OPINION: Australia Needs a Towing Licence

Words By Joseph Van Woerkom

Australia needs a towing licence. It’s time.

Did you know that an ordinary car licence allows a person to legally drive a vehicle with a GVM of 4.5 tonnes while towing a trailer of 9t GVM? This means that a person with an ordinary car licence can be in charge of a vehicle combination with total weight of up to 13.5t.

By comparison, to legally drive a rigid truck of this weight a person needs to move up two licence classes, from light rigid (up to 8 tonne GVM) to medium rigid (over 8 tonne but limited to 2 axles). In doing so they need to learn how to correctly load and drive these larger vehicles and then pass a knowledge and practical driving test before they are allowed to drive unassisted.

Given that a car and caravan combination is inherently less stable on the road compared to a rigid truck it would seem reasonable to me that drivers towing heavy caravans should also be similarly licensed.

The instability of car and large caravan combinations is largely due to caravans almost universally being of the ‘pig’ trailer design, with one or two axles placed near the middle of the caravan body. This axle placement makes the caravan prone to pivoting on its wheels in both the horizontal and vertical planes.

Pivoting in the horizontal either causes the rear end of the tow vehicle to sway from side to side or causes the caravan to sway. The longer the trailer the worse this effect becomes due to leverage effects. Heavy masses placed at the rear of the caravan exacerbate the problem.

Pivoting in the vertical causes the tow vehicle to ‘porpoise’ as the rear of the vehicle is alternatively pushed up and down, producing an uncomfortable ride and unsafe handling.

Making matters worse is the fact that large caravans also place large downward loads (ball weight) on the towbar of the tow vehicle. Due to simple physics, this can also remove significant weight from the front wheels of the tow vehicle. If too much weight is removed the vehicle can become unstable with light steering and poor braking.

Finally, the braking systems of caravans are well behind in technological terms compared to modern tow vehicles and even the best caravan systems aren’t integrated with the vehicle’s braking system. This results is less than optimum braking in emergency conditions.

Towing a large heavy caravan is more difficult and dangerous than driving a light rigid truck - that’s a fact. It’s logical and reasonable that if a special licence is required for a light rigid truck, it’s even more necessary for towing large heavy caravans.

Do you agree with me that a special licence should be required for towing heavy caravans? If so, under what conditions? Drop me a line at [email protected] to give me your thoughts.

READ FRED’S RESPONSE HERE

READER RESPONSES

Sir,

As a long term caravan owner, and a holder of a NSW Heavy Combination drivers licence, I heartily endorse the introduction of compulsory driver instruction and licensing for the towing of caravans or trailers.

The lack of driver training I have witnessed over the years whilst driving heavy articulated units all over the 3 states in which our family owned transport company operated has led me to believe that the majority of single car/van accidents were due to operator error.

During my driving career spanning 53 years, in which Having millions of Kilometres, I was involved in only 2 non fatal accidents, both involving cars towing caravans, both which were clearly not my fault, but those of the other drivers, this conclusion was made not by me, but by the Police in attendance, which resulted in the other drivers being fined for negligent driving.

The sooner the better that some form of instruction and licensing is introduced, I believe that the accident rate will fall dramatically.

Cheers,
John

Hi Joseph.

Congratulations on a well written and very timely article.

For many years now I have been a strong advocate for the introduction of special or endorsement of licences for towing.

I currently hold a HR, and Buss/Coach licence and have towed boats, trailers and Caravans for the past 30 to 40 yrs and still at time wonder if I have the correct knowledge to be towing my current 26 ft , 3.4 ton van.

My wife and I are currently 4 yrs into a 12 yr trip around Australia and are regularly amazed by the number of people towing vans who obviously should not be and do not know what they are doing, even with simple tasks such as reversing into sites or turning corners far too sharply.

Earlier this year I witnessed a large caravan entering a gateway (double) to a showground in South Australia that came into contact with the left hand gate post (10 ft high) causing serious damage to his Van and completely removing the Awning from the side of his Van, let alone having to dismantle the fence post to free the Van.

