CBDU number: the waste carrier, broker or dealer registration number
A CBDU number is the registration number the Environment Agency issues to an upper tier waste carrier, broker or dealer in England, written as the letters CBDU followed by digits. If a haulier tips at your site, that number and the date it runs out belong in your records.
What a CBDU number is
A CBDU number is the registration number the Environment Agency issues to an upper tier waste carrier, broker or dealer in England, and it is the number a haulier should be able to read out to you at the gate. CBD stands for carrier, broker, dealer. The U marks it as an upper tier registration, the tier for businesses that move waste for other people, or that arrange for waste to be moved or sold on.
Lower tier registration exists too, for a narrower set of cases, and it is issued with a different prefix. So a registration number that does not begin with CBDU is not automatically wrong, it may simply be the other tier. What matters on a receiving site is that the number exists, that it belongs to the business actually bringing the load, and that it has not run out.
England is only part of the picture. The regulators in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland register carriers under their own systems, and their numbers do not look like a CBDU number. A lorry coming across a border carries the registration of the regulator it registered with.
What it looks like, and an example from the weighbridge
The format is the four letters then a run of digits, in the shape of CBDU123456. That is an illustration of the pattern, not a real company's registration.
Here is the moment it usually comes up. A tipper arrives at the yard with a mixed builders' load. The weighbridge operator takes the weight, writes the waste description and the EWC code, then needs the carrier's name and registration number for the transfer note. The driver reads it off the side of the cab or a card in the glovebox: CBDU, six digits. That number goes on the note as the carrier's registration, and the same number should be checkable on the Environment Agency's public register of waste carriers, brokers and dealers, which anyone can search by name or by number.
If the driver cannot produce a number, the sensible move is to stop and ask, not to write something plausible. A transfer note naming a carrier who turns out not to be registered is a problem that lands on the receiving site as well as the haulier.
What a CBDU number answers, and what it does not
| Question at the gate | Does the CBDU number settle it? |
|---|---|
| Is this business registered to carry or broker waste? | Yes, if the number is on the public register and the name matches the business in front of you. |
| Is the registration still in date? | Only if you check the expiry shown against that registration. The number itself does not say. |
| Can this carrier take this particular waste? | No. Hazardous loads and specific waste streams have their own requirements on top of registration. |
| Is my own site allowed to receive the load? | No. That is your environmental permit or exemption, which is a separate thing entirely. |
| Is my transfer note complete? | No. The carrier's registration is one field among several the note has to carry. |
Why the expiry date matters more than the number
An upper tier registration runs for a fixed term and has to be renewed before it lapses. The number stays recognisable either way, which is the trap: a lapsed registration reads exactly like a live one on a scrap of paper in a folder. Nothing on the lorry changes on the day it expires.
For a yard taking loads from a handful of regular hauliers, that means the real record you need is not a list of numbers, it is a list of numbers with dates against them, reviewed before the dates arrive. The same goes for your own registration if the business also carries waste, and for any broker you work through. Most yards find out a registration has gone stale when someone asks for it, which is the worst time to find out.
Related terms
- Waste transfer note (WTN). The record of a waste movement between two parties. The carrier's registration number is one of the fields it has to carry.
- Duty of care. The obligation that makes checking a carrier's registration your business as well as theirs, as a site receiving waste.
- EWC code. The List of Waste code describing what is actually in the skip, filled in alongside the carrier details.
- Hazardous waste consignment note. The separate record hazardous loads move on, where registration alone is not enough.
- Environmental permit or exemption. What authorises your yard to receive and treat waste, as distinct from a carrier's registration to move it.
- Season ticket. One transfer note covering repeat collections of the same waste from the same place, where the carrier's registration still has to be current for every run.
Questions
Is a CBDU number the same as a waste carrier licence?
In practice people use the two names for the same thing. The formal term in England is a waste carrier, broker or dealer registration, and the CBDU number is the reference that registration is issued under. If a driver says licence number, they mean this.
What is the difference between upper tier and lower tier?
Upper tier covers businesses that carry waste for others, or that broker or deal in it, and it is the tier most hauliers tipping at a transfer station sit in. Lower tier covers a narrower set of cases and uses a different prefix. The Environment Agency's own guidance sets out which tier a business belongs in.
Does the CBDU number have to go on the waste transfer note?
The carrier's details, including their registration, are part of what a transfer note records. Our page on what information a waste transfer note must contain walks the fields one by one.
How do I check a carrier's CBDU number is genuine?
Search the Environment Agency's public register of waste carriers, brokers and dealers by the number or the business name, and check the name on the register matches the business actually bringing you the load, not just a trading name on the cab door.
What should I do if a carrier's registration has expired?
Treat it as a question to resolve before the load is accepted rather than a paperwork detail to tidy up later, because your own duty of care covers who you take waste from. Ask for the renewed registration and record the new expiry date.
Does my transfer station need a CBDU number of its own?
Receiving and treating waste on site is authorised by your environmental permit or exemption, not by a carrier registration. If the business also moves waste on the road, for example running its own skip lorries, then registration as a carrier applies to that activity as well.
Does this change under digital waste tracking?
The carrier's identity and registration are exactly the sort of detail a digital record is meant to carry, so the number does not stop mattering when the duplicate book does. If anything it gets easier to notice a missing or stale registration once the records are in one place.