TMCPC Introduction Webinar

Van Licensing Crunch

Post-Brexit obligations under the UK-EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement forced the 2022 expansion of goods operator licensing to light goods vehicles over 2.5 tonnes used for international hire and reward, bringing medium vans and pick-ups into the same regime as HGVs for the first time.

Transitional acquired-rights certificates, which let experienced managers bypass the full qualification, expired on 20 May 2025. Since then no exemptions remain: any transport manager signing off on an O-licence must hold the CPC, the same rigorous standard applied to heavy-haul fleets.

The next hammer falls on 1 July 2026 when smart tachograph version 2 becomes compulsory for these vehicles on international journeys. Managers must install and calibrate the devices, train drivers on new recording rules, retain data for at least 56 days, and prepare for DVSA roadside checks that now extend to lighter fleets.

An estimated 4,200 operators across Great Britain and Northern Ireland are in scope, many small courier and delivery businesses that previously operated vans without formal licensing. Traffic commissioners can revoke or suspend O-licences for inadequate professional competence, halting all authorised work overnight; tachograph and hours offences carry fines measured in thousands of pounds per incident.

Less visible is the structural bind: the statutory limit of one CPC holder to 50 vehicles across four operators creates a bottleneck precisely when international trade volumes are recovering. Smaller operators, unable to justify a full-time qualified manager, turn to external consultants whose fees have risen sharply, widening the competitive gap with larger fleets that absorb the cost more easily.