Guide
Transporter or controller: which permit is yours?
Last updated 15 September 2026
If you drive waste from one place to another on somebody else's instructions, you are a waste transporter. If you decide where waste goes, arrange collections or disposal for other people, or buy and sell waste, you are a waste controller. If you do both, and most small clearance and skip businesses do, you need the combined controller-transporter permit.
These three permits replace the waste carrier, broker and dealer registration in England from 22 July 2027. Roughly speaking, a carrier becomes a transporter and a broker or dealer becomes a controller. The catch is that a lot of businesses currently registered as upper-tier carriers also arrange where the waste ends up, which makes them controllers as well.
What each permit covers
The regulations describe a waste transporter as someone who moves waste between locations because a controller has told them to, without deciding what the waste is or where it goes. Defra's examples are hauliers, contractors and delivery drivers.
A waste controller is anyone who organises the collection or transport of waste, decides its end destination, arranges for it to be assessed and classified, arranges recovery or disposal on behalf of somebody else, or buys and sells waste. It counts whether or not you ever touch the waste yourself.
A controller-transporter does both.
The test is who decides. When a load leaves a customer's premises, who chose where it is going? If you did, you are controlling, whether or not you also drove the van.
Examples by trade
House and garden clearance: you collect the waste, you choose the tip or transfer station, you invoice the householder. Our reading is that this is a controller-transporter.
Skip and grab hire: you supply the container, arrange the movement and decide the destination. Controller-transporter.
Haulier or driver working for a skip firm or waste company that tells you where to take each load: transporter.
Waste broker, or a website that arranges skips and never touches the waste: controller.
Scrap collector who buys metal from households and sells it to a yard: buying and selling waste is controlling, and you also transport it, so the combined permit. You will still need your scrap metal dealer licence from the council. That is a separate system.
Builder taking your own site waste to a transfer station: this is your own waste. Under the current rules, your own construction and demolition waste needs an upper-tier registration. Whether it needs a permit or a registered exemption under the new rules has not been confirmed.
Gardener removing green waste from a customer's garden as part of the job: you are transporting somebody else's waste and you chose where it goes. Our reading is controller-transporter. If the EA's guidance treats waste produced in the course of your own trade differently, this article will change.
Why the choice matters
The EA can refuse an application and can suspend or revoke a permit later. If you hold a transporter permit and act as a controller, you are working without the right permit. The competence assessment is modular, so the permit you apply for decides what you have to pass. Fees may also differ between permit types.The competence assessment explained
Still to be confirmed
- The EA's standard rules for each permit, including how waste produced in your own trade (builders, gardeners, plumbers) is treated.
- Fees for each permit type.
- Whether one combined permit always covers a business that does both activities, or whether some businesses will need more than one permit.
Frequently asked questions
- I am registered as an upper-tier waste carrier. Which permit will I need?
- If you collect waste from customers and decide where it goes, the combined controller-transporter permit. If you only drive loads that a waste company directs, the transporter permit. Your current registration runs until it expires.
- Do I need a permit if I never touch the waste?
- Yes, if you arrange, buy or sell it. That is the controller permit.
- I do a bit of everything. Which one?
- The combined permit. It covers both activities.
Not sure which applies to you? Use the permit checker. It takes a minute and you can email yourself the result.Check which permit you need
This guide is general information, not legal advice. The Environment Agency makes the final decision on any application.