Posted by Towing law in the UK has changed a fair bit since I learned to drive. So, here I’ll aim to make things a little clearer because now, you may well need to have a particular addition to a regular car licence to allow you to tow a trailer of any sort. Your car is also restricted to towing certain weights and even then, this changes depending on whether the trailer has its own brakes and the overall weight of the combination of car and trailer.
Your driving license has categories of vehicles that you are allowed to drive printed on the back of it. This is assuming that you have a photocard license. If you still have a paper license, then the categories are printed on this too.
I’ve been asked if you need a trailer licence to tow any trailer. Well, firstly, there is no such thing as a ‘trailer licence’ however dependent on the weight of the load you wish to tow you might need to take an additional short driving test to add a category to your license. The law relating to when you passed your test, and additional categories are below.
From 19 January 2013 drivers passing a category B (car and small vehicle) test can tow:
- Small trailers weighing no more than 750kg
- A trailer over 750kg as long as the combined weight of the trailer and towing vehicle is no more than 3,500kg Maximum Authorised Mass (MAM)
- If you want to tow a trailer weighing more than 750kg, when the combined weight of the towing vehicle and trailer is more than 3,500kg, you’ll have to get B+E entitlement on your licence.
If you passed your driving test after 1 January 1997 and have an ordinary category B (car) licence, you can:
- Drive a vehicle up to 3.5 tonnes or 3,500kg MAM towing a trailer of up to 750kg MAM
- Tow a trailer over 750kg MAM as long as the combined weight of the trailer and towing vehicle is no more than 3,500kg.
- For anything heavier, you’ll need to take a category B+E driving test.
If you passed your driving test before 1 January 1997 you’re generally allowed to drive a vehicle and trailer combination up to 8.25 tonnes MAM, but you should double-check here what your licence allows you to tow.
So, those are the legalities of licences and towing, however these are not the only laws relating to towing. Towing of trailers and caravans of any kind means you need to adhere to different speed limits on some roads and depending on the width of the trailer or caravan and there are also restrictions to the lanes that you can use on the motorway network. Along with this there are maximum limits on the size of trailers, so we’ll start with these.
The maximum trailer width for any towing vehicle is 2.55 metres. The maximum length is 7 metres for a trailer towed by a vehicle weighing up to 3,500 kilograms. Interestingly, I used to tow glider trailers with cars, and many of these exceed the length limits by up to 2 metres, but I’ve never been stopped by the police while towing one. I guess they are something of an anomaly and although you might see a few on the roads, they are not exactly common. As a little side note here, we used to get asked quite often what was in the trailer. One freind had “Sleeping Giraffe in transit” printed along the side of his glider trailer as a joke.
The speed limits for towing are fortunately kept pretty simple. Where the national speed limit of 60 mph applies, then towing vehicles are limited to 50 mph. On motorways and dual carriageways where the national speed limit of 70 mph applies then the towing limit is 60 mph. So effectively, unless a lower limit applies, you should drive at no more than 10 mph less than the national limit. In areas of lower limits, for instance 50, 40, 30 or 20 mph limits, then those limits also apply to towing.
On motorways you are allowed to tow in lanes one and two only. You should not in any circumstances use lane three. If a motorway is two lanes only then you may use either, but of course keeping left unless overtaking and sticking to the towing speed limit. Have a look at this absolutely ridiculous overtaking from dashcam footage kindly sent to me by David Stacey. Not only was the van towing and overtaking in lane three, but according to David, travelling at significantly over 70 mph too.