11 seater rego

[Mudpiggy]

Well I'm having a bit of a frustrating morning dealing with the QLD Transport office. I'm told that to register my serIIA 109" for the full 11 seats, I need to pay extra and register it as a minibus.

They say I can only register it with the number stated on the compliance plate, and if I want to change the number of seats, I need to make it physically impossible for the seats to be refitted, and pay for an engineer to plate it.

My problems with this:
1. I have no compliance plate on my 1968 rover that says how many it seats
and
2. I have removable bench seats (optional extra) in the back... how am I supposed to make it impossible to refit these?

Why do I constantly feel like I'm being restricted by QLD road rules?

What are other peoples' experiences here?

[JDNSW]

You have my sympathy. In NSW over 9 seats requires registration as a minibus, with six monthly inspections.

You should point out to them that it has no compliance plate and was not required to have one when manufactured. Perhaps they could point out to you the legislation or regulations that made this requirement retrospective? (I am pretty sure they can't!). You should be able to find someone in the department who can talk intelligently about it, but I doubt you can register it with 11 seats except as a minibus.

John

[isuzurover]

Have you obtained a safety certificate yet? If not, then simply remove at least 1 seat before taking it to get the safety cert.

If you already have a safety cert saying it has eleven seats fitted, then you will have to remove 1 seat , plug the holes and get a mod plate.

You simply need to remove the seat, belts (if fitted) and plug the holes suitably. There is no requirement to render the seat "unable to be refitted" that I have read anywhere.

[Mudpiggy]

It's not currently registered, and I haven't even had the safety inspection yet. I was just surprised when I called up to get CTP, and found out they wanted an extra $124p/a for CTP alone, just to have more than 8 seats. Nobody seams to understand that there is no compliance plate, and there is no coherent reply when I explain the nature of the seating.

Considering the likelihood of carrying 11 people (very slim), I think I'll just register it with two of the benches in the back, and register for 7.

I guess more than anything, I'm just a bit upset that I'm being molded in to place once again, by blanket laws that don't cater for my situation. I suppose the real question I should be asking is, why is there no registration class for a troop carrier?

Anyway, I'll make my calls now, I suppose, and see if I can get that thing registered today. Wish me luck!

[josh aka sean]

I currently run a 10 seater Defender in QLD and get slugged the extra CTP. If don't want to pay it then you need to drop it back to 8 seater or less. Anything over this is regarded as a Mine bus.
If it has previously been registered as an 11 seater then you will probably still need to get the compliance plate to say its only an 8 (or less) or when you go to register it you will have issues. In saying that its fairly easy to get a compliance plate for less seats compated to more seats.

[Mudpiggy]

...So now they tell me I would have to register it for 3, and then have a plate put on to make it compliant for 7. It's looking more and more like I'm going to have to change my upcoming holiday plans, or leave a couple of people behind.

[JDNSW]

...So now they tell me I would have to register it for 3, and then have a plate put on to make it compliant for 7. It's looking more and more like I'm going to have to change my upcoming holiday plans, or leave a couple of people behind.

How do they justify that?

John

[ezyrama]

Just sent you a PM on someone to talk to who might be able to help.

Cheers Ian

[fc110]

You have my sympathy. In NSW over 9 seats requires registration as a minibus, with six monthly inspections.


I don't know if they've closed the loophole, but years ago, if it was registered as a bus then you could stop in bus stops. I would find out how you stand before doing it in each state! Bear in mind also the distinction between bus registration, & paying more CTP because of the extra seating capacity.

[isuzurover]

...So now they tell me I would have to register it for 3, and then have a plate put on to make it compliant for 7. It's looking more and more like I'm going to have to change my upcoming holiday plans, or leave a couple of people behind.

Do you have the docs from when it was last registered?

[Mudpiggy]

Hahaha, that would be quite a laugh, pulling up in bus stops, and seeing the face of the road officers when they read the rego label.

I have looked for the old documents from when it was last registered, but can't find any. It was last registered in 1999, in my grandfather's name. It was registered in his name since he bought it in 1972. I'll have to ask him if he still has any documents.

I've been on the phone, and researching since about 8:30 this morning, and I'm really feeling tired and frazzled. Every thing I do, I seem to take a step backwards. I now have been told that it has to have seat belts on the two outer front seats (apparently 1961-1972 MUST have these to get a roadworthy now, but don't have to have them for ongoing registration). For a car that was just going to do a couple of trips while I finish off my other project, it sure is costing a lot of time, money and stress.

[isuzurover]

Hahaha, that would be quite a laugh, pulling up in bus stops, and seeing the face of the road officers when they read the rego label.

I have looked for the old documents from when it was last registered, but can't find any. It was last registered in 1999, in my grandfather's name. It was registered in his name since he bought it in 1972. I'll have to ask him if he still has any documents.

