During the early 80’s AVRO together with other interested parties, met with Department for Transport requesting heavy recovery vehicles be included in STGO and exempt from notifications (movement order) as having to do so would create a delay (48hrs) in the recovery of the broken down vehicle. Now with the inclusion of heavy recovery in STGO but no exemptions, a significant issue has arisen.

Under STGO part 4 Conditions relating to use 8-(1) states ‘At any time when a disabled vehicle or vehicle-combination is being towed by a road recovery vehicle, the braking system of the disabled vehicle or vehicle-combination must not be operated by any device other than an approved brake connection point that is fitted to both the road recovery vehicle and the disabled vehicle or vehicle-combination’.
( 2)    In sub-paragraph (1), “approved brake connection point”, in relation to a road recovery vehicle, means a device which is–
(a)    approved by the manufacturer of the vehicle;
(b)    fitted to the vehicle in the course of its construction or adaptation; and
(c)    specially designed for use in the course of recovering disabled vehicles or vehicle-combinations in order to provide a means by which the braking system of the disabled vehicle or vehicle-combination can be safely and effectively controlled from the road recovery vehicle.

Firstly, no vehicle manufacturer has fitted a connection to the front of the vehicle that the recovery vehicle can connect to in order that the brakes of the casualty can be operated by the recovery vehicle. There is no device that can be attached to operate the brakes that has been approved by the manufacturer, and if the recovery operator brakes into the airlines of the casualty so they can operate the brakes, they can be prosecuted, as it would be a notifiable alteration. The industry have had discussions regarding the braking problems and asked for braking points to be fitted by the manufacturer but this has not been addressed to-date. As there are no fittings on the casualty to operate the brakes and as the vehicle is fitted with spring back brakes it means to move the vehicle require the brakes to be wound off, this means that the casualty vehicle has no brakes.

There are three options to recover/remove a vehicle:
(1)    By towing on a tow bar recovering option (1) would require trying to balance up to 44tonne on a pole with no power steering when the recovery vehicle is braking also the danger of the weight of the casualty pushing the recover vehicle sideways
(2)    By front lifting this is better than option (1) as the recovery vehicle has more control of the casualty and the weight on the rear wheels of the recovery vehicle make it more stable but still only has the braking of the recovery vehicle
(3)    By transporting this is by far the safest way, load the casualty on to the bed of the transporter wind the brakes back on, secure the casualty to the transporter, you now have a better braking system as the recovery transporter has braking on all axles that are in contact with the road.

If  recovering using 1 or 2 you are then recovering an unbraked trailer, which requires a recovery vehicle to be twice the weight of the trailer. 
If recovering using method 2 you increase the load on the recovery vehicle to maximum and depending on the vehicle stand a chance of overloading the rear axle of the casualty.

The prime reason for recovery operators using (3) lowloaders to recover heavy broken down vehicles is primarily for safety reasons.
 
As both heavy lift and tow and transporters are included in STGO there is a strong case for an exemption for recovery vehicles when recovering vehicles that are broken down or have been involved in an accident.

When carrying out a recovery as a heavy locomotive lift and tow vehicle the casualty then becomes a trailer so you could have up to 44 tonne of trailer and the recovery vehicle an average weight of 25tonne this makes a train weight of 69tonne so it would require a movement order. It seems apparent that as the law currently stands all vehicles under this and similar circumstances would have to stop where they are for 48hours unless a directive were to be issued by the police.

AVRO have taken up the matter with VOSA Head of Policy and it is expected that further talks may take place that may include the Department for Transport.