Road Traffic Act 1960

INTERPRETATION AND APPLICATION

13 A vehicle falling within two or more descriptions specified in this Schedule shall be treated as falling within that description for which the lowest limit of speed is specified.

14 (1) In this Schedule " dual-purpose vehicle " means a vehicle constructed or adapted for the carriage both of passengers and of goods or burden of any description, being a vehicle of which the unladen weight does not exceed two tons and which either—

(a) satisfies the conditions as to construction specified in the next following sub-paragraph, or

(b) is so constructed or adapted that the driving power of the engine is, or by the appropriate use of the controls of the vehicle can be, transmitted to all the wheels of the vehicle.

(2) The conditions as to construction referred to in the last foregoing sub-paragraph are the following:—

(a) the vehicle must be permanently fitted with a rigid roof, with or without a sliding panel,

(b) the area of the vehicle to the rear of the driver's seat must—

(i) be permanently fitted with at least one row of transverse seats (fixed or folding) for two or more passengers and those seats must be properly sprung or cushioned and provided with upholstered backrests, attached either to the seats or to a side or the floor of the vehicle; and

(ii) be lit on each side and at the rear by a window or windows of glass or other transparent material having an area or aggregate area of not less than two square feet on each side and not less than one hundred and twenty square inches at the rear;

(c) the distance between the rearmost part of the steering wheel and the backrests of the row of transverse seats satisfying the requirements specified in head (i) of this sub-paragraph (or, if there is more than one such row of seats, the distance between the rearmost part of the steering wheel and the backrests of the rearmost such row) must, when the seats are ready for use, be not less than one-third of the distance between the rearmost part of the steering wheel and the rearmost part of the floor of the vehicle.

15 In this Schedule " close-coupled", in relation to a trailer, means that the wheels on the same side of the trailer are so fitted that at all times while it is in motion they remain parallel to the longitudinal axis of the trailer, and that the distance between the centres of their respective areas of contact with the road surface does not exceed thirty-three inches.

16 In this Schedule " articulated vehicle " means a vehicle with a trailer so attached to the drawing vehicle that part of the trailer is superimposed upon the drawing vehicle, and when the trailer is uniformly loaded not less than twenty per cent. of the weight of its load is borne by the drawing vehicle.

17 In this Schedule, in relation to a vehicle (including a trailer), " fitted with pneumatic tyres " means that every wheel of the vehicle is fitted with pneumatic tyres, and " fitted with resilient tyres " means that every wheel of the vehicle is fitted either with pneumatic tyres or with other soft or elastic tyres.

18 In this Schedule "track-laying" means so designed and constructed that the weight is transmitted to the road surface either by means of continuous tracks or by a combination of wheels and continuous tracks, and "combined track-and-wheel vehicle" means a vehicle so designed and constructed that its weight is transmitted to the road surface by a combination of wheels and continuous tracks.

19 A heavy motor car or motor car drawing a trailer and being used as a public service vehicle or as a goods vehicle shall be treated as not drawing a trailer if the trailer is used solely for the carriage of a container or containers for holding, or plant and materials for producing, for the purpose of the propulsion of the drawing vehicle, any fuel that is wholly gaseous at sixty degrees Fahrenheit under a pressure of thirty inches of mercury.

20 (1) Paragraphs 1 to 4 of this Schedule do not apply to, and paragraphs 5 to 12 apply only to, track-laying vehicles and vehicles drawing track-laying trailers or trailers some of which are track-laying.

(2) Paragraphs 1 to 12 of this Schedule do not apply to vehicles for the time being used in the conduct of experiments or trials under section six of the Roads Improvement Act, 1925, or section two hundred and forty-nine of the Highways Act, 1959.