{"id":267,"date":"2008-10-07T14:05:21","date_gmt":"2008-10-07T14:05:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/?p=267"},"modified":"2011-07-29T15:31:28","modified_gmt":"2011-07-29T15:31:28","slug":"van-speed-limits-clarity-almost-for-sub-2-tonne-vans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/archives\/267","title":{"rendered":"Van Speed Limits: Clarity (almost) for sub 2-tonne vans"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Although the Highway Code (and the law!) clearly state that goods vehicles (including vans) with a maximum gross weight of over 2 tonnes are subject to different speed limits to cars, there is often some confusion about vans under 2 tonnes, which are exempt from the lower van speed limits as long as they are car derived.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ve written about the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/archives\/105\" target=\"_self\">commonly misunderstood van speed limits<\/a> before, and the topic has also been the subject of a longish thread in our forums. More recently, van speed limits were the focus of a <a href=\"http:\/\/same-day-courier.eu\/alec\/2008\/09\/22\/speed-limits-for-vans-are-the-dft-even-more-confused-than-the-rest-of-us\/\" target=\"_blank\">recent post<\/a> on the very interesting Courier Business Stuff blog, which is written by a same-day courier business manager named Alec.<\/p>\n<p>In it, he highlights the potential grey area surrounding vans with a maxium gross weight of under 2 tonnes (e.g. Vauxhall Combo, Citroen Berlingo) which<strong> aren&#8217;t<\/strong> car-derived vans. Should they be subject to the speed limit for car-derived vans with a maximum gross weight under 2 tonnes or not?<\/p>\n<p>Alec emailed the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.dft.gov.uk\/\" target=\"_blank\">DfT <\/a>(Department for Transport) to see if they could clarify this point and it seems they can, at least to an extent.<\/p>\n<p>According to the DfT, for vans to be excluded from van speed limits, they must be based on a standard car chassis and must have a body the same as that fitted to a car equivalent as far back as the B pillar (behind the front doors). A box body behind this is acceptable, but <em><strong>only if it is built onto a standard car chassis<\/strong><\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Vehicles not meeting these criteria (such as the current Vauxhall Combo) are technically required to obey the speed limits which apply to goods vehicles up to 7.5 tonnes &#8211; 50mph on single carriageways, 60mph on duals and 70mph on motorways.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/same-day-courier.eu\/alec\/2008\/09\/22\/speed-limits-for-vans-are-the-dft-even-more-confused-than-the-rest-of-us\/#comment-1419\" target=\"_blank\">This comment from the DfT<\/a> is well worth reading and provides the most detailed and specific explanation I have ever seen on this topic &#8211; although I don&#8217;t necessarily agree with the logic of it. Why should an Vauxhall Astravan loaded with its maximum 650kg payload be subject to higher speed limits than a Vauxhall Combo with its 595kg payload?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Van speed limits are commonly misunderstood by van drivers &#8211; especially drivers of small vans with maximum gross weights under 2 tonnes. In this article, I explain the latest advice on the subject.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[8],"tags":[419,315,420,185],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=267"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1991,"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267\/revisions\/1991"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=267"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=267"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=267"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}