From 29 October this year, all new commercial vehicles must have full European Community Whole Vehicle Type Approval.

This means — for example — that a new van cannot be supplied, pre-registration, to a converter to have body conversion fitted, unless that conversion has EC type approval.

While the Department for Transport has introduced some small-scale, common-sense exclusions — such as ply-lining — by and large, all modifications to the ex-factory van will need type approval.

This means that converters have two choices: send each van they convert for Individual Vehicle Approval tests — time-consuming and expensive — or obtains Whole Vehicle Type Approval for their conversions.

There is a third option, too — buy a van, register it and then supply it to the converter for modification: modifications made after a vehicle has been registered do not require type approval. However, as well as  being cumbersome, this is against the spirit of the rules and could affect the vehicle’s future resale value, as the vehicle’s body type may have changed since it was registered.

One company that has taken the type approval bull by the horns is bodybuilder Bevan Group, which obtained EC Whole Vehicle Type Approval for its vehicle bodies as long ago as 2009. The company acquired glass rack manufacturer Supertrucks last year, and has now announced that Supertrucks’ external glass racking products, which are known as frails, have passed whole vehicle type approval testing — making the firm the first to gain EC Whole Vehicle Type Approval for such products.

This achievement means that Supertrucks’ frails can now be fitted to unregistered vans and sold without any further checks — in complete compliance with current EC regulations. As Lee Dimmock, operations director at Bevan Group, explains, this is a major benefit:

“Having audited all of our systems, as well as Supertrucks’ products, VCA has now cleared Bevan to produce groups of vehicles fitted with glass racks, which will comply with current Type Approval regulations. The potential advantage in terms of reduced lead times is huge.”

Lee says some glass carriers have been exploiting a loophole in the regulations by purchasing and registering unmodified vans, then having them fitted retrospectively with external racks.

“But that means the vehicle which eventually goes on the road is not the one that was registered, and this can cause problems further down the line,” says Lee. “Responsible operators prefer to do things properly and ensure that their vans are fully finished, and approved, with quality racking systems and other features such as additional lighting already in place, prior to registration.”

The European Community Whole Vehicle Type Approval regulations are designed to ensure that new light commercial vehicles meet environmental, safety and security standards.

Supertrucks Manager Dave Hill adds:

“We have modified significantly the design of our frails to meet the requirements of the approval scheme, while maintaining the superior quality of the equipment. Our racks and other glass-carrying systems are widely acknowledged to be the finest in the industry, and are already exported to a number of European countries. The fact that we can produce and Bevan can now fit our systems here in the UK is a further step forward for the two businesses.”