Buying a bin lorry

The local council usually runs bin collections, with its own crews or through a contractor.

Either way, someone has to buy and run the refuse collection vehicles.

These notes cover the main checks in Great Britain before one joins a fleet.

Weight, licences and drivers

Start with the vehicle's gross plated weight. A business using a goods vehicle plated over 3,500kg generally needs a goods vehicle operator's licence. Some vehicles are exempt, and GOV.UK lists them. Northern Ireland has different rules.

The driver needs the right licence category. Category C1 covers vehicles between 3,500kg and 7,500kg. Category C covers vehicles over 3,500kg.

Professional lorry drivers also need a Driver Certificate of Professional Competence. Keeping it means 35 hours of periodic training every five years.

Drivers' hours and tachographs

Lorries over 3.5 tonnes normally come under the assimilated drivers' hours rules, with driving recorded on a tachograph.

Door-to-door household refuse collection can be exempt from those rules. The Department for Transport says the work should be done by a public authority, or by a firm under contract to one. The driving should be secondary to the collecting. Journeys should not normally go beyond about 50 kilometres from the vehicle's base.

Exempt vehicles then come under the GB domestic rules instead. Collecting commercial waste, such as waste from a manufacturing process, does not count.

The bin lift

The Health and Safety Executive treats the hoist on a refuse collection vehicle as lifting equipment. A competent person must examine it at least every 12 months.

The HSE also warns against "jogging", the hard braking used to shake stuck waste loose. It wears the hydraulics and can release a bin without warning.

People sometimes shelter or sleep in large commercial bins. Some have been killed when a bin was emptied into a lorry, so crews need a way to check first.

Reversing and people on the street

Every year the HSE hears of people struck or run over by refuse collection vehicles, and many of those incidents are fatal.

Its advice starts with planning the route. Reversing should be cut down or avoided where possible. Mirrors, cameras, detectors and alarms help. Trained reversing assistants come last, when the other measures cannot control the risk. Some routes can be timed to avoid school start and finish times.

Driving in London

Lorries over 12 tonnes need a free HGV safety permit to enter or work in most of Greater London. Transport for London rates each lorry from zero to five stars for how much the driver can see directly from the cab.

The rating is set when the vehicle is made, and the operator cannot change it. A lorry rated zero, one or two stars needs extra safety equipment, called the Progressive Safe System, before it can get a permit. This was the position on TfL's page in October 2026.

The annual test and waste registration

Petrol, diesel and hybrid goods vehicles over 3,500kg need an HGV MOT, also called the annual test. The first test usually falls 12 months after the vehicle was first registered.

A business that transports waste must register as a waste carrier. In England this is done with the Environment Agency. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland each have their own process.