You're not insured for this

Davey

Member
Location
Derbyshire
It will be relative to the size of bussiness

True, sort of.

The range of the fine is based on turnover but where the fine falls within that range is down to the judge.

You can't insure against fines, they are designed to be painful to the company, and it's not unheard of for them to take the company down :-(
 

The Agrarian

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Northern Ireland
Our grass wagon could potentially gross 23 ton behind a tractor about a quarter of that weight, but has very good hydraulic brakes that we check for evenness and adjust before every cut. But I still wouldn't put a 19year old on it.
What are we to do to cover ourselves nowadays? We check the brakes, but I don't keep a written record of it. We aren't professionally qualified. We are a two man band with modest resources. Are we to bring in a mechanic every time we want to check these things, just to satisfy a liability issue?
 

Agrispeed

Member
Location
Cornwall
Our grass wagon could potentially gross 23 ton behind a tractor about a quarter of that weight, but has very good hydraulic brakes that we check for evenness and adjust before every cut. But I still wouldn't put a 19year old on it.
What are we to do to cover ourselves nowadays? We check the brakes, but I don't keep a written record of it. We aren't professionally qualified. We are a two man band with modest resources. Are we to bring in a mechanic every time we want to check these things, just to satisfy a liability issue?

I think one of the factors in that specific case was that the company was quite large and was also running HGVs so they had experience and a system in place for monitoring and logging of faults, but they failed to use it on the agri side. A smaller outfit that does not have the experience, system or a dedicated workshop employee(s) is likely to be looked on more favourably, but then again if you put someone inexperienced on a faulty machine that is overweight then its not unreasonable to expect for HSE et al to pull your trousers down and tell you you've been naughty.
 

FarmyStu

Member
Location
NE Lincs
Our grass wagon could potentially gross 23 ton behind a tractor about a quarter of that weight, but has very good hydraulic brakes that we check for evenness and adjust before every cut. But I still wouldn't put a 19year old on it.
What are we to do to cover ourselves nowadays? We check the brakes, but I don't keep a written record of it. We aren't professionally qualified. We are a two man band with modest resources. Are we to bring in a mechanic every time we want to check these things, just to satisfy a liability issue?
Keep written records of your regular checks for a start. This takes zero effort so is a bit of a no brainer.

As far as not being professionally qualified goes; if you believe you're up to the job then get some written records of your experience and training put together. But it wouldn't cost a fortune to do a basic course on brake maint and you never know, you might learn something.

It's really not that difficult to do things properly. The costs of not bothering can be very high indeed. ...
 

DeeGee

Member
Location
North East Wales
Our grass wagon could potentially gross 23 ton behind a tractor about a quarter of that weight, but has very good hydraulic brakes that we check for evenness and adjust before every cut. But I still wouldn't put a 19year old on it.
What are we to do to cover ourselves nowadays? We check the brakes, but I don't keep a written record of it. We aren't professionally qualified. We are a two man band with modest resources. Are we to bring in a mechanic every time we want to check these things, just to satisfy a liability issue?

You have answered your own question. You are responsible people because you have stated that you would not put a nineteen year old on it.

I would guess that you are basically safe operators, and whereas few people are ever perfect, and one can never legislate for the unexpected, you at least seem to have a reasonable grasp of safety issues.
 
I have had a couple of conversations lately relating to trailer weights.

In both, the farmers were pleased that the gross weight of tractor and trailer had increased. I think it’s now 31 tonnes. Please correct me if I’m wrong.

But I’m pretty sure that the trailer gross weight has not changed and is still 18 tonnes. It just means you can put a bigger tractor on the front of it.

Both Farmers were surprised, one to the point that he was annoyed because he had recently ordered two big new trailers to carry 20 tonnes of grain each.

It’s irresponsible of suppliers to sell these road going trailers knowing they are illegal and just shows how little is known about agri traffic law.

I started a thread a while back to be warned, we all have a rude awakening coming up when the relevant agencies get up to speed on it all.
 

Matt L

Member
Trade
Location
Suffolk
I have had a couple of conversations lately relating to trailer weights.

In both, the farmers were pleased that the gross weight of tractor and trailer had increased. I think it’s now 31 tonnes. Please correct me if I’m wrong.

But I’m pretty sure that the trailer gross weight has not changed and is still 18 tonnes. It just means you can put a bigger tractor on the front of it.

Both Farmers were surprised, one to the point that he was annoyed because he had recently ordered two big new trailers to carry 20 tonnes of grain each.

It’s irresponsible of suppliers to sell these road going trailers knowing they are illegal and just shows how little is known about agri traffic law.

I started a thread a while back to be warned, we all have a rude awakening coming up when the relevant agencies get up to speed on it all.


But going by that logic it should be irresponsible for any car dealer to sell a car capable of going over 70 mph.
These large trailers are great if used correctly and the operators know about the capacity of them and therefore load accordingly.
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

  • 0 %

    Votes: 78 42.9%
  • Up to 25%

    Votes: 63 34.6%
  • 25-50%

    Votes: 30 16.5%
  • 50-75%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 75-100%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 100% I’ve had enough of farming!

    Votes: 5 2.7%

Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

  • 1,286
  • 1
As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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