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About the FBHVC
The Federation of British Historic Vehicle Clubs (FBHVC) was established at a public meeting held at the Royal Automobile Club on 23 July 1988, with its roots going back to the time more than 30 years earlier.
The FBHVC exists to maintain our freedom to use Yesterday’s Vehicles on Tomorrow’s Roads. Additionally we encourage the preservation and promotion of all types of vehicle within the broader context of our national heritage.
The Mercedes-Benz Club is a member of this association, and therefore you are too!
Enjoy these highlights from our latest newsletter. If you would like to view all of the FBHVC News including further (full) details of those items listed below, please visit https://www.fbhvc.co.uk/newsletter-archive
In case of doubt the definitive version is that published in the magazine.
Clean Air Zones/Low Emission Zones
CAZ and LEZ continue to be introduced across the country and we are pleased to report that there are no nasty surprises and that the agreed historic vehicle exemptions are being applied without problems. Bradford has announced a postponement of their scheme. Similarly the roll-out of the zones in the major Scottish cities is proceeding as expected with periods of grace before fines are imposed.
We continue to monitor the trial or projected quiet roads restrictions in Somerset and Cornwall but there are no significant developments. Representations from local residents are likely to be more effective at this stage than those from a national body like FBHVC.
Sale of Used Vehicle Parts
The promised FAQs on this topic are still awaited from the Environment Agency although they have made it clear that their intention is not to restrict the sale of historic vehicle parts.
Importing Vehicles from Jersey
Member club Historic Commercial Vehicle Society (HCVS) have shared some useful guidance from HMRC concerning the import of vehicles from Jersey.
Vehicle Insurance (Vnuk case)
The Private Members Bill to resolve this matter in the UK post-Brexit is making good progress through Parliament and we are optimistic it will pass into law before too long.
Highway Code Revision
The amendments which were circulated for comment last year are about to come into force. The publicity accompanying this has generated much negative media comment which would have been more usefully expressed during the consultation period. The FBHVC view was that regardless of our opinion of the actual revisions they did not impact on historic vehicles any more than any other and as such we offered no comment.
HPI Report
We are probably all familiar with HPI reports on used vehicles as a valuable check on the vehicles history and a precaution against outstanding HP payments etc. However the FBHVC received troubling information from a member concerning his 1932 car where HPI were apparently unable to avoid confusion with a number of other vehicles and as a result had produced an unhelpful and negative report. According to HPI this is because their system is designed around the use of 17 character VIN which are truly unique whilst the car in question, quite typically for 1932, had a four digit chassis number.
DVLA Service
As a spin off from the DVLA Historic Vehicle User Group FBHVC now receive the ’Your DVLA’ newsletter and we learn from this that although the Agency is still working under some imposed restrictions because of Covid, their service is returning to normal thanks to leasing additional office space, employing extra staff and similar measures. The much publicised backlog of driving licences is now cleared and other backlogs of paper transactions are being addressed.
DVLA Issues
We are receiving a relatively large number of queries and problems relating to DVLA and historic vehicle registration. Where these require information or guidance from DVLA they are being addressed in turn as it is not reasonable or sensible to submit them all together.
Additionally we continue to press for resolutions to some long-standing difficulties. It is not useful to provide step-by-step reports of these activities but any conclusions of general interest will be shared via FBHVC News.
Historic Tax Class
We believe that some of the guidance provided on the gov.uk website concerning the eligibility of lorries and/or ex-military vehicles for the historic tax class may be incorrect. This has been queried with DVLA and we await their response.
DVLA by Numbers
A page of statistics from ‘Your DVLA’ is reproduced to remind us not only of the vast scale of the Agency’s operation but also what a tiny part of it relates to historic vehicles.
FBHVC
- Drive It Day/Ride It Day Sunday 24th April 2022 in support of Childline®. Full details in Federation News or at www.driveitday.co.uk
- FBHVC Job Vacancy – Club News Editor. If you love historic vehicles, would like to review the many club magazines and newsletters we receive each month and provide condensed snippets of this information to the Federation membership, this voluntary job could be for you! To find out more, please contact Emma in the office via secretary@fbhvc.co.uk or 01708 223111.
- Carbon Balancing Scheme for Historic Vehicles To help our movement to thrive in the coming years and retain the freedoms we currently enjoy, FBHVC announces a carbon balancing scheme for historic vehicles in partnership with Tree-V. This can apply to clubs, events or individual vehicles. More details at https://www.fbhvc.co.uk/news/article/fbhvc-launch-carbon-balancing-scheme-for-historic-vehicles
Other interesting articles include
- The great efforts being made by clubs, event organisers and museums to reinstate the activities we were used to before the pandemic. Many useful website links are provided. Also featured is a new link to allow Clubs to enter details of their event directly on to the calendar on the Federation website. A final link is for the FIVA ‘Guide for responsible use of historic vehicles’, which is valuable reading for all competitors.
- An introduction from heritage digitisation experts Genus following their presentation at Club Expo
- A report on the Club Triumph Round Britain Run
- An explanation from the Federations insurance partner, Peter James Insurance, of Breach of Copyright or Defamation. FBHVC will add ‘Essential Guide on Copyright’ to their range of essential guides very soon.
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