Driving overweight van

[colinrob]

What is the likely outcome of driving an overweight van, is a 3.5 tonne sprinter thought i could carry 1600-1700 kgs was pulled with what I thought was slightly overweight as carrying 1800kgs, turned out i was 1140kgs overweight or 32.5% does anyone know the consequences, please only reply if you know and please don't give your sanctimonious views, i am after information (60 year old with clean driving licence) wont happen again as i am selling the van.

[Bright Halo]

https://startups.co.uk/analysis/penalties-for-over...

I’m afraid that more than 30% over and it is a court summons not just a standard fine. See table in above article.

[r3g]

colinrob said:

What is the likely outcome of driving an overweight van, is a 3.5 tonne sprinter thought i could carry 1600-1700 kgs was pulled with what I thought was slightly overweight as carrying 1800kgs, turned out i was 1140kgs overweight or 32.5% does anyone know the consequences, please only reply if you know and please don't give your sanctimonious views, i am after information (60 year old with clean driving licence) wont happen again as i am selling the van.

You usually get 5% leeway, but that would mean 31.5% over to 'only' get a £300 fine. You're into points and summons territory here. Your age and clean record will help you - might get away with just £300 and a slap on the wrist if the magistrate is in a good mood and you put on your best Daily Mail sad face, but if the cops deemed anything about the state of the van and its handling to be dangerous then you could be looking at up to £500 and 3 points. I think it's a CU50 off the top of my head.

Saying "I thought I could carry" as your defence plee won't end well for you either so I recommend you think of a better excuse.

PS. You've no chance of this thread surviving without getting any sanctimonious views and mentions of small children/grannies/fluffy animals being killed

Edited by r3g on Wednesday 23 August 06:09

[GasEngineer]

What caused you to get "pulled". That may have some bearing.

[Teddy Lop]

I'd be careful attempting to use it in mitigation but the complete lack of publicly accessable weighbridges Is another thing that irks me. I've got a lot of gear on the van and while I'm sure I'm well within the limit all I can do is speculate/rough guess on the weight.

Easy to be tough on the OP and if course ignorance is no defence but imagine if cars didn't have Speedos and we just had to basically guess, while enforcement carries accurate measuring devices...

[Yrag male]

800 quid fine for driver and owner. Vehicle impounded until weight excess was removed to another vehicle, on the a1 near Peterborough. Mid mid transit...

[vikingaero]

Genuine question. Are vans like small Sprinters and Transits plated? That is they have a plate somewhere stating available loading capacity - say 800kg?

[Dingu]

Teddy Lop said:

I'd be careful attempting to use it in mitigation but the complete lack of publicly accessable weighbridges Is another thing that irks me. I've got a lot of gear on the van and while I'm sure I'm well within the limit all I can do is speculate/rough guess on the weight.

Easy to be tough on the OP and if course ignorance is no defence but imagine if cars didn't have Speedos and we just had to basically guess, while enforcement carries accurate measuring devices...

It’s a good point. Especially for offences at the lower end of the scale where there may be no obvious signs that the weight is over.

[President Merkin]

vikingaero said:

Genuine question. Are vans like small Sprinters and Transits plated? That is they have a plate somewhere stating available loading capacity - say 800kg?

Yes. They all have a vin indicating GVW & Kerb weight. They're a pain to work out but unfortunately that won't do much for the OP. Overloading is seen as a serious offence for obvious reasons of vehicle safety & while it's true that often you have to guess the weight on the back they'll still throw the book at people over 30% often as not.

[Scrump]

Teddy Lop said:

I'd be careful attempting to use it in mitigation but the complete lack of publicly accessable weighbridges Is another thing that irks me. I've got a lot of gear on the van and while I'm sure I'm well within the limit all I can do is speculate/rough guess on the weight.

Easy to be tough on the OP and if course ignorance is no defence but imagine if cars didn't have Speedos and we just had to basically guess, while enforcement carries accurate measuring devices...

The large waste recycling centre in my region allows the public to use the weighbridge, free if you just want to know the weight with a small charge if you want it printed out. Not sure how common this is in other parts of the country.

[Cat]

President Merkin said:

vikingaero said:

Genuine question. Are vans like small Sprinters and Transits plated? That is they have a plate somewhere stating available loading capacity - say 800kg?

