Every lorry on a British road is on a licence first.

An operator's licence sets how many goods vehicles and trailers a business may run, from which operating centres. To grow beyond it, the operator applies to vary the licence, and the application is published with the numbers before it is decided.

There are different kinds of licence. A restricted licence is for businesses carrying their own goods; a standard licence is for hauliers carrying other people's. The kind tells you whether transport is the business or a side of it.

The count before and after sizes the growth. Going from five vehicles to thirty is a different company from going from 120 to 130.

The number already in use tells you whether the operator has headroom or is full today. An operator using every slot it has, and asking for more, has work waiting.

A new operating centre means a new yard, with everything a yard needs, and often a new customer contract behind it.

The objection deadline tells you when the decision falls, and so how long you have to be the first supplier they hear from.

Dealers, because vehicles follow. Finance and leasing, because every vehicle is paid for somehow and the decision is made early. Telematics, because growth past twenty vehicles or onto a second site is when tracking gets bought. Driver agencies and training providers, because the vehicles need people. Insurers, because the policy has to grow with the fleet.

It does not say which make of vehicle, whether they will be new or used, or who the transport manager is. Those are the questions your first call answers.

It also does not say whether the business can afford it. That is in its accounts and its charges, which is why an application on its own is half a lead, and joined to them is a whole one.