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[LN11AAB498A]

According to a readers letter in Boundless, it seems that foreign registered HGV`s can have one registration number for the towing unit & a different registration number for the trailer. And if that wasn`t ridiculous enough, the unit & the trailer might also have different insurance policies 

When one of these lorries, while exceeding the speed limit, passes a speed camera, it enters & then exits with different numbers. And as speed camera`s generally record the back of a vehicle, does that mean the unit & it`s driver escape detection? Do Border Force record both sets of numbers when they enter the UK

Just to make this LR relevant, that`s a lot of information to gather if your LR SII is involved in an accident with one of these lorries.

And because it all seems just too incredible to be true, I suppose it must be true 

[Smokey 11a]

We had a Polish HGV turn into use as we were on his right hand side at a junction and he could not see us. Wrote the 4 week o;d car off and I was very slightly injured. Wife's car so she dealt with it while I looked after the dogs and stuff, I asked her if she's taken photo's of the HGV, she'd just taken pictures of the damage to both vehicles, sent her back to get pictures of the number plates close up. Turned out to be a good thing as the Polish insurance company denied it was a Polish HGV, till they got the pictures. It may have been deliberate or just mistaking a 1 (one) for an l (L) in entering the number plate on the claim form. All this happened on J13 of the M1 as we were at the top of the slip road, there was broken bits of vehicles all over, the ambulance crew told me it's a daily occurrence there at the time, it's since had major road work to sort it out.
 

[autorover1]

It is very common for the trailer to have its own identity, registration and insurance. I believe commercial trailers travelling from the UK  into EU must have its own registration number
https://www.gov.uk/register-trailer-to-take-abroad. A friend of mine taking his Caravan in Europe 40  odd years ago said that caravan sites could not understand that we had the same registration plate on rear of the caravan as the tow vehicle.

[Wittsend]

It's been like that for many years.

If you are involved in an accident it's vital to get as many pictures as you can. Good witnesses are a bonus, don't rely on the police passing on witness details.

The main problem is if you are in an accident you may/will be in no state to collect all this data.
 

A good dash cam (front & rear) is a godsend, well worth getting a good one and just let it loop round 



 

[Noddy]

All UK HGV trailers have their chassis number on the main rails often written with a welder but display the tractor unit's reg number on the plate at the rear. Shouldn't European rigs conform to UK law and display the appropriate numbers in the correct places? Then there are agriculural vehicles highway law does not apply to them well not here in Linconshire.

Alec

[LN11AAB498A]

It is very common for the trailer to have its own identity, registration and insurance. I believe commercial trailers travelling from the UK  into EU must have its own registration number
https://www.gov.uk/register-trailer-to-take-abroad. A friend of mine taking his Caravan in Europe 40  odd years ago said that caravan sites could not understand that we had the same registration plate on rear of the caravan as the tow vehicle.

I`m not saying you're wrong, I`m just not sure we are talking about the same thing  Yes, I can understand how regulations will want the trailer to be registered in its own right for travel across the continent. I suppose to make sure that what goes in also comes out? Our own domestic HGV trailers are numbered, but I don`t think that is what's being discussed in the letter. 

Even when we were in the EU, when hitching up to a trailer, the driver had to attach a number plate that was identical to that on his unit (tractor unit as Noddy has said). Are you saying that when he got across the channel he had to change it to something different  if so I have never heard of it.

The bit I do not understand is the vehicle's registration number (what we call the number plate) being different on the unit to that on the trailer. That does not make any sense, if only for offence detection reasons. Can you imagine a police car looking for a lorry and needing to get in front of it to check the number plate on the driving unit before they knew if it`s the one they were looking for.

[LN11AAB498A]

I think I may have solved the question - you must display the same number front & rear
"Taking commercial or heavy trailers abroad
If your trailer needs to be registered to go abroad, you need to fix the trailer registration plate to the back, as well as the towing vehicle’s number plate".
https://www.gov.uk/displaying-number-plates/rules-number-plates

Of course, that doesn't apply to foreign registered lorries though, they do have different numbers front & rear. Although they should be required to comply with our rules when they come here - but aren't 

[22900013A]

Would you really want such a tit for tat situation,with the EU forcing thousands of British drivers to have separate trailer registration just to go abroad, which is what would happen if we forced it the other way.

