More new rules

[Big Al]

Its blame the European time again! However it is not their fault as such since they are not doing this in Europe. It ourselves twisting our rules into a knot as only pillocks can.

New rules on three wheeler licence. All old fogies can relax and continue doing what they have been doing. All those without a licence or under a certain age are now disbarred from driving three wheelers in certain categories for certain parameters. This is because DVLA have decided that threewheelers are all motorcycles for licencing despite that some are all cars for MOTing and somewhere in the middle for taxing depending in various complex criteria I do not think even they understand. Logic, that was privatized some years ago a sold to some guy called Steve Jobs, I think. DVLA is shortly to become run by Camelot as part of the National Lottery where your taxation and licencing is handled in such a way as that a few winners will be able to drive anything they like for £1 stake and everyone else will be playing with thier balls at some £5 a week.  The bonus ball being 999, bit like hitting 00 on roulette, a state win by default.

What is truly marvellous about this ruling is there is no provision to take a three wheeler test. A fact that our largest home car manufacturer is not greatly impressed by having just reintroduced the Morgan Trike. Nor the other 11 trike manufacturers in Britain. None were included in the 'broad and full consultations' held over this policy change which no one seems to know anything about other than three shepherds on Eriskay and the population of Sark who could not give twopence either way. 

People think I make this stuff up, you know. I don't make the rules up! I just embellish it in the telling a little. Now someone who bothers to try and understand this completely idiotic set of rules can attempt to explain it to us. The British Government, supporting our industry. NOT.

[Bob Purton]

I agree Al, totally balmy!  I think I'm right in thinking that if a youngster wants to drive one of these new 'moped cars' he has to take the CBT course but has to do it on a bike rather than in his car? Or has that changed as well? What if someone has a poor sense of balance but is fine in a car? This would prevent him from taking the CBT and from driving the mopedcar. The only benefit I can see from three wheelers now all officially being classed as motorcycles is that I wont have to have a row with the guys at the Dartford crossing toll boths when I want to cross the Thames in Thumper without paying £2.00.  Something I have been getting away with for a while now, not because they agree but because they fear the huge Que building up behind whilst we argue about it! I have Bob Neal, Reliant owners club to thank as he point blank refused to pay once in his Reliant Ant truck, huge things and not a motorcycle by any stretch of the imagination! He was allowed to pass for free eventually as it was causing bedlam. I just get waved through now so I guess the staff have been told its not worth arguing about and to keep the traffic flowing. Hmm, maybe everyone should just refuse to pay the toll as the promise was it would  cease a few years ago when the bridge was paid for.Yeh, like that was going to happen!!  Oh dear, Als cynicism is rubbing off!

[Barry]

What happens to my Invacars now - the rolling chassis that are registered as disabled vehicles and I can't drive them unless I am disabled.........
The plan was to MOT them as trikes and then change the registration to trikes - as per other Invacars on the road.

Do I have to do something different and register them as motorcycles???

Also:-
Can you take one wheel off of your Citroen before the Dartford crossing and drive it through as a trike / bike?

[Big Al]

The Reliant Ant is a classic case of why the new rules do not work. A Reliant Ant is to heavy to be classed as a three wheeler for tax. I know people get away with it, but legally it is not a trike for tax. So its a car. It is MOT as a Class 4. So its a car you now need a motorcycle license to drive. Yet you can have a tiny car which it may be that you have to have a three wheeled licence to drive as it is not a four wheeler. Doh!

What class are five wheelers in? Who can drive them?

What is the difference between a Lomax with three or four wheels, other than the extra wheel? A valid issue in relation to the take a wheel off for the bridge. Dual logbooks can save you money!

On this logic if you get a Bugatti Veyron on two wheels your nicked for riding a Motorcycle without an appropriate licence as well as anything else Plod can think of.

Barry, on the logic above drive one of the chassis and if asked, tell them your being disabled in your spare time. It makes as much sense as the rest of it.

The licencing rules do not change the MOT classes. The Type 70 goes in for a Class 3 MOT. It is a restriction on who can then drive it by the new licence after it is changed from Disabled Vehicle or Invalid Carriage. Interestingly Disabled drivers appear to gain Threewheeler rights automatically, where as everyone else has to earn them now. So the only thing that has changed is a reduction in your potential customer base on offering a powered chassis for sale.

Big question. If DVLA are saying that all threewheelers are motorcycles are we all going to have to change are numberplates accordingly? Perhaps better to keep schtum about that as it will upset quite a number of owners before you add the additional expense. If I had an Ant however I would proudly display my motorcycle plates, park in motorcycle parking bays and use other benefits of those machines to prove the law is a total and utter ass. INdeed what a shame it was not the Reliant Ass rather than Ant. Shortened it is the Rant though so a saving grace there, coming in.

[Bob Purton]

So does this mean that our V5's are going to all be changed over to say motorcyle? I'm sure that if I parked Thumper in the motorcycle bay down Westbourne grove I would get nicked as it doesnt say motorcycle on the document. Another thought, I have recent  gone to a lot of trouble getting a Nobel v5 changed from saying Motorcycle to tricycle! It was an error going back to the 1980's when all the registrations were put on computer. Dont tell me I needent have bothered? 

[Big Al]

No, the V5 will be tricycle but it will be treated as a motorcycle to drive and a car to use. So you should not park in Motorcycle bays and all the other naughty things I suggested and likewise in theory you should pay tolls bikes do not, unless Trikes are officially listed as free (which they never are as no one thinks about them when setting down the tolls even if they should be on the list of exemptions). Note a motorcycle and sidecar are not a tricycle for MOT, one is class 2, I think, the other class 3. Registration is also differentiated. It is DVLA who have ignored this prior demarcation by now suddenly reverting to trikes being bikes as they were back in the 50's along with no reverse etc etc.

For number plates Trikes had the option of Bikes or Car size plates. What I am saying is with this decision trikes should uniformly have Bike size plates as DVLA say they are bikes. In effect they will be breaking their own rules by not insisting on it, in the same way as you cannot move letters and numbers on a plate to make words. The numberplate form is not part of the MOT test.  Funnily enough colour is. So wrong plates, no one is interested. Wrong colour, fine for not notifying DVLA and money please.

Perhaps UKIP might want to add sorting out DVLA into a system that makes some kind of sense into its manifesto.