From 21 May 2022, companies will need a standard international goods vehicle operator licence (O licence) to transport goods in the EU, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland.

This will apply to you if your company is based in Great Britain or Northern Ireland and use:

  • vans or other light commercial vehicles
  • vans towing trailers
  • cars towing trailers

If you do not have a goods vehicle operator licence either appoint a transport manager or get a goods vehicle operator licence.

Appointing a transport manager

You can apply to get an existing member of staff (including yourself) temporarily recognised as a transport manager, employ someone with a Transport Manager Certificate of Professional Competence (CPC) qualification or hire in an external qualified transport manager

Gaining an O Licence

You can apply for a standard international licence which lets you transport your own and other people’s goods at https://www.gov.uk/apply-vehicle-operator-licence which should take in the region of seven weeks. It costs £257 to apply for an operator licence and if your application is successful, you will need to pay £401 for the licence. You’ll then need to pay a continuation fee every 5 years to keep your licence active which costs £401.

Many transport operators already use Jaama’s Key2 Vehicle Management system to help them to meet their ‘O’ Licence responsibilities, making it easy for a busy transport manager to ensure  driver issues relating to working hours or driving licence validation don’t slip through the net.

Key2 contains built-in rule sets that make it impossible to omit information thus giving a transparent audit trail and reporting by exception. The platform delivers operational and safety compliance as well as financial and administrative savings for large and small fleets operating nationally and internationally.Close up of drivers licence