{"id":4031,"date":"2012-11-26T14:30:08","date_gmt":"2012-11-26T14:30:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/?p=4031"},"modified":"2012-11-26T16:43:40","modified_gmt":"2012-11-26T16:43:40","slug":"van-speed-limit-rules-get-crazy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/archives\/4031","title":{"rendered":"Van Speed Limit Rules Get Crazy"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"

Peugeot Bipper van -- at the moment, this van is subject to lower speed limits than the (larger) Citroen Berlingo...<\/p><\/div>\n

Will these crazy examples finally lead to a common-sense ruling on van speed limits?<\/strong><\/p>\n

In my 2008 post, “Van Speed Limits: Clarity (almost) for sub 2-tonne vans<\/a>“<\/em>\u00a0I reported on how the DfT had said that for a van to be subject to car speed limits, rather than the lower limit that applies to goods vehicles under 7.5t, it must:<\/p>\n

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\u00a0only if it is built onto a standard car chassis<\/strong><\/em>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In addition, the vehicle must have a maximum laden weight under 2 tonnes.<\/em><\/p>\n

Homologation Question<\/strong><\/p>\n

However, that was four years ago and the world has moved on — not least with the introduction of the Peugeot Bipper\/Citroen Nemo\/Fiat Fiorino<\/a> small van, all of which have matching car models and maximum laden weights of under 2 tonnes, but are subject to van speed limits<\/a>, according to this article in What Van?<\/em>, which says<\/a>:<\/p>\n

[they] aren\u2019t classified as car-derived vans because they were homologated for sale first as commercial vehicles.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The article goes on to say that the Citroen Berlingo, a larger heavier model, is considered car-derived because it was homologated as a car model before it was homologated as a van, so is only subject to car speed limits (as is the obviously car-derived Vauxhall Astravan).<\/p>\n

So the gist seems to be that if a van model is also made as a car and has a maximum laden weight below 2 tonnes, the speed limits that apply to the vehicle will depend on whether it was first homologated as a van, or as a car — even though the vehicle itself does qualify as car-derived. There’s not really any way of knowing unless you happen to know which model was homologated first — highly unlikely.<\/p>\n

For van hire<\/a> customers, it makes it all but impossible to know the correct speed limit for small vans<\/a> unless the rental company tells you — or has a sign in the cab with the correct speed limits on. In my experience, both of these are surprisingly rare.<\/p>\n

This is clearly a crazy situation and the What Van?<\/em> Article concludes by suggesting that discussions are ongoing between Peugeot<\/a> and the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT<\/a>) to resolve the issue.<\/p>\n

Watch this space.<\/p>\n

Note: <\/strong>If you are not sure what the speed limits for vans are, click here for details<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Speed limits for car-derived vans are even more confusing than ever — do you know whether your van was homologated first as a car, or as a van? That could make a difference and see you get a speeding ticket if you get it wrong. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[8],"tags":[217,193,291,167,1048,310,185],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4031"}],"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=4031"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4031\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4037,"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4031\/revisions\/4037"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4031"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4031"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4031"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}