Licence Discs

[hitlers revenge]

How many of you have really looked at your licence disc on your vehicle. Near the bottom you will see how many passangers you can transport, whether sitting or standing.

After being stopped in a road block and after a discussion with 5 buggy drivers and 3 traffic officials, there are still clouds about.

My buggy may not carry any people, although its a 4 seater. So does it make my buggy a motorised trailor? The 5 buggies on tour were allowed to carry 0 passangers, 2 passangers, 4 passangers and even 5 passangers. I am going to the traffic department tommorrow to clarify this. Even though each buggy can carry different amounts of passangers all buggies have a tare of 570kgs.

We were stoped in this roadblock as we were apparently reported for travelling in a convoy. We also discussed this as a convoy is apparently 6 or more vehicles. When we questioned our 5 buggies we were told that the tralior has to be included in the count.

We all seemed to agree, after getting to our destination that the reporter was actually an "asrehole" from George, sorry Pine, who side swiped me exiting a traffic circle. No damage to the buggy, but reports say that there was body and tyre damage to the Golf that hit me. I did'nt see this damage as when the driver saw all my big Dutch mates, all in club colours decending on the scene, he started shaking in his boots and drove off.

[Watercool]

So let me get this right, the license dept decides how many passengers you can carry in your vehicle? Is it not stipulated by the manufacturer? I know you can fit 20 seats in a vanagon but it is not humanly possible to get 20 people (safely) in the vanagon, but if the license dept says you can it is legal? If you can have no passengers in your buggy then why have it?
So you are not allowed to "convoy" there too? Come-on!!! Your cops will have a heart attack every Sunday when the Audi boys get together, we "convoy" up to 20 cars at speeds a little over the legal limit (actually twice the legal limit sometimes) and we have cops that is Audi owners and they join us most of the time. Sounds like your country have some really big issues to sort out, other than the crime, it sounds like communication and knowlage (aka brains) is a major break down.

[69bug]

Henry, you have no idea of the lack of knowledge of traffic officials in SA

[JamesD]

My beetle is allowed to carry "less than 12 persons"
Think the Porsche was less than 16 persons

As for convoy, I have seen 20 + Ferrari's in convoy. The Porsche guys do huge convoys occassionally. The lotus guys do 10 + convoys sometimes. Every weekend the bikers do breakfast run convoys. The Pigs can stuff themselves if there is something wrong with convoys, they cant prove you are all going in the same direction unless they follow you. could be you all kinda ran into each other a few km back...

[Dawie]

Read somewhere that the number of passengers on disc was originally meant only for taxis and buses. Private cars were supposed to all show 0 passengers, meaning that the amount of passengers is not as stictly limited as if it was a bus or taxi.

However,this was not clearly defined in traffic law, and some roadworthy testing officials started to enter the quantity of passengers on the form. There is different opinion in different provinces.

Traffic law is in many instances badly defined, and many traffic officials do not know the finer details.

For instance, to drive a heavy vehicle classified as "special vehicle" on disc, (motorhome, fire engine), you do NOT need a PDP, only a code 10/ EC1 license and the vehicle does not need a yearly COF/ RWC. Very few cops know about this, fines are often issued and later thrown out by the prosecutors.

[Dam]

Our buggy's disc says 5 persons
Monday afternoon last week I fixed the buggy's lights, fortunately only the fuses that blew, and was stopped at a roadblock in Southbroom early on Tuesday morning.
They checked everything but we passed
BTW, on our buggy's reg. papers the Afrikaans word for Beach Buggy is "Ritsmotor". I like!

Henk

[Klaus]

Did you ask the police to arrest the clown who side swiped you? Leaving the scene of an accident is illegal and as you were already in the path you should have had the right of way, i.e already in the circle

The same cops should come down Witkopen rd and William Nicol in Fourways - taxis drive in huge convoys there - different rules for different vehicle operators

[Blitzkrieg]

Why are convoys illegal

No more KKKKKKK convoying, but since we leave at 4am doubt that the fat things are up and out of bed yet

[fig]

I've no idea what the convoy law is, but I guess it's time we found out.

I would imagine that, according to the definition, it's not a convoy if all the cars keep a prescribed distance between them.

It's illegal because convoys can cause an obstruction to the smooth flow of traffic.

Since none of the other regular traffic obstructors (start with taxis) are ever taken to task, I will continue to arrange bus convoys until we're pulled over for it. At that point I will plead ignorance and ask Officer Friendly to please explain the rules to me and promise not to do it again.