I've been on the phone, and researching since about 8:30 this morning, and I'm really feeling tired and frazzled. Every thing I do, I seem to take a step backwards. I now have been told that it has to have seat belts on the two outer front seats (apparently 1961-1972 MUST have these to get a roadworthy now, but don't have to have them for ongoing registration). For a car that was just going to do a couple of trips while I finish off my other project, it sure is costing a lot of time, money and stress.

Sounds like you are being fed BS. Nothing in the rules I have seen force you to retrospectively fit seatbelts. There are however rules on who you can carry in a vahicle without seatbelts.

If you can get a safety certificate, then the person behind the counter at QT will register it - 9 times out of 10 they don't even come and look at the vehicle these days.

Instead of calling the idiots at QT you should be tring to track down a landie-sympathetic mechanic for a safety cert.

[Mudpiggy]

Well I finally managed to get my plates today, after much more QLD Transport irritation. For about 2 weeks, I have been trying to find out information on seating capacity etc. They attempted to find prior records of the car, unsuccessfully, and well you know the rest.

Today it took them about 2min to find prior records of the car, which show 3 seat rego (I don't know how, because it never had a capacity on it in the past). This means that without a mod plate, I can only register it for 3. Now because I had the seats in the back, they told me I had to remove them before I could complete the registration, and I couldn't drive it home to get my tools to remove the 2 bolts holding each seat in.

I had to wait for somebody to be able to bring me some spanners, before I could go on. Take out another CTP policy (for different class) etc. etc.
If only QLD Transport could have told me all this two weeks ago, I would have had no problems.

On the bright side, I now have a land rover to drive around in! I'm stoked to finally have found my way to the end of this saga. I might get a mod plate for extra seating in the future, but for now, this should do me just fine. Thanks to everyone for your advice, help and support through this debacle too!

Now, when is the next series rover outing? :D

[digger]

Well I finally managed to get my plates today, after much more QLD Transport irritation. For about 2 weeks, I have been trying to find out information on seating capacity etc. They attempted to find prior records of the car, unsuccessfully, and well you know the rest.

Today it took them about 2min to find prior records of the car, which show 3 seat rego (I don't know how, because it never had a capacity on it in the past). This means that without a mod plate, I can only register it for 3. Now because I had the seats in the back, they told me I had to remove them before I could complete the registration, and I couldn't drive it home to get my tools to remove the 2 bolts holding each seat in.

I had to wait for somebody to be able to bring me some spanners, before I could go on. Take out another CTP policy (for different class) etc. etc.
If only QLD Transport could have told me all this two weeks ago, I would have had no problems.

On the bright side, I now have a land rover to drive around in! I'm stoked to finally have found my way to the end of this saga. I might get a mod plate for extra seating in the future, but for now, this should do me just fine. Thanks to everyone for your advice, help and support through this debacle too!

Now, when is the next series rover outing? :D


Congrats!
Keep an eye on SLOW I would suggest!

[Mudpiggy]

Congrats!
Keep an eye on SLOW I would suggest!

Hahaha, driving in a series, I'm not sure I'm given much of a choice!

[Bigbjorn]

I don't know if they've closed the loophole, but years ago, if it was registered as a bus then you could stop in bus stops. I would find out how you stand before doing it in each state! Bear in mind also the distinction between bus registration, & paying more CTP because of the extra seating capacity.

I had a dust up with Brisbane City council regarding a parking fine issued for parking in a Loading Zone. My County is complianced as an omnibus and had the normal LR wagon 9 seats. The rules say the seats may be temporarily removed without a mod plate and also that a bus may use a loading zone if carrying goods. My seats have been temporarily removed.

I took a photo of the compliance plate and downloaded the relevant pages of the Transport Regulations. I then went into the BCC offices and did battle. They eventually conceded that the County was a commercial vehicle and was entitled to use a loading zone. I was told that I was stretching the rules to the limit and it was only the compliance plate that turned the decision in my favour.

[RobHay]

Series Land Rovers can be registered as a 4 cylinder, 11 seater (that is if you have a 4 cyl.) It is just that transport dept. do not have a classification of 'army troop carrier' so they bung them in as 'mini bus', trouble is that the transport dept. staff don't know their jobs.

[Newbs-IIA]

hahaha Typical QT and it's 'computer says no' policy, to quote the lady who was serving me "I don't know anything about cars, I just work here" aaarrgghhh!!!! I had a heap of trouble registering my SIIA because I went for rego with no roof and hence it was classified as a 'ute' or light comml vehicle. This means I needed a GVM and TARE weight on the compliance plate... which I did not have. Lucky I had an awesome RWC bloke who ended up writing 3 different safety certs untill we finally got it right :) I also ended up getting it registered with no roof and no seatbelts in 2009! Was an awesome car should of never sold it :(

They SIII Ex-Mill I'm soon to purchase is registered as a 7 seater in QLD (used to be 11) they got around this by still having all 4 bench seats in the back but removing 1/2 the seatbelts :p it's very spacious with only 1 person on each seat haha