I need to know, definiatively, how many comapanies in the United
Kingdom have at least 1 Heavy Goods Vehicle on their fleet.

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Request for Question Clarification by answerfinder-ga on 12 Oct 2006 05:50 PDT

Dear funkee-ga,

I have been unable to find that information and I?m not sure such
information exists in that format. The body responsible for licensing
goods vehicle operators (3.5 tonnes and above) produces statistics on
the number of licenses issued, but this relates to users (sole trader,
or a company). Each user will have one or more vehicles.

Would these statistics answer your question?

answerfinder-ga

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Clarification of Question by funkee-ga on 13 Oct 2006 02:41 PDT

Hi, I need to know the number of companies, not the number of drivers.
I have approached a number of marketing list providers who claim to
have definitive lists of companies but the range of number of
companies available runs from 31,265 with one supplier to 52,000 with
another!!!!

Dear funkee-ga,

Thank you for your clarification. Perhaps I never explained my self
properly. Each operator has to have a licence. This does not mean each
driver, an operator could be a limited company with several vehicles
or a sole trader, that is, a one man band with just one lorry who
trades under his own name.

I think this information will be able to assist you to evaluate this
marketing list.

Seven Traffic Commissioners are appointed by the Secretary of State
for Transport and have responsibility in their area for the licensing
of the operators of heavy goods vehicles (HGVs). This is from their
2004/2005 Annual Report. It reports that on 31 March 2005 the number
of licences in existence was 101,857. So that is 101,857 companies or
sole traders were authorised to operate HGVs. The report goes on to
state that a total of 407456 vehicles were authorised. The average
fleet size was just under 3.9.

The marketing list you refer to may well be drawn from the Traffic
Commissioners? database.

Go to 
http://www.tan.gov.uk/tanen/VOSA_AnonymousOperatorSearch_New.asp

You can search by various terms. 
Try one under Town Name
Type in the first term box> Brentwood
You will see 50 results. You will see operator names. Most are
companies, that is with Ltd or Plc in their names. Click on one and
you will see their details and how many vehicles they have.


Traffic Commissioners  2004/2005 Annual Report
Page 77
"All operators of goods vehicles over 3.5 tonnes (with some
exceptions) must hold an operator?s licence which has been issued to
them by the Traffic Commissioners.
There are three types of licence:
Restricted licences
These authorise operators to carry their own goods in the course of
their trade or business in Great Britain and on international
journeys.
Standard National licences
These authorise operators to carry both their goods in the course of
their trade and business and goods for other people for hire and
reward in Great Britain.
Standard International licences
These are as Standard National licences but operators are also allowed
to carry goods for themselves and other people to countries outside
Great Britain."

"On 31 March 2005 the number of licences in existence was 101,857
compared to 102,946 on 31 March 2004."

Table 2 page 80
Numbers of specified vehicles
Table 3 page 81
Average fleet size
http://www.dft.gov.uk/stellent/groups/dft_roads/documents/page/dft_roads_611621.pdf

I hope this answers your question. If it does not, or the answer is
unclear, then please ask for clarification of this research before
rating the answer. I shall respond to the clarification request as
soon as I receive it.
Thank you
answerfinder