We’ll keep this one brief, but you may have noticed shortages of practically everything in shops at the minute - a large part of that is the lack of lorries on the roads delivering our goods to stores. Well, the DVSA has announced plans to free up slots for lorry tests by entirely scrapping the towing testing process for that BE entitlement on the back of your photocard.
Car and trailer tests will be stopped from the 20th of September, and from an unconfirmed date (but one that is promised to be soon, likely the 21st September or thereabouts) everyone with a car licence can whack a trailer or caravan on the back of their car and hit the road, no training and no questions asked.
Currently, there are restrictions on what you can tow depending on when you passed your test, but that’ll be completely scrapped under the new ruling.
It's an interesting topic for a multitude of reasons, but those with track bikes and an old trailer may be rubbing their hands together at the prospect of a 2022 UK-wide track-day-tour turning from fiction to reality.
You won’t need to contact the DVLA for the towing entitlement, it will be automatically added to your licence if you’re passed the car driving bit - no, they’re not giving that one away for free as well. When you send off for an updated licence (new address, photo, unrelated test pass etc) it’ll come back with the BE category ticked.
This is also vital to know for us motorcyclists who may be trailing a car & caravan combination on the roads in the future - there’s now every chance that the driver behind the wheel has not had training, and without pointing fingers, they could be a tad more unpredictable on the roads so watch out.
When has the DVSA confirmed relaxed towing rules?
As mentioned, there is no confirmed date for this to take effect. So quite literally hold your horses until the gov say ‘get set, go’ and you load Jerry the horse and Betty the bike into a trailer and head for Snetterton.
More info on the gov site, including the current restrictions and what's planned.
