Just fuelled up for Monday, and there was a guy in a mid sized transit van at the other side of the pump filling up too. But he was filling an internal fuel bunker, 300l. The van was one of those mistakes fuelling ones for when someone fills up with the wrong fuel.
I asked him if he had an ADR ticket (just curious. It’s been many years since mine ran out) to which he said yes. So I asked him if he needed orange plates, and he said he didn’t know what they were. I showed him the one on the front of my unit and he just shrugged and said the boss told him it was all OK. (How many times have we all heard that before!)
I’m not bothered as it’s nothing to do with me, but just curious. Can you legally run round with 300 litres in the back of a van like that, or is he in for a huge fine if he gets a tug?
Interesting, and thanks for those links. There have been quite a few changes since I last did it, and I’ve only skimmed through, but it doesn’t seem like he was exempt from external markings on the vehicle.
Oh well. Not my licence.
WhiteTruckMan:
Interesting, and thanks for those links. There have been quite a few changes since I last did it, and I’ve only skimmed through, but it doesn’t seem like he was exempt from external markings on the vehicle.
Oh well. Not my licence.
Hi WTM,
Quite right, it isn’t your licence. 
It’s also not a concern for an employed driver either, because the carrier ( = the vehicle owner) is responsible for deciding whether a load is subject to the full weight of ADR, such as when orange plates are needed. The driver’s boss had told him that he is good to go, so he’s good to go.
The info in the links supplied by kwakers is correct, the exemption in question is the ADR Transport Category vehicle load limits in ADR 1.1.3.6.3 so a total of 300L would be good to go whether the load was Petrol (ADR TC2) or Diesel (ADR TC3) so the boss was quite right to say that orange plates and an ADR Card weren’t needed for that journey.