You must register UK commercial trailers before towing them abroad

From 28 March 2019, you must register commercial trailers over 750kg and all trailers over 3,500kg before they can travel through countries that have ratified the 1968 Vienna Convention on Road Traffic.

This includes these countries in the EU, EEA and Europe:

Albania	Andorra	Armenia	Austria	Azerbaijan
Belarus	Belgium	Bosnia and Herzegovina	Bulgaria	Croatia
Czech Republic	Denmark	Estonia	Finland	France
Georgia	Germany	Greece	Hungary	Italy
Kazakhstan	Latvia	Lithuania	Luxembourg	Macedonia
Moldova	Monaco	Montenegro	Netherlands	Norway
Poland	Portugal	Romania	Russia	San Marino
Serbia	Slovakia	Slovenia	Sweden	Switzerland
Ukraine

This means that these trailers making international journeys will need to:

be registered with the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA)
display their own registration plate (separate from the vehicle towing them)
be able to present the Trailer Registration Certificate to a foreign authority on request

You do not need to register trailers that are only used in the UK or only used for journeys between the UK and Ireland.

You also do not need to register trailers used in Spain, Cyprus or Malta. You will, however, need to register trailers if you drive them through any country listed above to reach these destinations.

You can voluntarily register non-commercial trailers that weigh over 750kg but there is no legal requirement to do this.

Register your trailer

You can register:

commercial trailers used internationally with a gross weight over 750kg
all trailers used internationally with a gross weight over 3,500kg

online with DVLA.

To register you will need to know your trailer:

manufacturer
chassis number
permissible maximum mass
unladen mass

Published: Fri 22 Mar 2019

Updated: Thu 11 Apr 2024

Author: DVLA

Published by: DVLA