Can I pay someone to be the operator license holder? Can I hire or rent an operator's licence or disc? No but...

[Admin]

Often when this question is asked it is because some people confuse the terms "operator's licence" and "transport manager / CPC holder". You have to obtain your own operator's licence (and receive vehicle discs automatically after that) but you can hire an external transport manager (CPC holder) to be nominated on your operator's licence which is a legal requirement if you don't have a TM CPC yourself. In other words, you can hire an external transport manager (CPC holder) in order to obtain your own operator's licence. Read on to understand this difference in detail.

There's a common misconception or confusion that you can pay someone to be the operator licence holder for you or that you can hire an operator's licence or that you can put your vehicles on someone else's operator's licence (i.e. borrow vehicle discs). That's impossible or rather illegal. Some people still do that quietly, usually between close friends or relatives, but it's not done openly on a commercial basis where you can just call someone and do that. You need to obtain your own operator's licence. Here's a complete guide that explains how to do that.

However, as part of getting your own operator's licence, you need to appoint a licensed transport manager (a TM CPC holder) to be listed on your operator's licence and that's who you can hire to be on your own operator's licence. Alternatively, you can pass an exam and obtain your own TM CPC. Here are the current rates for external transport manager services. Some people may confuse hiring an external transport manager for your own operator's licence (which is allowed) and hiring an operator's licence (which is not allowed).

Using someone else's operator's licence is illegal and it's called "Fronting". Below is Section 54 from the document entitled Senior Traffic Commissioner - Statutory Document No. 1 - Good Repute and Fitness that explains it in more detail:

54. ‘Fronting’, where a person, partnership or company, which does not have an operator’s licence, uses the operator’s licence held by another entity to conceal the fact that they are behaving in a way which requires them to have an operator’s licence of their own, is considered to be serious. Fronting deprives the traffic commissioner of the opportunity to oversee an ‘operator’. ‘Fronting’ is aggravated and very much more serious where it is apparent that the entity hiding behind the legitimate ‘front’ would be unlikely to obtain or would be debarred from holding their own operator’s licence. The Upper Tribunal has given clear guidance that evidence of fronting can, on its own, provide justification for deciding that the operator being used as a ‘front’ has lost its good repute. When concerns are raised that an applicant could be a ‘front’, they will need to do more than make bare assertions and rely on their good character to satisfy a traffic commissioner that there will be “clear blue water” between the applicant and the entity without an operator’s licence.

See this related post where an operator lost their licence for renting out their operator's licence:
viewtopic.php?p=122819#p122819
Here's the decision by the Traffic Commissioner to revoke their licence:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publicati ... -od0253702

Here's the entire document. See Section 54 in it about Fronting.

[Nadim]