Road Legal

Across the EU, the harmonised weight for international transport is 40 tonnes at a maximum length of 16.5m for articulated vehicles and 18.75m for drawbar combinations.

For domestic transport, the UK ’s maximum goods vehicle weight is 44 tonnes with the same maximum dimensions.

The Chris Hodge/Commercial Motor website lists the various weights and size limits for semi-trailers and also weights and dimensions of rigids, arctics and drawbars.

Vehicles may be weighed by either a VOSA examiner, an authorised office of a highway authority or a police officer authorised by a Chief Constable at a designated weighbridge site.

Most  local authorities provide guidance information on their website regarding weighbridges; check out Swindon Borough Council as one example.

At the weighbridge

Drivers must comply with any lawful instruction; failure to do so constitutes an offence and can lead to prosecution. It is a driver’s responsibility to tell the authorised officer requiring the vehicle to be weighed of any unusual characteristics of the vehicle or its load.

If the weight recorded is above the permitted limit, the driver, operator or even the consignor may be liable for prosecution. A prohibition note may also be issued to the driver with immediate effect.

The online VOSA Consolidated Code of Practice booklet Enforcement Weighing of Vehicles provides information on how HGVs are weighed, the equipment used and the action taken in the event of an overload.

The Central Office of Information has also produced a website, www.direct.gov.uk, that gives information on gross weights, plated weights and maximum authorised masses. See Vehicle Weights Explained for more information.

Absolute offence 

According to the Road Traffic Act 1988, overloading your vehicle is an absolute offence, which means that an offence is committed even when the driver or haulier was unaware the vehicle was overloaded. It is punishable by up to a fine of up to £5,000 per offence and even licence disqualification.

Aside from the fact that no operator is infallible and genuine mistakes can be made, consignors can, and often do, incorrectly state the weight of a load.

In order to avoid breaking the law and to help you in mitigation, it is strongly advised that you get confirmation of the cargo weight from the consignor in writing and making sure that the weight is on the weighbill/consignment note. See overloading, the law and you for more in-depth information about the law on overloading.

Overloading defences

The act provides two defences against overloading offences, which you must prove:

• (a) that at the time when the vehicle was being used on the road:
  • (i) it was proceeding to the nearest available weighbridge for the purpose of being weighed
  • (ii) it was proceeding from a weighbridge after being weighed to the nearest point at which it was reasonably practicable to reduce the weight to the relevant limit

or

• (b) in cases where the weight limit was not exceeded by more than 5%
  • (i) the limit was not exceeded when the original loading was completed, and
  • (ii) that since that time no one had made any addition to the load

Latest technology

VOSA’s 2006/07 business plan makes clear how the government agency intends to become much more targeted in its approach to roadside enforcement and reduce the need to pull over law-abiding drivers.

A trial of Weigh-in-Motion Sensors (WIMS) – in-road piezoelectric strips that measure vehicle weights to a margin of error better than 5% - in 2005 proved successful and it will roll out the technology across the country over the next two years. See the VOSA press release Viper Victorious for more information about WIMS and Automatic Number Plate Technology.

Points to ponder

Following successful trials of 25.25m vehicles in the Netherlands, the UK government recently announced it had asked the Transport Research Laboratory and Heriot-Watt University to carry out a desk study into the potential role of longer, heavier vehicles. The Department for Transport hopes to have a report on the findings in summer 2007. Key stakeholders within the freight transport industry will be asked their opinions about the impact of these vehicles.

For more information about this study, click on Project Fact Sheet.