How to read an operator licence.

To look up a company in seconds, use our [operator licence check](/operator-licence-check). For the full record, or for a sole trader or partnership, use the official search.

The government runs a public search of vehicle operator licences. Search the web for "vehicle operator licence search" and choose the government's own service rather than a paid lookup site. It needs no account and no fee.

You can search by the operator's name or its licence number, and also by an address or a person connected with the licence. A trading name will often find nothing, so if the name on the lorry does not work, try the registered company name, or the address of the yard.

If you have the licence number, search by it: it is the one search that always finds exactly one licence. A goods vehicle operator licence number is the letter O, a letter for the traffic area that issued it, and seven digits; a bus or coach licence starts with P instead. It is printed on the licence disc in the windscreen of every vehicle the operator runs, and many hauliers put it on their quotes and invoices.

If the number finds nothing, check that the first letter was typed as the letter O rather than a zero, which is the commonest mistake. If it finds a licence under another name than the one you were given, ask why: a haulier may trade under one name and hold its licence in another, or be working under someone else's licence.

The licence number. The letters at the start tell you which traffic area issued it, which is usually, though not always, where the operator is based.

The type of licence. A restricted licence lets a business carry its own goods only. A standard national licence allows carrying goods for other people within Great Britain; a standard international licence adds work abroad. If you are paying someone to move your goods, they need a standard licence.

How many vehicles and trailers are authorised, in total and at each operating centre. The total is a ceiling, not a count of lorries in the yard today; the vehicles actually specified on the licence are often fewer.

The operating centres, which are the places vehicles are kept when not in use, and for a standard licence the transport manager responsible for them. The record also lists the directors or partners and the date by which the licence must next be continued, which comes round every five years.

Valid means the licence is in force. Curtailed means the number of vehicles or operating centres has been cut, sometimes for a set period, usually after a regulatory finding. Suspended means the operator may not use vehicles under it for the time being.

Revoked means the licence was taken away. Surrendered means the operator gave it up, sometimes to avoid revocation. Not continued means the renewal was not completed and the licence lapsed.

A licence that is valid today can change next week. A status is a snapshot, not a guarantee.

An application that has not been decided shows as under consideration. Once decided it is granted, refused or withdrawn, and only a granted application becomes, or changes, a licence on the record.

An HGV operator licence is the goods vehicle operator licence: a business using goods vehicles over 3.5 tonnes gross weight needs one, whether it carries its own goods or other people's. Checking an HGV operator is the same search, and the record shows the same fields.

Vans of 3.5 tonnes and under need no licence, with one exception: since May 2022 a van, or a van and trailer, over 2.5 tonnes used for hire or reward abroad needs a standard international licence. Buses and coaches are on a separate passenger licence, which the same search finds under its own licence type.

Look for four things. The licence is valid. It is a standard licence if they will carry your goods for hire. The operating centre is where they say they are. And the authorised numbers fit the work they are quoting for: an operator authorised for two vehicles cannot run ten on your contract.

If you are extending credit, or financing vehicles, add the company's filed accounts and any charges registered against it. The licence says what the operator may do; the accounts say whether it can afford to.

The live record shows licences as they stand. It does not show what an operator has asked for and not yet been given. New licences and variations are applied for first and published in the weekly notices of applications, with the numbers, weeks before they are decided and appear on the record.

That gap is where fleet growth is visible first. An operator that has applied to go from five vehicles to thirty, at a new yard, will need vehicles, finance, drivers and equipment before the licence changes, and anyone who only checks the live record finds out after the decision.

CapexRadar reads those applications as they are published, counts the growth by region, and names the companies here a month later. Stanfell sends them to suppliers each weekday morning as they come in, with the figures, the company behind them and a reading for their trade.