Gross Vehicle Weight Question

NEW AND WANNABE DRIVERS (INTERACTIVE)
1

While working at Tesco the other night I was asked to take out a tandem axle trailer to one of the smaller stores. On going over the weighbridge I saw that the gross weight was 34280KG. As one of the axles was within 20kg of max I thought I’d check the VOSA trailer plate. On the plate it said

Max Gross weight: 33000KG
Axle weights: 9000KG
Pin Weight 15000KG

On raising the issue with the office clerks that I was overweight, I was informed that a tandem axle trailer + a 4x2 tractor can be up to 35000KG ( which sounded way to convenient). I did the delivery, but I’m wondering if I’ve been shafted?
Should I always go by the weight on the trailer certificate?
I see all the tri-axle trailers gross weights say 38000KG, on the certificates.

Thanks.

2

Was your gross on weighbridge trailer only or tractor and trailer

3

The weight on the trailer plate is for the trailer, the gross weight on the weighbridge would have been for the entire vehicle.

Here’s a list of allowable vehicle weights

4

there are separate GVWs for the vehicle and trailer as well as a GTW for the entire lot
there are also max weights for each axle on the lot

As long as none of those is exceeded then its legal

I bet the weight you had was for the lot in which case its the GTW you should be looking at

5

Thanks for the replies. Helped to clear the confusion

SteveWalsh:
Was your gross on weighbridge trailer only or tractor and trailer

Yes it was for tractor and trailer

tachograph:
The weight on the trailer plate is for the trailer, the gross weight on the weighbridge would have been for the entire vehicle.
Here’s a list of allowable vehicle weights

Thanks for the link. I’ll print that off and keep it with me.

6

tachograph:
The weight on the trailer plate is for the trailer, the gross weight on the weighbridge would have been for the entire vehicle.

Here’s a list of allowable vehicle weights

thanks for this info