Recent changes in the legislation governing the use and speed restrictions of 7.5t lorries have meant that many operators are downsizing to 3.5t vans – still blessedly tacho and speed limiter free.<\/p>\n
This is especially true of companies whose workers simply use the vehicles to transport their own equipment, not for commercial transport.<\/p>\n
The problem is that a growing number of 3.5 tonne vans are being overloaded<\/a> by their drivers and operators – whether knowingly or unknowingly. 55% of vans stopped by VOSA <\/a>in 2006\/7 were overloaded (obviously a skewed statistic because some would have been chosen to be stopped because they looked overloaded). All the same, that figure is up from only 38.7% in 2005\/6 and 30% the year before.<\/p>\n Overloading carries a fine of up to \u00a35,000<\/em> – ouch – so what do you need to know to avoid it?<\/p>\n Why’s It Happening?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n It’s easy to see how this can happen – vans used as mobile workshops, sheds and storage facilities gradually get heavier – and then you have to add perhaps 200kg for 2\/3 people and their ‘stuff’, as well. Unfamiliar loads can be heavier than they look, and so it goes…<\/p>\n 3.5t vans keep on getting bigger, too. Transit Jumbos and XLWB Sprinters are positively cavernous inside – and try telling the boss you can only use half that space because his stuff all weighs too much.<\/p>\n Our ‘What Size Van<\/a>‘ page includes typical approximate payloads for all the most common types of vans, but what else do you need to know?<\/p>\n How Do I Know the Maximum Load Weight I Can Carry?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n All goods vehicles should have a ‘plating certificate’ issued by the manufacturer on vans and the Department for Transport<\/a> on heavier vehicles. It’s a metal plate fastened in the cab somewhere, often around the door wells – in my Transit, it’s on the passenger side below the seat.<\/p>\n This states the legal ‘Maximum Authorised Mass’ for the vehicle – also known as the maximum gross weight or something similar. Problem is, it won’t tell you the unladen weight – so how does it help?<\/p>\n If you think there’s a risk that you may be overloaded, the thing to do is to find out the ‘Tare’ – or empty – weight of your van.<\/p>\n If You Carry Different or Unpredictable Loads<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n If you carry varying loads, that means taking it to a weighbridge and having it weighed with you, a full tank of fuel and your standard (always with you) tools or equipment but with no load.<\/em><\/p>\n Take the weighbridge weight and subtract it from the MAM (maximum authorised mass) for the vehicle. That will give you the maximum load weight you can legally carry.<\/p>\n Now you just need to find a way of knowing how much all the stuff you need to carry actually weighs – easier said than done, sometimes.<\/p>\n If You Always Carry the Same Load<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n If you always have the same set of equipment\/load in your van, take it to a weighbridge fully-loaded (including people and packed lunches) and see what it weighs. If it’s more than your maximum plated weight (MAM) – you need to shed a few pounds, somehow, before VOSA <\/a>do it for you.<\/p>\n See here <\/a>and here <\/a>for two useful guides on commercial vehicle weights (although they are biased a bit towards lorries). If in doubt, check your information with VOSA<\/a> or on the government’s Transport Office <\/a>website.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Recent changes in the legislation governing the use and speed restrictions of 7.5t lorries have meant that many operators are downsizing to 3.5t vans – still blessedly tacho and speed limiter free.<\/p>\n The problem is that a growing number of 3.5 tonne vans are being overloaded by their drivers and operators – whether knowingly or unknowingly. 55% of vans stopped by VOSA in 2006\/7 were overloaded…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[8],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27"}],"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=27"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}