Hat tip to simcor for posting this first in the Newbies’ Forum.
I’m posting it here because not all the ‘old hands’ look in the Newbies’ Forum, but many may remember Ritchies, or maybe did their driver training with them.
According to Motor Transport, Ritchies HGV Training in Glasgow has called in the administrators.
This is a sad loss of a well respected and reputable HGV industry and driver training provider which had quite a number of employees and customers.
It is worrying a well respected company has ended up in this situation tbh. You would think driving schools would be fairly bullet proof busineses tbh.
There are some trades like funeral directors and barbers/hairdressers that should in theory never ever need to worry about trade, as someone always needs a funeral or hair chop in general. You’d have thought driving instruction would be much the same. There will always be people who give up driving as they get older than need replacing etc.
It’s the flooding of the market by the bootcamps and unrealistic newbies that has caused this, otherwise it would have been relatively stable over a long-term average
can you “sorn” an hgv? or do you always have to tax and mot it etc etc
Don’t see why a HGV cannot be SORN’D the same as other vehicles. Granted night need a bit more work to put it back on the road in the case of Haulage like inspection etc.
But it seems any vehicles in your possession must be included on your O licence allocation even if on SORN, so you could t have lots of vehicles on SORN if you don’t have capacity on your vehicle allocation figures.
Brain not in gear so took reply of.
Yes I’ve SORN’ed HGV’s many times, but that doesn’t change the fact that it’s an asset that isn’t earning money and unless the SORN’ing is going to be temporary, it’s just dead money and few companies want, or can afford to have, that.
MOT’s are a different issue: Once the MOT runs out it’s a problem, as you’d have to get any pre-MOT work done on site as you’re only allowed to drive straight to a pre-booked test if MOT has expired, and if the pre-MOT isn’t done and you have an MOT fail, it has negative consequences for the O-licence.
So, simply parking up a vehicle isn’t the best business answer
100% correct: Too many vehicles “in possession” can mean trip to see the TC, and no company wants that
It can be in your possession and Not on O licence when parked up, Why would you have it on licence ffs, if you did you would have to inspect it every 5/6 weeks. i have three parked up all with NO licence on them, So if and when they go for test no problem if they fail ■■ Two seconds to put it back on O licence once its past the MOT.
Plus the ones i buy and sell Never need an O licence lol
I’d suggest you may want to do some research as it seems there has been a change to the rules and any vehicles you own must be included on your O licence allocation.
When exactly the change was but this post was dated in Oct 2023 after a landmark ruling for companies using a loophole to swap vehicle around as they needed them on their O licence without enough spare vehicle allocations.
https://transportforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=20175
17th post or so down the page and image of the warning to operators.
Lengthy post on the PI findings, but suggests to me you must have sufficient margin on your O Licence for any vehicles an operator has in its possession.
Re reading what you said, I think I can see the confusion, yes they can be removed from your licence, but figures must remain within your allocation of vehicles I think, sure Zac will confirm. So they can be removed from the licence but must be included for your total allocation allowed.
I see what you are saying ? But how are the truck dealers going on then ? most have O licence to take vehicles to the docks, then have 100 in the yard to sell lol
It’s another DVSA F— up yet again lol as I have six kicking about.
This came about when someone only had one licence and was operating two i.e. taking it off and on daily lol
So DVSA came up with a Bright idea to get round the loophole that they had created in the first place? They are very good at making things up as they go along as you well know lol You don’t need to be to sharp to keep in front though 
That’s what all these people thought
As I’m sure you are well aware anyone caught finding loopholes for their benefit whilst not being within the law those loopholes will get closed.
Same with tax avoidance, when HMRC want to they will close loopholes and someone will find another. And rinse and repeat.
Also, when Operators are up in front of the TC, the criteria for action being taken against them, their O-licence, their “Good Repute” and their ability to act as a goods vehicle operator, is not as stringent as a criminal court requires, the TC only needs to find wrongdoing proven “on the balance of probabilities”.