The Revised Regulations for Agricultural Vehicles came into force on 1 January this year.

Under new regulations, an amber flashing beacon must be fitted on tractors and self-propelled machinery that are in use on the road. The rationale by the RSA for introducing this measure is to warn other road users of slower wider vehicles on the road.

Damaged

While most modern tractors will have a flashing amber beacon fitted, there are still a lot of tractors, combines and self-propelled silage harvesters that may need beacons to be retrofitted or damaged ones replaced.

According to figures from the RSA back in 2004, they estimated that there were 160,000 tractors in Ireland.

This figure is likely to have increased as record sales of up to 5,000 tractors yearly were recorded from 2005 to 2008. With 130,000 farmers in Ireland, it is likely that on average there will be two tractors per farm putting the figure at 260,000 tractors. Taking that figure, 50% of the tractors in use will need new beacons at an average cost of €50. This could mean that €6.5m will be spent on amber flashing beacons this year.