Are Recovery Trucks MOT Exempt? Testing Rules for Recovery Operators

Ask around a recovery yard and you will get three different answers on whether these trucks need an MOT. The confusion is understandable, because the rules changed in 2018 and a lot of older advice is still circulating. Here is where recovery trucks actually stand on testing, the exceptions that survive, and a separate legal duty that catches operators out.

Are Recovery Trucks MOT Exempt?

For most recovery trucks on the road today, no. A blanket exemption for recovery and breakdown vehicles ended in 2018, and the majority now need annual testing like any other goods vehicle. A few narrow exceptions remain, so the honest answer is that it depends on the vehicle's weight, age and exact configuration.

That is the roadworthiness side. Separately, any lifting equipment on the truck carries its own examination duty that no MOT covers, which we deal with further down and through our recovery vehicle LOLER inspection service.

What Changed in 2018

Recovery trucks used to sit in a group of specialist vehicles that were exempt from annual testing. That is where the "recovery trucks are MOT exempt" belief comes from, and for years it was broadly true.

The Goods Vehicles (Plating and Testing) (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations 2017 changed it. From 2018, a list of previously exempt specialist vehicles was brought into testing, and breakdown vehicles were named directly on that list alongside mobile cranes and engineering plant. The changes were phased in, with all affected vehicles needing a current test certificate by 20 May 2019.

So anyone working from pre-2018 information is out of date. The default position now is that a recovery truck needs testing.

Which Test Applies to Your Recovery Truck

Assuming the vehicle is testable, which test depends on its weight:

• Up to 3,500kg gross: a Class 7 MOT, done at a Class 7 test centre, annually once the vehicle is three years old

• Over 3,500kg gross: the HGV annual test, done at an Approved Testing Facility or DVSA site, annually once the vehicle is one year old

• Trailers over 1,020kg unladen: tested in their own right, separately from the towing vehicle

The weight that matters is the plated gross weight, not the unladen weight or what it happens to be carrying on the day. In our experience, operators running a 3.5 tonne flatbed and assuming it is treated like a van are the ones most likely to get the test class wrong.

The Exceptions That Still Exist

There are still cases where a recovery vehicle may not need a standard test, which is why a flat yes or no does not work.

Some heavy specialist recovery vehicles and wreckers, particularly at the top end of the weight range, sit on a different roadworthiness footing rather than the standard annual test. Certain spec-lift configurations have historically been treated differently too. Where a vehicle is genuinely exempt, its keeper completes declaration form V112/G to tax it without a test certificate.

Because these exceptions turn on the specific vehicle, the only safe approach is to check your truck's plated weight and body type against the current gov.uk list rather than assume. The gov.uk guidance on HGV testing points to form V112/G for the vehicles that are exempt.

Exempt From Testing Still Means Roadworthy

This is where the myth does real damage. Even a recovery vehicle that is genuinely exempt from annual testing is not exempt from being roadworthy.

Under the Road Vehicles (Construction and Use) Regulations 1986 and the Road Traffic Act 1988, it remains an offence to use a defective vehicle on the road, whether the fault is brakes, steering, tyres or an unsafe load. DVSA can and does stop exempt vehicles at the roadside. An exemption from the test is not an exemption from the standard the test checks against.

The Duty Operators Miss: Lifting Equipment

Here is the part that has nothing to do with the MOT and catches people out most often. The MOT or annual test looks at the vehicle as a vehicle. It does not examine the lifting equipment bolted to it.

The moment an underlift, spec lift, lorry loader crane or tail lift raises a load clear of the ground, that equipment falls under the Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations 1998, and needs a thorough examination in its own right. Winching a casualty along the ground is not lifting, but lifting it certainly is. That duty is completely separate from vehicle testing, and a valid MOT says nothing about whether it has been met.

The intervals work like this:

• Lifting equipment such as underlifts, cranes and spec lifts: thorough examination at least every 12 months

• Equipment that lifts people, and lifting accessories such as chains, strops and shackles: every 6 months

• After any exceptional event: an examination following an overload, an accident or a significant repair, whatever the schedule says

We examine that equipment where your vehicles are based, across Berkshire and the wider South, and hand back a report per item. Our recovery vehicle LOLER inspection page sets out exactly what is covered.

Getting a Recovery Truck Legal on the Road

Pulling it together, a compliant recovery truck usually needs the vehicle test that matches its weight, plus a separate thorough examination of any lifting equipment it carries.

Confirm which test your vehicle needs from its plated weight, keep it roadworthy regardless of whether it is testable, and put the lifting equipment on its own examination schedule. If you are unsure whether the winch or underlift on a particular truck counts as lifting equipment, our guide to what equipment LOLER applies to sets out where the line falls.

The Bottom Line

Recovery trucks are, for the most part, no longer MOT exempt. The 2018 change brought breakdown vehicles into annual testing, and only a few narrow exceptions remain, decided by weight and configuration.

Check your specific vehicle rather than relying on old advice, remember that exempt never means you can run it defective, and treat the lifting equipment as a separate duty in its own right. The vehicle test and the LOLER examination answer two different questions, and passing one tells you nothing about the other.