Transport Act 1968

62 Applications for operators’ licences. E+W+S

(1) A person may apply for an operator’s licence to the licensing authority for each area in which, if the licence is granted, the applicant will have an operating centre or operating centres; and a person may hold separate operators’ licences in respect of different areas but shall not at any time hold more than one such licence in respect of the same area.

(2) A person applying for an operator’s licence shall give to the licensing authority a statement giving such particulars as the authority may require of the motor vehicles proposed to be used under the licence which—

(a) belong to the applicant, or

(b) are in his possession under an agreement for hire-purchase, hire or loan, or

(c) he intends, if the application is granted, to acquire, or to obtain possession of under such an agreement,

and also stating the number and type of any trailers proposed to be so used.

(3) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . F1

(4) A person applying for an operator’s licence shall give to the licensing authority any further information which he may reasonably require for the discharge of his duties in relation to the application, and in particular shall, if he is required by the licensing authority so to do, give to him—

(a) such particulars as he may require with respect to the purposes for which the vehicles referred to in the statement under subsection (2) of this section are proposed to be used;

(b) particulars of the arrangements for securing that Part VI of this Act (or, so long as those sections remain in force, sections 73 and 186 of the Act of 1960) will be complied with in the case of those vehicles, and for securing that those vehicles are not overloaded;

(c) particulars of the facilities and arrangements for securing that those vehicles will be maintained in a fit and serviceable condition;

(d) particulars of any activities carried on, at any time before the making of the application, by—

(i) the applicant,

(ii) any company of which the applicant is or has been a director;

(iii) where the applicant is a company, any person who is a director of the company;

(iv) where the applicant proposes to operate the said vehicles in partnership with other persons, any of those other persons;

(v) any company of which any such person as is mentioned in sub-paragraph (iii) or (iv) of this paragraph is or has been a director;

(vi) any company of which the applicant is a subsidiary,

being activities in carrying on any trade or business in the course of which vehicles of any description are operated, or as a person employed for the purposes of any such trade or business, or as a director of a company carrying on any such trade or business;

(e) particulars of any convictions during the five years preceding the making of the application—

(i) of the applicant; and

(ii) of any other person as to whose activities particulars may be required to be given under paragraph (d) of this subsection,

being convictions such as are mentioned in subsection (4) of section 69 of this Act (taking references in that subsection to the holder of the licence as references to the applicant or, as the case may be, to that other person);

(f) particulars of the financial resources which are or are likely to be available to the applicant;

(g) where the applicant is a company, the names of the directors and officers of the company, and of any company of which the first-mentioned company is a subsidiary, and where the authorised vehicles are proposed to be operated by the applicant in partnership with other persons, the names of those other pcrsons.

[F2 (4A) A person who has applied for an operator’s licence shall forthwith notify the licensing authority if, in the interval between the making of the application and the date on which it is disposed of, a conviction occurs which, if the period of five years specified in paragraph (e) of subsection (4) of this section had not expired, would be a conviction falling within that paragraph; and for the purposes of this subsection an application shall be taken to be disposed of,—

(a) if the licensing authority is required, by virtue of regulations under section 91 of this Act, to cause a statement containing his decision on the application to be issued, on the date on which that statement is issued, and

(b) in any other case, on the date on which the applicant receives notice from the licensing authority of his decision on the application.

(4B) A person who knowingly fails to comply with subsection (4A) of this section shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding [F3 level 4 on the standard scale], and [F4 section 6 of the Road Traffic Offenders Act 1988] (time for bringing summary proceedings for certain offences) shall apply in relation to an offence under this subsection as it applies in relation to the offences [F5 under the Road Traffic Act 1988 or the Road Traffic Offenders Act 1988] to which it is applied by virtue of [F6 Schedule 1 to the Road Traffic Offenders Act 1988].]

(5) Any statement or information to be given to a licensing authority under this section shall be given in such form as the authority may require.

Textual Amendments

F1 Ss. 62(3), 63(2), 65 repealed by Transport Act 1982 (c. 49, SIF 126), Sch. 6

F2 S. 62(4A)(4B) inserted by Road Traffic Act 1974 (c. 50, SIF 107:1), Sch. 4 para. 1

F3 Words substituted by virtue of (E.W.) Criminal Justice Act 1982 (c. 48, SIF 39:1), ss. 38, 46 and (S.) Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1975 (c. 21, SIF 39:1), ss. 289F, 289G (as inserted by Criminal Justice Act 1982 (c. 48, SIF 39:1), s. 54)

F4 Words substituted by Road Traffic (Consequential Provisions) Act 1988 (c. 54, SIF 107:1), s. 4, Sch. 3 para. 6(1)(a)

F5 Words substituted by Road Traffic (Consequential Provisions) Act 1988 (c.54, SIF 107:1), s. 4, Sch. 3 para. 6(1)(b)

F6 Words substituted by Road Traffic (Consequential Provisions) Act 1988 (c. 54, SIF 107:1), s. 4, Sch. 3 para. 6(1)(c)

Modifications etc. (not altering text)

C4 S. 62(4)(b) extended by Road Traffic (Drivers' Ages and Hours of Work) Act 1976 (c. 3, SIF 107:1), s. 2(2)

C5 S. 61(4)(d)(e) extended by S.I. 1984/176, reg. 10(8)

C6 S. 62(4B) extended by S.I. 1984/176, reg. 5(5)