AVRO continue to lobby VOSA and the Department for Transport (DfT) on matters to do with STGO and lorry loaders. The latest response from the DfT provides the following advice to recovery operators.

C&U provides an exemption from the braking requirements for a ‘broken down vehicle’. This exemption will not only apply to those vehicles permitted by C&U, but also those authorised by the STGO. Regarding the comments made by AVRO on the requirement for recovery vehicles to be equipped with an ‘approved brake connection point’, our view is that the STGO requirements do not require all ‘casualty’ vehicles to be equipped with such a connection point. Given the exemption that is provided by C&U, a casualty vehicle can be recovered without operational brakes but, if the brakes on the casualty vehicle(s) are going to be applied from the towing vehicle during the course of the recovery, this can only be achieved through an ‘approved brake connection point’.
 
 The reason for including this provision in the STGO was to only permit ‘suitable’ operation of the brakes on the casualty vehicles. Although motor vehicles may not be equipped with an approved connection point as AVRO have indicated in their letter, recovery vehicles could (and are) equipped with brake connections (service and emergency lines) that could for example (and frequently are) connected directly to the trailer of an articulated combination to provide braking of the trailer when performing such a recovery. As the majority, if not all, recovery vehicles will have been converted from tractor units, these connections are likely to have been in fitted to the vehicle by its original manufacturer and likely to meet the requirements set out in the STGO.
 
The DfT accept that allowing vehicles to be recovered without brakes is not ideal, but it should be remembered that although the STGO does not impose a set distance for recoveries that are using a drawbar or lift and tow method, the casualty vehicle should not be transported “any further than is reasonably necessary”. The provisions are obviously in place to allow vehicle recovery, are there solely to allow ‘recovery’ and not transportation in the same way that goods are. The exact wording in the STGO is: “Where a recovery of a disabled vehicle or vehicle-combination is effected by using a drawbar or lift-and-tow method, the road recovery vehicle must not carry or tow the disabled vehicle or vehicle-combination any further than is reasonably necessary in order to clear any road obstructed by it and to facilitate the use of roads by other persons.” What would be considered as ‘reasonably necessary’ is something the courts would need to make a judgement on.
 
Regarding towing an unbraked trailer (casualty) and the drawing vehicle needing to be twice the weight of the trailer, the DfT are not aware of any legislative requirement for this. Regulation 87 of C&U (unbraked trailers) does require a vehicle towing an unbraked trailer to be twice the weight of the trailer (including its load) but, this regulation does not apply to trailers that are broken down vehicles by virtue of regulation 87(2)(b).