What can I tow on my Great Britain driving licence?

Drivers who passed a car test before 1 January 1997 usually retain C1+E entitlement with restriction code 107. GOV.UK, checked in 2026, says you can usually drive a vehicle and trailer with a combined MAM up to 8,250 kg, and tells you to view your own licence because an individual entitlement may have been restricted. DVLA INF30 puts the usual vehicle MAM under those grandfather rights at 7,500 kg. Highway Code rule 98 cites the Motor Vehicles (Driving Licences) Regulations 1999 as the licence law behind the towing limits.

The C1+E entitlement normally expires when the licence runs out at age 70. Keeping it requires an application and the higher medical standard for bus and lorry drivers. If you do not renew it, you fall back to the ordinary post-1997 category BE rules, which cap the trailer at 3,500 kg MAM rather than the 8,250 kg combined figure. Check the photocard and the counterpart view on GOV.UK before you hitch something heavy.

You can tow a trailer that weighs up to 3,500 kg MAM. GOV.UK calls this category BE. The 3,500 kg figure is the trailer MAM, not the car and trailer added together. The car must still be a category B vehicle, and it must stay within its own towing capacity and gross train weight. Those vehicle limits can be lower than the licence limit, and they bind first.

If BE is not printed on the photocard, DVLA adds it at the next renewal. You do not wait for that reprint before you tow, provided you hold a full category B licence and the weights fit. Automatic BE is a Great Britain rule. Confirm an NI licence against nidirect rather than assuming the same print-out.

No. Before 16 December 2021, combinations above the old category B threshold could require a separate B+E test. The 2021 change, described in the Department for Transport consultation outcome of that date, removed that test. Category BE is now automatic with a full category B licence. Training is still offered, and GOV.UK lists providers, but it is not a legal test requirement for ordinary BE towing.

To go heavier than BE allows, you apply for a provisional C1+E entitlement, pass the lorry theory test and pass the C1+E driving test. GOV.UK says that route covers a combined MAM up to 12,000 kg. Driver CPC tests are extra if driving the medium-sized lorry is the main part of your job. That is a lorry licence, not a car-and-caravan workaround.

View your driving licence on GOV.UK. Look for category B, category BE, any C1+E, and restriction codes, especially 107 on an older C1+E. INF30 is the booklet that explains the GB towing entitlements in the language DVLA uses. If the photocard is old and BE is missing, that is the known DVLA print lag, not a missing entitlement, but you still confirm it on the digital view.

A provisional category B licence is not a full licence. Automatic BE follows a full category B. Learner drivers do not pick up BE by hitching a trailer. Company drivers, hire van drivers and foreign licence holders have extra questions: a GB full B still gets BE, a hire agreement can still forbid towing, and a foreign licence needs the GB or NI exchange rules, which this page does not invent.

Highway Code rule 98 says you must not tow more than your licence permits. Driving otherwise than in accordance with a licence is endorsement code LC20, which DVLA lists at 3 to 6 points. GOV.UK's towing equipment page also states that using a vehicle in a dangerous condition can bring a fine of up to £2,500, a ban and 3 penalty points. Overweight, poorly hitched or unbraked when it should be braked can all become that dangerous-condition offence as well as a licence offence.

A prohibition can stop the combination at the roadside until the weight or the driver changes. Insurance can refuse a claim if you were outside the entitlement. None of those wait for the next MOT. The trailer is part of the vehicle you are using.

The 1 January 1997 line and automatic BE are Great Britain rules from GOV.UK and INF30. Scotland and Wales are GB. Northern Ireland has its own licensing authority. Do not treat an NI counterpart as a GB photocard. If you passed in NI before 1997, confirm the NI entitlement on nidirect rather than copying the 8,250 kg GB figure across.

Towing abroad is a further check. A trailer over 750 kg often needs its own registration for most European countries. That is not a licence category. It is a trailer registration. The number plate towing page covers it.

That you still need a B+E test for a caravan. You do not, in Great Britain, after 16 December 2021. That 3,500 kg is the car and caravan added together under current BE. It is the trailer MAM. That a pre-1997 licence lasts for life at 8,250 kg combined without medical renewal at 70. The C1+E piece does not. That a 3,500 kg BE trailer is always legal behind a small car. The VIN plate can forbid it.

People also confuse MAM with the weight on the day. MAM is the maximum authorised mass, the most it may weigh when loaded. A caravan with a 1,500 kg MAM and 300 kg of water and kit is not a 1,200 kg tow. Use the loaded figure against the unbraked 750 kg rule, and use MAM against the licence and the plate.