16 year old and driving on the road

[farmerm]

i’m not 100% certain but unless registered to carry passengers with required number of seats on v5 etc i think you would be uninsured should the worst happen

@Nigel Wellings will know more re insurance implications and be better informed than me on this ? or @Simon Chiles is very good on this subject

It is madness to think that something so simple that should be a well known and understood in our industry and we are all scratching our heads and have not got a clue between us! I am sure few of us would take our tractors out on the road knowing we are operating them with no insurance yet many of us will have carried someone down the road on the passenger seat and never given it a moments thought that we are potentially operating uninsured as a result!

 

[Phil P]

It is madness to think that something so simple that should be a well known and understood in our industry and we are all scratching our heads and have not got a clue between us! I am sure few of us would take our tractors out on the road knowing we are operating them with no insurance yet many of us will have carried someone down the road on the passenger seat and never given it a moments thought that we are potentially operating uninsured as a result!

It’s surprising how many younger lads you see driving tractors with their girlfriends riding shotgun!
Doubt they would be insured even off road as not employee’s or training?

 

[Rossymons]

16 yr old wet behind the ears hauling maize trailers seem a recipe for disaster for me. Get his ticket, get some hours under his belt and go again for grass silage next year.

 

[Exfarmer]

according to DEFRA it is OK to carry a child over 13 in a jump seat provided they are strapped in

Keeping Children Safe on the Farm (HSE INDG340) - Carried as a passenger on agricultural plant and machinery

I was of the impression that the NFU insurance covers you for all operations which are legal and carrying a passenger certainly is ( not for hire or reward of course)
It is quite likely that other insurance companies do exclude his though

 

[Sid]

you can’t have passenger in a tractor either

the 2nd seat is for “operator training” I believe, insurance doesn’t cover carrying a passenger on the road ?

and a 16 year old needs a provisional - he can then drive to a test ONLY - unless things have changed recently

Every days a school day!

Never had training seats years ago and they managed to learn.

It's not called a training seat on the specification it's called a passenger seat.

 

[Christoph1945]

An old school friend of mine never made it into his late teens after riding two up on a timber yard stacker truck; he just didn't see the danger in it. One of my older brothers accepted a lift home on the back of a motorbike, minus a crash helmet, and it cost him his life and left a wife and three kids devastated.

Retrospective wisdom is always easy.

 

[steveR]

you can’t have passenger in a tractor either

the 2nd seat is for “operator training” I believe, insurance doesn’t cover carrying a passenger on the road ?

and a 16 year old needs a provisional - he can then drive to a test ONLY - unless things have changed recently

Didn't know that about use of the 2nd seat OTR.

So many guys I have seen over the years, "training" the GF, Mate or 5yo son!

 

[Christoph1945]

How about the dog; or the shotgun?

 

[steveR]

How about the dog; or the shotgun?

Suspect the dog might be better qualified in some cases.....

 

[Christoph1945]

I can vaguely recall two tractor loads being overturned on a North Wales road and I'm pretty sure that neither driver was 16; probably unsupervised forty yearolds!

Just recalled, both spills were on the A55; a nightmare of a road for slow moving tractors to join the mainstream traffic when the nearside drivers just will not move over a lane, despite seeing tractor drivers struggling move in from a standing start.

 

[Sharpy]

Every days a school day!

Never had training seats years ago and they managed to learn.

It's not called a training seat on the specification it's called a passenger seat.

John Deere call it the instructors seat.

 

[Bury the Trash]

Didn't know that about use of the 2nd seat OTR.

So many guys I have seen over the years, "training" the GF, Mate or 5yo son!

or 3 yr olds
...strapped in a baby/toddler car seat behind the main seat.

...was less worry at that age, ..knowing where they were to.

 

[Simon Chiles]

Can anyone tell me if you can let a 16 old drive a tractor on the road with no provisional licence if he/she is with a adult with full licence next to them?

i’m not 100% certain but unless registered to carry passengers with required number of seats on v5 etc i think you would be uninsured should the worst happen

@Nigel Wellings will know more re insurance implications and be better informed than me on this ? or @Simon Chiles is very good on this subject

Firstly no one can drive on the road without even a provisional license.
Secondly a 16 year old can only drive to and from a driving test on a provisional licence. If they pass they are limited to tractors under 2.45m wide and a single or close coupled trailer.
A 17 year old is allowed to practice driving on the road on a provisional license and has to display L plates. I wouldn’t want to speculate whether hauling silage in a gang counted as practicing.
A 17 year old can have an instructor in the cab if the vehicle is fitted with two front seats, extract from government website:-

Finding an instructor
You might be able to use an approved driving instructor (ADI) if you’re learning to drive a vehicle with controls similar to a car and with 2 front seats.

Again I’m not sure what counts as a front seat, I’ve certainly never seen a tractor with rear seats. I was under the impression that the buddy seat was for instruction off road but as most modern buddy seats have seat belts you would assume that they were intended for on road use. As such I wouldn’t want to say one way or the other whether it was legal and whether it affected your insurance.

 

[Clive]

John Deere call it the instructors seat.

Fendt do as well, I think this could well be for a specific legal reason, making a tractor a passenger vehicle opens a can of worms I guess ?

 

[Muddyroads]

Can anyone tell me if you can let a 16 old drive a tractor on the road with no provisional licence if he/she is with a adult with full licence next to them?

Would you let them drive a road vehicle at 17 on the road with no provisional license?

 

[Celt83]

It’s surprising how many younger lads you see driving tractors with their girlfriends riding shotgun!
Doubt they would be insured even off road as not employee’s or training?

Very powerful aphrodisiac tractors are!

I took a girlfriend out for a ride along on a nh6030 for our second date, and to this day I'm convinced that the range command gearbox swayed her to become my wife!

 

[JWL]

I had to use a Fendt, a Massey and a couple of John Deeres back in the 90's to persuade mine, I think what clinched it was the TF44 as she didn't have a "Instructors seat" in that and had to keep sitting on my lap when I needed to pull the spout out to unload

 

[ajd132]

When are they going to stop this stupid tractor test at 16. A few years ago a bunch of them starting using tractors to go to the pub!
I remember a friend of mine doing it, the test is so easy that when he had to negotiate and urban area roundabouts, traffic lights etc etc he had no idea what was going on and caused chaos !

 

[Sid]

Fendt do as well, I think this could well be for a specific legal reason, making a tractor a passenger vehicle opens a can of worms I guess ?

I would have thought with the "operators" you employ there would be no need for an "instructors " seat.


But then fendt call their mowers slicers, their tedders twisters nothing fails to surprise me!
Surprised they didn't call the foragers "slicers" and the tractors "brum brums"

 

[kiwi pom]

You can drive a car at 16 here

I see Millennial Farmers 10 year old is driving the chaser bin this year - not on the road mind.

Tempted to say if its back roads and not too far, do a load with him and see if he can do it.
Outrageous I know, but is it any different than a qualified driver running 50K (20mph limit if over 2.55m) or being overloaded etc?