The number of caravan accidents and roll-overs that are appearing in both Social Media and general Media is sufficient indication that there is massive lack of knowledge in relation to towing a trailer as large and as heavy as the Caravans of today.

When travelling 20 yrs ago, the majority of vans on the road were around 15 ft to 20 ft, now there is an enormous number (thousands) of vans from 20 ft to 26ft and in some cases even larger but still no regulation or proper education.

I don’t necessarily believe that everyone who tow’s a van needs to rush out and spend hundreds of dollars on a towing course, some of which are not totally correct, however I do believe that everyone needs to be tested and if they fail, they then they need to be trained.

I have always been astounded by the legal towing weight capacity allowable on a Car license, and this should be the first aspect to be looked at, however the number of aspects related to Towing, Weight distribution, Braking, Loading, connection to the tow vehicle, courteousy, respect and etiquette on the road, in particular to professional truck drivers, and more importantly, the education of drivers as to what to do in the event of something going wrong are just a few of the enormous list of areas that need to be addressed.

Another aspect that is becoming, I believe a major problem, is the addition to the rear bumper-bar of all and sundry,  for eg, the much required Aluminium Box with who knows what inside, the Outboard engine and Boat Trailer,  the obligatory 2 mountain Bikes and in the most extreme cases anything else that can be bolted or tied on. The regulations need to be looked at to restrict the addition or alteration to the vehicle post manufacture.

I also believe the Caravan manufacturing industry has a lot to answer for.  Over the past few years I have become aware of many instances where Tare weights are incorrect, Water tanks have been incorrectly positioned and even Axel placement incorrect. The one item that needs investigation immediately is the positioning of Number Plates, required in some states to be under 1.3 mtrs above ground, and is way above that on a large number of current vans.

I have personally discussed this topic with Fred Wright and Marg Mc Alister on a number of occasions and believe both of them to be supporters

I applaud you for approaching this subject, I totally agree and offer my full support, “It’s Time” or way past time.

I doubt I would have anything to offer, however if you require any assistance or input from members of the public. Please do not hesitate to contact me.

Best wishes,

Russ

My thoughts on towing caravans is very simple .we have to many out there that really have no idea about weight  and a vehicles behavior in certain conditions  how gforce comes into play Any person that can not produce or doesn’t have a heavy a vehicle license should have to do a mandatory towing course before taking charge of caravan and car combination..  There have been a lot of accidents out there that experience and forward planning knowledge could have avoided 

 Life is short do it now

Ken

I support the argument for another level of licensing to cover towing (anything).

I would add the following issues as just as important in ensuring we have a comprehensive approach to managing road safety in towing.

Firstly, there is a major issue with caravan makers understating Tare weights then specifying an ATM of 2500 kg or less to target smaller capacity tow vehicles for their vans. The larger vans end up close to ATM before any load is added, resulting in many towing overweight vans, as they assume they are ok. This whole issue of van specification has a major impact on the road-worthiness of vans within Australia.

Secondly, but intimately linked to issue 1 is the lack of transparency across the whole industry, including the caravan makers and the motor industry, with regard to the link between the van specs and the vehicle specs. We have a heavy media campaign offering a large range of 4 wd vehicles openly sold on the basis that they can tow 3500 kg (or whatever). The customer is left to make up his/her own mind on the more detailed specifications, including Actual Ball Weight of the van vs rated capacity of the tow vehicle (modified in some cases based on Actual Loaded Weight of the van) with many simply using plated ATM and Ball Weights (where specified) in lieu of actually weighing them. We then have the rated allowable vehicle GCM that needs to be considered, but again, the poor uninformed customer is blissfully unaware of anything other than “we can tow 3500kg”. Then they fill the vehicle with everything but the kitchen sink, again unaware of the GVM rating. Then we have the rampant poor advice from well intentioned “experts” on social media, giving advice on adding springs, air bags, “air bags are better than WDH” etc etc etc. the photos shown on these pages clearly sow vans way to big for the tow vehicle, but the owners substantiate their compliance by selectively using plated ratings or single vehicle ratings like “it can tow 3500kg”

I think unless all three issues raised are included in revised regulatory arrangements, simply licensing people to tow existing setups will do very little.

Mick

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