Tractors used for agricultural use only and mainly used in agricultural roads and fields are to be exempt from the planned 'tractor NCT’ regime, the Irish Farmers Journal understands.
However contractors are at odds with the Department of Transport about the definition of commercial haulage and have sought another meeting to clarify the proposed definition.
Officials from the Department of Transport met with farming, contractor and machinery organisations to discuss a new Statutory Instrument (SI) which will require testing of some tractors.
A previous SI was withdrawn as the prior stakeholder consultation agreed had not occurred. There is an EU requirement to test “fast” tractors involved in commercial haulage from 20 May 2018.
Tractor type
At Friday’s meeting, Department of Transport officials said the EU directive will apply wheeled tractors of the T5 category, which are mainly used on public roads, with a maximum design speed exceeding 40km/h.
Excluded from the new testing regime will be vehicles used for agricultural, horticultural, forestry, farming or fishery purposes only and used mainly in agricultural roads, forestry roads or agricultural fields.
Commercial haulage
The testing will apply to T5 tractors with a maximum design speed exceeding 40km/h used for commercial haulage.
At Friday’s meeting, Department of Transport officials proposed to define commercial road haulage as either or both of the following:
(a) carriage of goods or passengers by road for hire and reward;
(b) carriage of goods by road by a person in the course of a trade or business, except where such carriage:
is carried out by a person engaged in an agricultural, horticultural, forestry, farming or fisheries undertaking; is for the purpose only of that agricultural, horticultural, forestry, farming or fisheries undertaking; and is ancillary to, as the case may be, the agricultural, horticultural, forestry, farming or fisheries activities of that undertaking.However the Department of Transport claims that this would define all agricultural work with T5 high-speed tractors as commercial haulage and bring all of their T5 machines into the testing next.
Contractors have sought another meeting with the Department of Transport next week to clarify the definition of commercial haulage.
The Irish Farmers Journal understands that a previously discussed limit of 25km/h outside of which agricultural tractors would have to be tested has been scrapped.
Read more
Farm organisations react to tractor test climbdown
Ross annuls legislation requiring NCT tractor test
Tractor test to be shelved
Hundreds of items for scrutiny in tractor test
Tractors used for agricultural use only and mainly used in agricultural roads and fields are to be exempt from the planned 'tractor NCT’ regime, the Irish Farmers Journal understands.
However contractors are at odds with the Department of Transport about the definition of commercial haulage and have sought another meeting to clarify the proposed definition.
Officials from the Department of Transport met with farming, contractor and machinery organisations to discuss a new Statutory Instrument (SI) which will require testing of some tractors.
A previous SI was withdrawn as the prior stakeholder consultation agreed had not occurred. There is an EU requirement to test “fast” tractors involved in commercial haulage from 20 May 2018.
Tractor type
At Friday’s meeting, Department of Transport officials said the EU directive will apply wheeled tractors of the T5 category, which are mainly used on public roads, with a maximum design speed exceeding 40km/h.
Excluded from the new testing regime will be vehicles used for agricultural, horticultural, forestry, farming or fishery purposes only and used mainly in agricultural roads, forestry roads or agricultural fields.
Commercial haulage
The testing will apply to T5 tractors with a maximum design speed exceeding 40km/h used for commercial haulage.
At Friday’s meeting, Department of Transport officials proposed to define commercial road haulage as either or both of the following:
(a) carriage of goods or passengers by road for hire and reward;
(b) carriage of goods by road by a person in the course of a trade or business, except where such carriage:
is carried out by a person engaged in an agricultural, horticultural, forestry, farming or fisheries undertaking; is for the purpose only of that agricultural, horticultural, forestry, farming or fisheries undertaking; and is ancillary to, as the case may be, the agricultural, horticultural, forestry, farming or fisheries activities of that undertaking.However the Department of Transport claims that this would define all agricultural work with T5 high-speed tractors as commercial haulage and bring all of their T5 machines into the testing next.
Contractors have sought another meeting with the Department of Transport next week to clarify the definition of commercial haulage.
The Irish Farmers Journal understands that a previously discussed limit of 25km/h outside of which agricultural tractors would have to be tested has been scrapped.
Read more
Farm organisations react to tractor test climbdown
Ross annuls legislation requiring NCT tractor test
Tractor test to be shelved
Hundreds of items for scrutiny in tractor test
This is a subscriber-only article
SHARING OPTIONS: