Terminology, approval route and the range change by market.

InternationalUnited KingdomAustralia

United Kingdom

Welfare units for sale

A welfare unit for sale here is built new to your specification rather than refurbished out of a hire fleet.

A man inspects machinery in a factory

A mobile welfare unit carries a mess area, a WC and a drying area on one braked chassis, towed to site behind a van and moved again when the job moves. Site operators buy them, and so do the hire companies that rent them out, which is a different purchase with a different question behind it.

The question a hire buyer asks is how many years the unit survives being handed to a different crew every fortnight. So the specification starts at the chassis and the panel rather than at the fit out, and the inspection arrangements are written into the quotation and order.

What a unit is specified around

Body sizes10 ft, 12 ft and 14 ft bodies on a twin axle braked chassis
Mess areaSeating, a work surface, a sink with a heated water supply, and sockets sized for the appliances rather than for the wall
WCSeparate compartment, its own door, hand wash basin, and a waste tank sized for the crew and the emptying interval you actually run
Drying areaHeated, with hanging space and a floor that can be hosed
PowerDiesel generator, or a battery and solar hybrid where the run hours and the noise limit justify it
TowingSpecified to be towed by a 3.5 tonne van on a standard licence category, and the plated weights are measured on the finished unit rather than declared
SecurityAnti vandal door and shutter options, specified at build rather than added afterwards

The duty behind it

The duty this unit exists to discharge

Welfare on a construction site in Great Britain is Schedule 2 of the CDM Regulations 2015, and it binds the client, the principal contractor and each contractor at the same time. It is written in terms of function rather than size, so a unit is not compliant because of its length.

All twenty four requirements, paragraph by paragraph, with the source dated

Before you pay

The approval route comes first

A unit that cannot be registered where it is going cannot be used there. So the route is established first, in writing, and each country's route is published with the regulator's own source and the date it was read.

Getting it registered in the United Kingdom

Supplying a new category O trailer for road use in Great Britain without a certificate in effect is a criminal offence, and the certificate is an EU Certificate of Conformity, a national small series certificate or an Individual Vehicle Approval certificate. Which route applies to your unit is established in writing before you pay, with the authority and the documents named. The route for United Kingdom, with the regulator's own source and the date it was read.

Oil rigs on body of water

Questions

Asked before an order, not after

Is this new or refurbished?

New, and built to an order. Nothing is held in stock, so there is no availability figure to give.

What has to happen before it can be supplied to me?

A welfare unit is a goods trailer above the 1,020 kg unladen line, which makes it a large trailer under regulation 26 of the Road Vehicles (Approval) Regulations 2020. Regulation 23 then requires the supplier to notify DVSA, provide the pertinent information and obtain consent before supply, and DVSA may inspect and test. That step is ours, it is done before the unit reaches you, and it is the reason the approval route is established before you pay rather than after.

Can it be towed on a standard licence?

The unit is specified to a plated weight that suits the towing vehicle and licence category you tell us about, and how the weights are confirmed on the finished unit is set out in the written quotation.

Do you sell to hire fleets?

Yes, and a fleet order is specified once and reordered against the same frozen drawing so the tenth unit matches the first.

What powers it?

A diesel generator is the ordinary answer. Where a site has a noise limit or long standing time, a battery and solar hybrid is specified instead, sized against the actual load rather than a catalogue figure.

United Kingdom

What is different here

What is true here and not in Australia. 5 things that decide a specification in this market and do not apply in the other one, each with the instrument or the authority it was read from.

Decides the unit

01

The welfare duty names functions and refuses to name numbers

Schedule 2 to the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015 requires suitable and sufficient sanitary conveniences, washing facilities, drinking water, changing rooms and rest facilities. It gives no ratio: no closets per worker, no basins per shift, no square metres per head. It is given effect by three separate regulations naming the client, the principal contractor and the contractor, and none of them discharges the others.

What it changes. A buyer comparing two units on length has no way to tell whether either discharges the duty, which is why a specification here starts at the crew and the shift pattern rather than at a body size.

Read from CDM 2015, Schedule 2 2026-09-05

02

The document usually quoted for toilet numbers says on its own page that it does not cover construction

L24 is the Approved Code of Practice for the Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992 and it carries the familiar table of sanitary conveniences against numbers of people. The Health and Safety Executive's own page for it says those Regulations apply to most workplaces except those involving construction work on construction sites, those in or on a ship, and those below ground at a mine.

What it changes. A welfare unit sized from that table is sized from an instrument that does not reach the site it is going to. Construction welfare runs on Schedule 2 to CDM 2015 instead, which names functions and gives no numbers, so the sizing argument has to be made from crew and shift rather than copied from a table.

Read from Workplace health, safety and welfare, L24, Health and Safety Executive 2026-09-09

Decides the business

03

Supplying the trailer without a certificate in effect is a criminal offence, not a paperwork delay

Under the Road Vehicles (Approval) Regulations 2020, supplying a recordable trailer for use on a road without an EU Certificate of Conformity, a national small series certificate or an IVA certificate having effect is an offence. The penalty is an unlimited fine in England and Wales, or up to three months imprisonment for an individual, or both. For a large trailer, defined by unladen weight over 1,020 kg or any semi-trailer built to carry goods, regulation 23 requires the supplier to notify DVSA, provide the pertinent information and obtain consent before supply, and consent is withheld until import VAT and customs duty are paid.

What it changes. It puts the approval route on the critical path rather than beside it. A unit that arrives before its certificate does cannot lawfully be handed over, which is why the route is established before the specification is frozen rather than after the build.

Read from The Road Vehicles (Approval) Regulations 2020 2026-09-08

Decides the operation

04

Who may tow it was decided by the year they passed their test

A licence obtained before 1 January 1997 usually carries a combined vehicle and trailer entitlement up to 8,250 kg maximum authorised mass. A licence obtained from that date covers a trailer up to 3,500 kg, which is category BE, and anything heavier needs category C1+E with a provisional licence, a lorry theory test and a practical test. Six of the twenty three units we specify sit exactly on the 3,500 kg line.

What it changes. The plated mass is a licensing decision about the buyer, not only an engineering one about the trailer. It is settled before a specification is frozen, because a unit the buyer cannot tow is of no use to them.

Read from GOV.UK, towing with a car 2026-09-07

05

Three obligations land on the operator inside 2027, from three departments

The micro firm exemption from workplace recycling separation in England ends on 31 March 2027, and the guidance names construction sites and the contractors' food and packaging waste on them. Martyn's Law can commence from 3 April 2027 at the earliest, after which an event expecting 800 or more becomes a qualifying event carrying the enhanced requirements. The deposit return scheme for England and Northern Ireland starts on 1 October 2027.

What it changes. None of the three asks anything of a trailer, and two of them change what the operator standing in it has to do. Knowing which is which before ordering is worth more than any option on the list.

Read from The obligation timetable, with each instrument and read date 2026-09-09

Specify a welfare unit

Crew size, shift pattern and how the unit gets to site. That is enough to start.