity though, in my experience.
The AA want you to have your DCPC to do recovery work.
damoq:
The AA want you to have your DCPC to do recovery work.
They would need it on the basis driving will be their main activity.
Also the AA run on a standard national operating licence. I don’t know if they currently do this but it was with the intention of moving into exploiting spare capacity to just move working cars on a hire and reward basis for car dealers etc. They won’t be the first or last own account type operator to have this idea only to abandon it when it inevitably turns into a headache. 
Own Account Driver:
You are exempt on the basis that driving is not your main activity and the vehicle you drive carries tools and equipment used in the course of your job as a recovery mechanic. This argument is particularly strengthened with a vehicle like a wrecker where much of the tools and equipment is fixed to the vehicle unlike other exemptions that rely on you putting tools in the vehicle.For example , if you drove only a regular type unit and recovery trailer, and driving it is not your main activity, you would really need to have a decent amount of tools on board with you to ensure you could benefit from exemption.
If driving was your main activity in either scenario then you couldn’t argue exemption - it has not as yet been defined exactly how this is measured - for most involved in heavy recovery, driving will not probably be their main activity though, in my experience.
I have to say that sounds quite dodgy to me, how could you argue that on a journey to recover a broken down vehicle driving is not the principle activity, the sole purpose of the journey is to drive to a disabled vehicle and recover it 
I’m not saying you’re wrong but that does sound quite dodgy to me.
tachograph:
Own Account Driver:
You are exempt on the basis that driving is not your main activity and the vehicle you drive carries tools and equipment used in the course of your job as a recovery mechanic. This argument is particularly strengthened with a vehicle like a wrecker where much of the tools and equipment is fixed to the vehicle unlike other exemptions that rely on you putting tools in the vehicle.For example , if you drove only a regular type unit and recovery trailer, and driving it is not your main activity, you would really need to have a decent amount of tools on board with you to ensure you could benefit from exemption.
If driving was your main activity in either scenario then you couldn’t argue exemption - it has not as yet been defined exactly how this is measured - for most involved in heavy recovery, driving will not probably be their main activity though, in my experience.
I have to say that sounds quite dodgy to me, how could you argue that on a journey to recover a broken down vehicle driving is not the principle activity, the sole purpose of the journey is to drive to a disabled vehicle and recover it
I’m not saying you’re wrong but that does sound quite dodgy to me.
It is untested in law as yet so I can only really guess how ‘main activity’ will be defined but I would guess something like tacho records might be used over a period of 12 months and if less than 40% of hours worked have been spent driving it would be accepted driving was not that person’s main activity.
That is what will be important I think rather than considering individual journeys. Although it is a bit muddled as obviously the need to carry tools and equipment used in the course of your work is going to apply to individual journeys.
Could it be your on the way to repair a vehicle at the roadside, but unable to do so. So have to recover the vehicle ?
I think the recovered vehicle being hooked up or not is a red herring really and won’t make any difference.
I don’t really like taking the authorities examples as in the past they have been misleading in the favour of requiring DCPC but I think these two are relevant:
Driver I is employed as a mobile crane operator. They drive the vehicle with the crane to a building site where they operate the crane helping to build a new factory. They don’t need to have Driver CPC because their main activity is not driving and they’re carrying tools and materials (the crane) to be used in the course of their work.
Driver A is a mobile lorry fitter. They drive a vehicle from one operator’s site to another site where they take their tools from the vehicle to do their main activity of servicing lorries. They do not need Driver CPC. If they use engine diagnostic kit that’s fixed within the vehicle, they would also be covered by the exemption because the vehicle carries material or equipment for their use on site.
In the first you can see the parallel between crane and wrecker and in recovery a lot of time can be spent on site pulling vehicles out of fields etc. In the second example you can see the importance placed on the vehicle having equipment they use fixed to it which is obviously relevant to recovery.
Also worth pointing out is they would be exempt if they never went more than 50km from base so that is another thing worth considering. However, for any recovery firm wanting to decide whether their drivers need it or not I think it essentially boils down to if the vast majority of their time spent at work is driving they need it and if not they don’t.
But what if the wrecker then transports the recoverd truck to the garage to be worked on.the toold argument is out the window as you could use a low loader
nearly there:
But what if the wrecker then transports the recoverd truck to the garage to be worked on.the toold argument is out the window as you could use a low loader
If you mean taking the recovered truck to a dealers the next day after it’s been recovered to the recovery co’s yard the night before I think that is potentially trickier. It would boil down to whether or not a court would classify an incapacitated vehicle as goods which I think is unlikely really though.
But surely there being paid to transport it on to a garage.so it is commercial buisness and by default require cpc.i may be wrong but i simply dont see the excemption in recovery.i know of a company who have told there drivers to get there own cpc