Caravan licence rumour

SDG.
Here in good ol' waitawhile.( WA ) a HR licence is for a rigid truck not an articulated vehicle, can't understand their reasoning, apart from revenue raising maybe ?
Be interesting to find out how drivers from other states would be affected when they cross the border.
Best of the lot is the block's of flats being towed around, think they call em 5th wheelers.
I believe they only require a normal "A" class, bit of a joke really.
Cheers
Flighty

Hmmm, have not heard of this option, although HR is Heavy Rigid, so I would have thought something with articulated in it more appropriate, although HR may encompass this....?

But it's about time licencing options were looked at more closely given the greater volume, size and weight being towed by drivers, both experienced (if you can call 2 holidays a year experienced) and inexperienced.

Sure to open a can of worms, but long overdue.

Mate,
this won't happen, the first thing that has to be sorted out is the licence has to be national, otherwise as soon as someone crosses a border they are in trouble.

Once that is sorted and we go national, the licence has to target vans as part of the training for a licence.

I am all for it but it has to be sorted properly with the emphasis on vans in particular.

In the future they may even bring in a special licence designated LC or light combination which will cover 5th wheels/camper trailers and vans. I am sure they are looking at it.

SDG said "Apparently there will be a report on this Wednesday night on the Today Tonight show."

That means it is impossible for it to be true...

About 40 years ago I was talking to a chap from the Accident research division of the Dept. Motor Transport, (RTA now RMS) and he was saying that as a motoring group, caravaners had the best safety record of any motoring demographic. Interesting.
Perhaps standards have slipped somewhat.

However, as I have related before on these pages there was a woman I bumped into in Big W here in my home town several years ago and she was going through the checkout with a 10" shifter, a pair of pliers, some screw drivers etc and I asked her if hubby was about to do some maintenance jobs and her reply was " Oh no, I just bought a fifth wheeler and I need some tools for it"

I said "Ill bet that is a bit of a handful for you" and she said "Oh no it is good, I took it for a run around the block before I bought it. Do you know I have never so much as towed a box trailer before in my life"!!!!!

I thought (WT Flaming Hell) now there is an accident waiting to happen.

Don't get me wrong girls, some of you could make some blokes hang their heads in shame with regard to driving prowess.

Mind you, she could not do any worse that poor chap who was taking the direct route, took the top of his 5th wheeler on a low bridge heading to the Tasmanian Ferry near the docks there many years ago.

Bloody nice bloke is MB but that is worth a laugh. As he said "S_it happens."
Mind you, they wrote off a brand new police communications unit about 2 weeks before him on the same bridge, so he has no need to be embarrassed.
He was not the first and most likely will not be the last.

It is probably about time they stiffened up the licencing re caravan towing. Especially with these bigger rigs we tow today. Some semis are a little smaller than my unit.
By the way, I have a HR licence.

Cheers, Bruce.

I recently did my LR licence and asked the testing officer just that and he said as far as he knows there is nothing planned. He may not have heard antthing but that is as close to the RTA as I can get.
However, I have often said drivers should have to do a 1 day course and get their licence endorsed accordingly to tow anything heavier than 1 tonne or longer than say 4 metres.
Ian

All states are moving towards more standardised rules and there have been many changes already to create national standards. This would be backward so I would say its a load of fertiliser

A caravan is a trailer - IF and when they bring in a licence requirement it would have to cover all trailers above a specified weight - be they caravans, horse floats boats or trades trailers.

Motherhen

I wouldn't worry, SDG.

I wouldn't put too much credence in any of the rubbish from Today-Tonight or ACA. They're just sensationalist gossip shows nowadays, much like the morning shows on any of the commercial stations :)

Today Tonight-the modern day Encyclopedia Brittanica!

1/ If a licence was brought in it wouyldnt be "tomorrow you cant tow anymore til you get this licence
2/ it wouldnt be a Heavy Rigid licence

does anyone actually place any store in what TT night other than laughing at the "have you stopped beating your wife" type interview style?

I have always wondered why anyone with 0 towing experience, can jump in a car, hook up a large caravan. I think they should be made to have some sort of training for vans that are a certain length and weight.

But it's a bit pointless making it law in one state and not the others.

While common sense says that there should be a licence, my practical experience suggests it may not be needed. I do more kilometres a year than average and have done for 35 years. I don't tow anything on a regular basis, certainly not a caravan, I have no interest in it. But, I must say that I haven't come across many caravaners in my travels that I would class as dangerous. Mostly they are an inconvenience that you have to get around. All in all I think most of them do a pretty good job, certainly better than a lot of other vehicle drivers on the road. There's nothing better than slapping 3 tonne behind a car to steady the driver down a bit. Any van drivers reading this can take it as a direct compliment. There don't seem to be any readily available statistics to back any claim either way.

Hi Folks

Didn't get an opportunity to watch the show - has anyone anyone got any feed back from it at all?

Cheery pips - Phil

WELL................was there anything on TT last night.

Didn't bother to watch.