Hi,
I’ve not been on here for some time - I only get involved with the transport side when we don’t have a dedicated transport manager. Since the last one left at the end of May the ‘o’ licence holder has asked me to look after the day to day admin again until he recruits someone new.
Since I last looked after the admin, the use of our wagon & drags have changed slightly, and some drivers are concerned about the weight carried. Head office has replied to my query simply by stating that the vehicles are plated at 36t. But plating and revenue weight are two different things. When I last did this job I could check the tax disc to see the tax paid and cross reference every thing. Now there’s no tax disc, things have become trickier (for me!). I have checked one vehicle online from the Gov.uk website and found that it is taxed (yay!), two axle rigid body (yep), and the revenue weight is 18t. Does this mean the revenue weight when running solo (ie without the drag) or the revenue weight of the wagon and drag combined (bit worrying if it is, given what they are carrying…)?
If it’s for the rigid only, how can I work out if it’s taxed up to the plated weight of 36t as per head office’s email?
Sorry for the dumb questions, but I’ve not got my head around the DVLA form V149.
Thanx
Sarah x
Sounds like it not taxed for the trailer ,a 3 axle trailer tax is about £300 ish ,3 axle rigid tax is £280 ,try asking head office how much was paid out to give you a clue ,the 18 tonne will only be for the lorry I’d think .just looked trailer is £230 making £510 for 3 &3 at 44 tonne
Dan Punchard:
Sounds like it not taxed for the trailer ,a 3 axle trailer tax is about £300 ish ,3 axle rigid tax is £280 ,try asking head office how much was paid out to give you a clue ,the 18 tonne will only be for the lorry I’d think .just looked trailer is £230 making £510 for 3 &3 at 44 tonne
Dan, you have missed the obvious 
18 tonne would be a 4x2 prime mover
if it is a 4x2 prime mover and a 3 axle trailer, the max plated weight would be 40 tonne
I know but I don’t remember 4 by 2 tax cost as only got 6 by 2 s now ,was just example "
I could ask head office, but I think they’d soon get fed up with me.
We have 12 vehicles based at our depot, and we have 15 other locations trunk into us, using 18 vehicles per night. And they rarely send in the same vehicle every night, so pretty soon I’ll have asked for the tax paid on a quarter of our fleet… 
Plus I work nights, they don’t, so getting an answer is likely to take several days.
Several years ago head office sent out an email stating that to reduce costs, some rigids and a lot of tractor units were being taxed at lower rates, and thus could only carry reduced load weights*. I know from experience that previously other locations’ vehicles were taxed at lower rates than ours. So when they all had tax discs it was easy to check to make sure we weren’t overloading them at my depot; check the amount paid, count the number of axles on the unit and trailer, then cross-refence it against DVLA V149. Now there’s appears to be no easy way of knowing what the tax paid is, especially for hired rigids; it is not uncommon for head office to arrange a hire unit which is not taxed/plated for what we need… 
I’ve just checked online the tax status of one of our units; “wheelplan 3axle+3axle artic, revenue weight 44t”
So, given the fact that the 2axle rigid I’ve checked has a revenue weight of 18t, does this mean that the GVW of rigid and trailer is only 18t, or that a 2axle rigid with a revenue weight of 18t can pay an extra levy to pull a trailer and have a maximum of 30t, pay a bigger levy to pull a trailer of 38t, or pay even more levy to pull a trailer of 40t? In which case, how can I, or any driver, know or work out what any rigid vehicle’s revenue weight is when pulling a trailer?
*Or have the rules changed so that vehicles are now automatically taxed at their plated weight rather than being allowed to be taxed at lower rates? in which case any ideas why the online enquiry doesn’t show a revenue weight of 36t?
I’m sorry Sarah I can’t help you quickly with the answer to your questions. However I think it makes a considerable difference to YOUR position whether you hold a TM’s CPC or not. If you do not I don’t think you have a great deal to worry about since the company is liable for any discrepancy. If you DO then you are risking your own repute if things are found to be amiss. So if you are a qualified CPC holder, but just not nominated to the TC, then you should still be DEMANDING full, IMMEDIATE and complete compliance with any question or directive you have about the taxation status of every vehicle that may load out of your depot.
If I was in your position as a CPC holder I would stay on one day, speak to whoever and make it clear that if if details are not forthcoming by the start of my shift time, then if I was in any doubt about potential payload, the outbased vehicle would be returning either partly loaded or empty.
If you haven’t got it already this is the schedule of duty payable.
Cav
No, I’m not a CPC holder.
My company pays each site manager, as my father would say, “a nice little earner, Terry”; decent wage, nice company car (BMWs/Audis/Range Rovers etc), a hefty bonus each year, shares etc. So site managers tend to stay with the company and thus they are encouraged to become the ‘O’ licence holder. Most of the bigger depots then employ an TM to manage the day to day running of their fleet, leaving the site manager to run the whole site.
So my role at the moment is really more the admin side, downloading tachos (drivers and vehicles), checking for infringments, checking/actioning/filing defect sheets and repair sheets, checking for MOTs etc,
Anyway, I suppose the crux of my question is this; you can check a unit’s revenue weight easily, and I’ve done that and given an example. So, as long as the trailer has the required axles etc, we know we can load that combo upto a certain limit.
For our W&Ds the issue is more complex. Checking the revenue weight just gives the weight for the rigid/wagon by itself, which is not a problem when they are decoupled from their drags. However, as the form V149 shows, when pulling a trailer you pay a extra levy of £165 to increase the weight upto 30t, another £65 on top to have a total weight of 38t, and a further £19 on top of that to increase the weight to 40t. So, how can anyone be certain what the max weight the vehicle combo can be loaded to, if it’s impossible to know what the extra levy is?
I can no longer say to an agency driver, this is the tax disc, this is the plate of the wagon, this is the plate of the drag, therefore this combo an carry xt.
Or is the extra levy now paid on the drag…eg, drag A has the cheapest levy so can only have a total combined weight of 30t, whereas drag B has the full levy and thus can run at 40t combined? In which case how do I check that?
Or, is the revenue weight now automatically the plated weight?