Towing a trailer on the back of heavy earthmoving equipment is a common sight on many sites in the UK. This includes towing attachments, generators, lighting towers and other required equipment. However, in new advice provided to JCB by the Vehicle Certification Agency (VCA), the agency stated that the use of any earthmoving equipment to tow any trailer on the public highway is illegal, even when the only cargo is transport attachments.
This is important news in the Plant Operator industry because towing a trailer with attachments was previously understood to not be classified as “Engineering Plant” by the wider industry.
Following the news, JCB states that they plan on lobbying for a change to this legislation in their blog post here: https://www.jcb.com/en-gb/news/2017/09/uk-legislation-on-towing-a-trailer-with-earthmoving-equipment
They cite in this post that their main point of contention is that is is legal to tow a trailer with attachments behind a car or van, but not a 11.5 tonne excavator which is speed limited! They also state that they will be be working with their engineering devision to find solutions that allows attachments to be carried on-board their excavators and other large machinery.
