Light has been shed on the question as to whether fast tractors used by agricultural and forestry contractors are required to have a Commercial Vehicle Roadworthiness Testing (CVRT) cert, also known as a Department of Environment (DOE) cert, according to the Association of Farm and Forestry Contractors in Ireland (FCI).
In a statement today (Thursday, October 8), the contractor representative association said:
“The Road Safety Authority [RSA] is continuing to carry out roadside checks on tractors…and FCI member tractors have been subjected to tests.
“When an FCI member was recently stopped by the Gardaí and the RSA during a roadside roadworthiness test, he was told that because he was doing ‘commercial’ work that his tractor was required to have a DOE test.
After representation to the RSA it was confirmed to the FCI that ‘fast tractors used by agricultural contractors, providing services to farmers, horticultural, forestry and fisheries undertakings, provided the road haulage element is not the principle objective of the service provided by the contractor, are not within the scope of the tractor testing regulations’.
“It also added that these contractor operations include by way of example, slurry spreading, silage and crop harvesting as the haulage element is secondary to the principle activity,” the FCI explained.
Earlier today, FCI chief executive Mike Moroney requested, with Level 3 restrictions now in place, that all contractors treat Gardaí with courtesy and to ensure that all machines are operated in a roadworthy condition, especially as the days are getting shorter and the pressure to complete slurry spreading intensifies in the coming week ahead of the closing deadline date of October 15.