Phased roll-out of annual HGV tests.

Some heavy goods vehicles stopped being exempt from needing an annual test on May 2018. For some of these vehicles, you have up until the date your vehicle tax renewal is due to get it tested for the first time.

The categories of vehicles stopped being exempt from annual tests include

• Mobile cranes
• Breakdown vehicles,  engineering plant and plant not being engineering plant., which is movable plant or equipment being a motor vehicle or trailer(not constructed primarily to carry a load) especially designed and constructed for the special purposes of engineering operation.
• trailers being drying or mixing plant designed for the production of asphalt or of bituminous or tarmacadam
• Tower wagons
• Road construction vehicles ( but not road rollers and other specialised equipment not based on an HGV chassis
• Electrically propelled motor vehicles since registered since 1 March 2015
• Tractor units pulling exempt trailers
• motor tractors and heavy and light locomotives exempted under sections 185 and 186 (3) of the Road Traffic Act 1988, where these are based on an HGV chassis

The phased approach to annual test is only for vehicles that were:

• first registered before 20 May 2017
• exempt from annual tests before 20 May 2018

The following types of vehicles cannot use the phased approach:

• motor vehicles to be used in international traffic
• mobile concrete batching plant (also known as ‘volumetric concrete mixers’
• tractors with a design speed over 40 km/h used for non-agricultural haulage beyond a radius of 15 miles from their operating base
• trailers of all types

These vehicles must have a valid annual test certificate from 20 May 2018

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