Not as though lorries are particularly fast or snall, the relevant authorities can find them when they need them.

So far as I know only Italian semi-trailers display two plates, all the other EU states having just the one for the trailer.

[jonhutchings]

it is nothing to do with the EU. Trailer registration relates to the 1968 Vienna Convention on road traffic. This is why you don't need to do this for Spain (as long as you get there directly by ship not driving through France ) , Cyprus , Malta, or the Republic of Ireland, as these countries chose not to sign up to the Convention.

Don't see what the big deal is, if an HGV gets caught by a camera, it doesn't matter which plate is captured, it'll still be registered to someone. If the trailer is not owned by the company whose driver was speeding then it's their problem to sort out.

Reality  is HGVs are the least of the issues on our roads I'd be much more concerned that this country has done away with mandatory trailer training, which means any muppet can go and hire/buy the biggest trailer/caravan their car can tow, and wack it straight onto a busy motorway without ever having towed before.  How many people know what to do when a trailer starts to get a wiggle on?

[DogDave]

To be fair trailer training only existed for a brief period. Test passed prior to 1998 you always could tow anything the vehicle could handle including with a 16 seat minibus or 7.5 ton wagon.

Not saying it’s a good idea but only the muppets that passed their tests in that 23 year window were ever stopped. (Which explains a fair bit of the caravan and horse box  related antics you see over the years)

[LN11AAB498A]

.... Don't see what the big deal is, if an HGV gets caught by a camera, it doesn't matter which plate is captured, it'll still be registered to someone. If the trailer is not owned by the company whose driver was speeding then it's their problem to sort out.
.......I'd be much more concerned that this country has done away with mandatory trailer training, which means any muppet can go and hire/buy the biggest trailer/caravan their car can tow, and wack it straight onto a busy motorway without ever having towed before.  How many people know what to do when a trailer starts to get a wiggle on?

A fair point John, and I share your view about trailer training, wasn`t it ditched because of problems during the Covid difficulties, a short term view with little or no consideration of risk?

The anomaly about different rules for foreign HGVs when driving in the UK was really only an aside to the main point of the original post, to give a bit of a heads-up to those LR SII owners unlucky enough to be involved in an accident with a foreign HGV e.g. the need to make sure we get both front & rear numbers.

As for finding speeding foreign lorries, I don`t know if that rear number has even been recorded by Border Force, if not, then there`s no way of finding them. And I don`t see them bothering to contact French (or other) authorities to find out, not for a speeding fine.

I didn`t know about foreign registered lorries having different number plates front & rear, but now that I do, I`ll be sure to get both if I`m ever clobbered by one 

Fred

[jonhutchings]

Totally agree on  the point about getting details if you are in an accident. It would never have occurred to me either, so thanks for highlighting it. Hopefully never need it but good to know in case.  Sadly the only times I've ever been in an accident I've been too bewildered and shaken to think about getting any photos etc. until someone else has prompted me. As someone else said I guess this is where a dash cam is a good idea.

[w3526602]

Hi,

Co-incidentally, It was only last night that I came across a couple of photos from my not too distant past .... a  4-wheel boat trailer (Bare) and the same trailer, on the hook (carrying about two tons of boat). Unfortunately, it wasn't my boat, nor was it being towed by my S1 ...I think it was being towed by a Vauxhall car. The trailing plate indicated 750kg ULW, and 3500kg MGW.

Google says MY 20ft Norman Conquest canal cruiser weighed 2000kg, but that would not have included the 1100cc Ford Escort engine, the ZENITH inboard/out drive, nor the 20 gallons of H2O liquid ballast.

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I can't print anything, but I should be able to photocopy the photos and post on the forum.

[GlenAnderson]

This is not a new thing.

I passed my HGV1 in 1990, and it was definitely the case then.

[w3526602]

Hi,

When I was involved in such things, it was not uncommon to receive reports of HGVs driving around with PLG tax discs.

It usually transpired that the driver claimed that the "tug" never pulled an articulated trailer in the UK, and it was only being used in UK to drive home for a weekend with his wife. Hmmm!

The Continental Police had no interest in whether the "tug and trailer" were correctly licenced in the UK .... and the displayed disc was usually at the very top of the windscreen.

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