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When I started out with my own business in Landscaping 2 years ago I was assisted by some great business mentors in getting things setup. However over the past few months I have managed to learn about some legislation, purely by chance, and also manage to avoid some hefty fines and points on my license!

The only real legislation on research when starting up that was highlighted was for spraying chemicals, this was solved easily by a course, some expense, and now I've a card with numerous PA numbers across it :-)

However there are some nasties lurking about that can cause you some serious financial problems. The first for me, living in Scotland, was with SEPA (Scottish Environmental Protection Agency). I was in the understanding that as a business I could not use local council facilities to dispose of waste, and that you had to dispose through private businesses dealing in the waste you were producing. To me that wasn't a problem, as I was able to dump grass, leaves, bush cuttings etc on my own ground. It was only 3 months ago that I found out by chance the licence was required to transport the waste, regardless of where it was going. So another cheque, some form filling, and I've got another credit card sized bit of paper for my wallet from SEPA.

The next, and probably most expensive on the fines side, was my humble van & trailer. I stumbled across a complete and utter grey area, that not even the legislators are sure about so I took the option of not even attempting to hover on the boundaries. If you Google this you will find forum after forum arguing the pro's and cons, the if's and but's, but no definitive answer or official line. So what could possibly be wrong with my van & trailer, the answer is their COMBINED weight. If my van's GVW (Gross vehicle weight) plus my trailer and load are over 3500kgs, then in theory I need to be using a Tachograph, similar to those used in HGV lorries. There are exemptions etc but far too grey an area.

Anyway I found this out the lucky way. I had been intending on driving from Aberdeen to Birmingham to collect some new equipment, and looking for the easy ways my intention was to take my trailer and load the goods. Having heard about the above recently, I decided just to empty my van and make space to load my goods inside. For me this was a good decision, 60 miles from my house (well outside the permitted range of the exemptions listed under the Tachograph fiasco) I was pulled into a lay-by by the police. Waiting there were members of the Police, SEPA, and VOSA ! The police done all the checks on my vehicle from lights, tyres, wipers, windscreen wash, insurance, licence checks etc. SEPA seeing my business advertised on my van immediately asked for my Certificate of Registration for carrying waste, and double checked this on their database. Vosa were interested in knowing where I was going and commented on the fact I had a towbar, and what did I tow? You also have the minefield of Driver CPC (Certificate of Professional Competence) if your towing. Just for your own interest, the fine for being over 3.5ton with your van & trailer is £1000 and 6 points. Its estimated that only 1% of vans towing trailers over the limit currently have a Tachograph fitted, and this is something that VOSA are actively clamping down on through operations like the one I was pulled over in.
There are exemptions, but as its such a grey area, I'll leave you to decide what you do, and to try find out the information yourself.

And who said Landscaping was a nice stress free job?

Best of Luck!!

(This post has also been added to other forums to try raise the awareness within the Landscaping community)