Bonjour

As Kurt Jon Ulmer asked me details by Email on my experience about the aventourouss life of importing Mingming trailer to France. I thought It might be interesting to sheer it with any fool which would be tempted by a real life Kafkaien process:

Sorry it's a bit formal and administrative!

The regulation for trailers and car in Europe are national and not European.

In UK, the trailers don't have any registration and carry the same registration plate as the tractor.

in continental Europe, the trailers heavier than 500kg are considered as a stand alone vehicle and so are registered and carry there one registration plate.

In Europe you also have the free circulation of vehicles from other European countries. So a UK car, with a UK trailer and a UK insurance and a UK address may travel freely around Europe (up to Greece for example). That would be a good way to proceed for you to the cost of going back and forth the Channel with the car. The trailer could stay in continental Europe as it is not registered. That is the state of the art BUT the Brexit is underway !

BUT… you can't track a UK trailer behind a French (or any continental country) car because it's the French regulation that applies and you must have a French registered trailer.

The way I proceded:

- I took the train to London,

- I borrowed Roger's car to track the trailer with Mingming to my French boatyard,

- I droved back to London to deliver the car back,

- I returned to France by train,

- I modified the trailer to coop with the French bureaucratic regulation (it took one year and cost me an arm),

- I registered the trailer under the French registration,

- With the registration form I got a French registration plate number.

- I got a French insurance for the trailer.

that's all folk!

Now I may track Mingming on it’s French registered trailer behind my French car with a French insurance, all around Europe... in the UK for example !

Now that I know : "J'aurai mieux fait de me tirer une balle dans le pied" ( "I'd rather shoot myself a bullet in the foot!")

Eric

PS: For your mental sake, I’ll keep for myself all the odds solutions I explored at a start as, for example, using temporary transit Netherland registration plates!