The first Ford Transit van rolled off the production line on the 9th of August 1965 changing that sector of the market in a way that had never been seen before. In 1972 the Metropolitan Police named it as the most wanted vehicle for Bank Raids, being used on 95% of all Bank jobs due to its performance and 1.75 tonne payload.
Move forward 60 years and that sector of the marketplace has changed considerably in relation to the design and equipment fitted to the vehicles, be it for the reasons of safety legislation or compliance to ever tightening environmental requirements and emissions requirements – although the need of the customer remains largely the same.
These changes the actually load capacity of this category of vehicle in certain specifications, especially areas such as parcels carrying, refrigeration work and even breakdown and recovery as well as vehicle transport, dramatically reduced incapability.
This raises the question in many sectors are we seeing the death of the 3.5 tonne van?
This year alone we have seen increase in the number of vehicle operators, both with an Operator Licence and not, that are finding they are either overloading their vehicles or are dangerously close to doing so.
The biggest markets for concern are:
- Vehicle delivery companies.
- General Parcel companies
- Companies with specialist bodywork needs
- Fridge / chiller vehicles
- Those requiring the use of a tail lift on a vehicle.
The reasons are:
The additional safety and environmental requirements, all add weight to the basic vehicle. This includes even simple things like your AdBlue tank, air bags, emissions reduction kit, etc. Meanwhile, the maximum permitted weights for vehicles driving licence categories (aside of some allowances for Alternative Fuelled Vehicles (AFV) (in the UK only)) has not changed.
Additionally any vehicle body modifications or additions add weight, and then you must include the weight of the crew, yes do you have 1 or 2 crew members in the vehicle as their weight also counts in the total weight of the vehicle, if it is a 3,500 kg van that is the maximum it can weight.
What we have seen recently
Just because you have a long wheelbase, high roof van does not mean you can fill it and be legal, the weight is the ultimate deciding factor.
Case 1 – Chilled delivery operation
Concerns were raised on the amount of weight being put in the vehicles. The company and warehouse manager had always assumed that they could ‘Get a tonne on a Transit’
When they weighed the 16 vehicles to get the kerbside weight, they found that – dependant on body type – they could actually only get between 550 – 800 kg of food on the vehicles. That was running single crewed; on the double crewed operations, they needed to reduce that by the weight of the second crew member.
This basically meant that they have had to review the whole operation to remain legal. They are now changing their fleet to more 7.2 kg vehicles that require different driving licences and driver training requirements, as well as an increase to their Operator Licence from 3 to 12 vehicles.
Case 2 – Vehicle delivery operation
The problem for this operator was two-fold. Not only were their vehicles heavier than they thought, but for them it was a case of the increased weight of the vehicles that they are carrying. The operator had failed to keep up to date with the changes in vehicle weights and had a surprise when they did.
This operator had been running entirely on 3,500 kg vans, some with trailers and had a shock when they found out that they required tachograph use and that a majority of their movements were the transport of 4 x 4 type SUV vehicles and could not be carried out with the fleet that they had.
This company has now made an application for their Operator Licence and is getting their drivers trained up with Driver CPC etc.
The costs of getting it wrong
The cost of getting it wrong can be extremely serious. It could range from a roadside penalty to a criminal prosecution, a significant fine based on your company gross turnover and a custodial sentence depending on the circumstances, such as was the vehicle involved in a collision resulting in injury or death?
When it has all gone wrong, that is not the time to find out you are in trouble.
Know your weights.
Know your kerbside weight
What does your vehicle weigh when it is ready for the road. That is with a full tank of fuel, washer bottle, driver (and crew member(s), if there are normally more than the driver in the vehicle) and any ratchet straps, chains, packing material needed for the journey or job.
Get proof of this from a weigh bridge and keep the weigh bridge ticket as proof.
PAYLOAD = GROSS VEHICLE WEIGHT – KERBSIDE WEIGHT
Take the gross vehicle weight and minus the kerbside weight, and that tells you how much weight you can actually put on the vehicle.
You may be very surprised at the final figure of how much weight you can actually carry, or cannot carry.
Conclusion
As you can see in some of the cases here, it does beg the question that in a number of use cases is the 3,500 kg van now obsolete?
Are you really getting the advantages that you hoped?
Can you carry what you need within the bounds of the maximum permitted weights?
Do your drivers have the correct driving entitlements and necessary training?
If you need any advice or support in checking your fleet or reviewing your requirements, please call A S Miles Consulting on 01455 389053 or email info@asmilesconsulting.com for a confidential chat… before you have an interview under caution.