Yes. They all have a vin indicating GVW & Kerb weight. They're a pain to work out but unfortunately that won't do much for the OP. Overloading is seen as a serious offence for obvious reasons of vehicle safety & while it's true that often you have to guess the weight on the back they'll still throw the book at people over 30% often as not.

This is not correct. The VIN plate doesn't have a kerb weight it only lists GVW/MAM, train weight and axle weights.

Cat

[President Merkin]

Cat said:

This is not correct. The VIN plate doesn't have a kerb weight it only lists GVW/MAM, train weight and axle weights.

Cat

You're quite right, my error. Kerb weight usually found in the vehicle manual or log book.

[Cockaigne]

i always thought a 3.5t van could carry a load of 1 tonne, thought there was an advert or something.

[MustangGT]

colinrob said:

What is the likely outcome of driving an overweight van, is a 3.5 tonne sprinter thought i could carry 1600-1700 kgs was pulled with what I thought was slightly overweight as carrying 1800kgs, turned out i was 1140kgs overweight or 32.5% does anyone know the consequences, please only reply if you know and please don't give your sanctimonious views, i am after information (60 year old with clean driving licence) wont happen again as i am selling the van.

What you are saying makes no sense if your load was 1800kg. 1800-1140 = 660kg, I am sure a 3.5t Sprinter can carry more than 660kg.

[DickyC]

Scrump said:

The large waste recycling centre in my region allows the public to use the weighbridge, free if you just want to know the weight with a small charge if you want it printed out. Not sure how common this is in other parts of the country.

Our local metal recyclers do exactly the same - free if verbal, small fee if printed. They prefer you to go when it's quiet.

[TikTak]

MustangGT said:

What you are saying makes no sense if your load was 1800kg. 1800-1140 = 660kg, I am sure a 3.5t Sprinter can carry more than 660kg.

It absolutely can.

Some guys did a clearance for us (IT Firm) and guess what, a load of metal boxes and cables weighs a lot. Their sprinter got pulled after going over the Dartford Crossing. Total weight was over 7t

All they got was a big old fine. This was about 6 or 7 years ago though.

[eharding]

O/T, but as I was quickly scanning the list of thread titles in SP&L this morning I nearly choked on my generously provisioned bacon sarnie when I thought this one read "Driving overweight ban", and the debate to be had about the morals of driving on an empty motorway late at night whilst being a right chubby git vs proceeding down a residential street in daylight whist being 2% + 1kg over your ideal BMI.

[sunbeam alpine]

MustangGT said:

colinrob said:

What is the likely outcome of driving an overweight van, is a 3.5 tonne sprinter thought i could carry 1600-1700 kgs was pulled with what I thought was slightly overweight as carrying 1800kgs, turned out i was 1140kgs overweight or 32.5% does anyone know the consequences, please only reply if you know and please don't give your sanctimonious views, i am after information (60 year old with clean driving licence) wont happen again as i am selling the van.

What you are saying makes no sense if your load was 1800kg. 1800-1140 = 660kg, I am sure a 3.5t Sprinter can carry more than 660kg.

A Sprinter can legally load about 700kg. They're ideal for volume transport but not for weight.

We run Fiat Ducatos for this reason - they're much lighter and can load about 1250kg.

Here in Belgium the OP would face an on-the-spot fine of €1500 (van seized if unable to pay) and would have to get someone to come and transfer excess weight before continuing.

Given the extreme overloading the van would have to be presented for our equivalent of the MOT test ( I think within a week of the offence) to confirm that nothing had been damaged, and you'd have to report to a police station to show the results. Failure to do this would also attract a large fine.

[bigothunter]

sunbeam alpine said:

A Sprinter can legally load about 700kg. They're ideal for volume transport but not for weight.

We run Fiat Ducatos for this reason - they're much lighter and can load about 1250kg.

700kg payload in a 3500kg van is pathetic.

Something strange has happened to the van market. Even short wheelbase Transit Mk2 LCX had a 120 variant - it could carry 1200kg payload. Larger LCY had a 190 variant in 3500kg GVM. That's 1900kg payload in a van weighing 1600kg.

How have vans become so grossly bloated and inefficient? Why has focus evaporated on crucial payload capacity?

[Alex@POD]

sunbeam alpine said:

A Sprinter can legally load about 700kg. They're ideal for volume transport but not for weight.

Are you sure about that?