Chris Clibbery, founder and CEO Engineius, on the processes of vehicle movement and a few caveats of the potential safety and environmental hazards from using the wrong provider.
When you are looking to arrange a vehicle movement you may decide to do a simple Google search of vehicle movement companies nearby, but take care that the company you appoint is equipped to work within all the necessary legal parameters.
Firstly, what sort of movement is needed? Engineius is a specialist vehicle movement one-stop shop for driven, plated or transported jobs. But are there any vehicle movement restrictions? The answer is yes, all these types of movements involve some restrictions and legal considerations.
A transported job must ensure that the truck being used is designed to carry the payload of your vehicle to be legally compliant.
A plated job needs to be carried out by someone licensed to use trade plates and they must be used only for the particular business purposes for which they were issued. It is an offence to use more than one vehicle under a trade licence at any one time, and to keep a vehicle on a road when not in use except in certain emergency situations.
A driven job may sound simple, but we all hear horror stories where crashes have occurred on our roads and the third party has been driving illegally, either without a licence, in a vehicle without a current MOT certificate, or without motor insurance.
To ensure we provide an excellent vehicle movement service, all Engineius drivers must have a full, valid UK driving licence, have satisfied a DBS check, and have graduated from the Engineius driver training school to ensure that they are fully insured when moving any vehicle.
How the vehicle is moved is also a potential and unseen cost and environmental hazard that requires close attention. Research conducted with a large energy provider highlighted the extra financial and environmental cost to using chaser vehicles. For every 10 miles needed for a journey, 24 were made when a chaser vehicle was dispatched.
To move vehicles in the most efficient, cost effective and environmentally friendly way, Engineius have designed and developed our own vehicle movement portal, which has been recognised in the automotive industry, winning many awards. It will provide you with a price within 30 seconds and, once the job is accepted, Engineius takes care of the rest.
If you are happy to accept the price, confirm the order and your vehicle movement instantly becomes a live job on the Engineius portal for our drivers to see. The system will try to intelligently combine your job with others on the system which may join well together to maximise efficiencies. Where this is not possible, the drivers will use public transport. Engineius does not use chaser vehicles.
The use of EVs is growing rapidly in the UK. Engineius drives EVs direct and avoids transporting them on diesel trucks due to the environmental impact; the latter practice is completely opposed to the net zero aims which electrification is trying to support.
Finally, the idea of moving a vehicle from A to B is simple, but can you legally move someone’s car? This is definitely a potential hazard to be vigilant about, as often individuals wrongly assume that their personal motor insurance will cover them to drive other vehicles. Using a specialist company such as Engineius provides the reassurance of knowing that the driver and the vehicle are fully insured and legally compliant throughout their journey.