It has been estimated by the Fork Lift Truck Association that tens of thousands of forklift operations each day are conducted illegally, and without insurance cover, yet most of the companies responsible believe they are perfectly law-abiding.

Their 'crime', or so it could be judged by a court of law, is taking unlicensed forklifts onto public roads.

Many do it out of ignorance or in the misguided belief that if the forklift movement is just for a few metres, or will only take a few minutes, no formal documentation or permission is required. This is wrong.

Failure to comply with basic procedures, even for short moves, could invalidate insurance and result in expensive and damaging police or civil actions. Many who break the law do it because they do not understand what constitutes a public road.

In the FLTA's latest technical bulletin, experts address the problem of what actually constitutes a public road. The definition is far wider than would be first thought, with UK legal reasoning defining a road as "anywhere the public may be found, such as car parks, lay-bys, loading bays, private roads through trading or industrial estates, etc".

The bulletin also covers road fund licensing, insurance, lighting, safety and number plate requirements. There are also useful sections on registration and classification and current duty rates.

FLTA chairman Brian Warbrick said "most companies take their forklifts onto roads. It may be necessary to deliver or recover the forklift from an operating location, move it from one site to another, or simply to offload a delivery lorry".