Hi all,
Just wondering what our “friends” at VOSA use when deciding if a load is classed as high value. Is it purely financial or do certain loads fall into this catergory?
Cheers
I’m not sure what the value of a load has to do with VOSA. They’re not going to treat you any differently.
Was only asking as i know guys use it as justification to get back to depot or secure parking when they go over their driving time. I also know that guys who carried tv’s etc from south wales to dover never stopped and annotated their tacho with high value load.
High value would include cigs, alcohol, ■■■■ dvd’s etc. Anything that’s easy to sell on.
madmackem:
Was only asking as i know guys use it as justification to get back to depot or secure parking when they go over their driving time. I also know that guys who carried tv’s etc from south wales to dover never stopped and annotated their tacho with high value load.
That makes sense. I would suppose it’s more a factor of risk as opposed to value. You could have a bespoke machine worth millions which is not of any use to a crook so little risk. Cigs and alchol as mentioned already are easy for crooks to sell on so high risk or theft.
madmackem:
Was only asking as i know guys use it as justification to get back to depot or secure parking when they go over their driving time. I also know that guys who carried tv’s etc from south wales to dover never stopped and annotated their tacho with high value load.
Vosa or the police wont accept that I can assure you of that.
They will say if its due to security they should plan your stops at a secure area…
nick2008:
Vosa or the police wont accept that I can assure you of that.
They will say if its due to security they should plan your stops at a secure area…
Yes, because there are loads of them … 
nick2008:
madmackem:
Was only asking as i know guys use it as justification to get back to depot or secure parking when they go over their driving time. I also know that guys who carried tv’s etc from south wales to dover never stopped and annotated their tacho with high value load.Vosa or the police wont accept that I can assure you of that.
They will say if its due to security they should plan your stops at a secure area…
I’m sure anybody who regularly used high value load as an excuse to exceed drivers hours will be having a word with thier traffic commissioner.
This is what the regs say about it.
Unforeseen events
Provided that road safety is not jeopardised, and to enable a driver to reach a suitable stopping place, a departure from the EU rules may be permitted to the extent necessary to ensure the safety of persons, the vehicle or its load.
Repeated and regular occurrences, however, might indicate to enforcement officers that employers were not in fact scheduling work to enable compliance with the applicable rules.
I suppose its how you define suitable, and safety of persons, vehicle and load. If,due to the nature of your load, you have a pre-planned route and pre-planned stops which are easily achievable under normal circumstances, then you could argue that in unforeseen circumstances you had to continue to them, but VOSA of the Traffic Commissioner accepting your argument is another story.
I had a curtain slashed and 2 1/2 pallets of cadburys chocolate bars pinched when i was asleep in a layby on the 303 a few years back. annoying thing was I was only there because I ran out of hours, I wasn’t meant to be on a night out and I still reckon if I’d gone the way I wanted to instead of the way the traffic office told me to I would have got home with time to spare.
Now the problem with my situation at the time as I see it was this.
1, They were chocolate bars not cigarettes or alcohol so not especially high in value, or so you may think.
2, Who can decide if a load is high value or not. I mean its not like we’re hauling trailer loads of gold bullion around is it?
3, If I had continued on my merry way and been involved in an accident would Mr Vosa and Mr Plod have said “Oh thats ok drive we can see your over your hours but its ok as you had all that really valuable chocolate on board”.
4, Supposing the above mentioned authorities happened to be not quite so understanding would my employer have kept my job for me whilst I waited for the return of my licence or my release from prison depending on the severity of supposed accident.
Returning to my comment in point 1, lets talk about the “value”. 2 1/2 pallets of chocolate bars equated to an insurance claim for the lost product alone, in the region of £6500. Then there was the damage to the trailer, the lost time, the damaged relations with the customer, not being able to deliver the product and the fact that the trailer had to sit in a shed with the remains of the load on board on instruction from the insurers. Not to mention the feeling that I couldn’t shake that the bosses thought I was in on it. A feeling that was not eased when a couple of weeks after the incident I was laid off due to an apparent lack of work.
It is possible to get permits that exempt the journey from almost all regulations but they are rarer than hens teeth and authorised by the office of the Secretary of State for Transport- to get one your journey has to be of national significance/emergency - crane operators get them for issues like moving crane ballast without movement orders to sites of train crashes- electricity transfomers are another one that can in certain circumstances be moved outside the usual rules- I believe when they moved the rarest of books/documents from London to the new national library near Wetherby the hauliers also were exempted.
But your run of the mill high value loads (whisky/tobacco products, etc) should be scheduled with enough leeway to reach secure parking and you wont get an exemption for them
nick2008:
madmackem:
Was only asking as i know guys use it as justification to get back to depot or secure parking when they go over their driving time. I also know that guys who carried tv’s etc from south wales to dover never stopped and annotated their tacho with high value load.Vosa or the police wont accept that I can assure you of that.
They will say if its due to security they should plan your stops at a secure area…
Not true was stopped two days after driving for 10 and a half hours had done a print out and written high value load on, gave a description of the goods and a contact number of where I loaded and the policeman was fine with it, nearest secure location was the port I was shipping out of so if done properly you will have no bother
mazzer:
nick2008:
madmackem:
Was only asking as i know guys use it as justification to get back to depot or secure parking when they go over their driving time. I also know that guys who carried tv’s etc from south wales to dover never stopped and annotated their tacho with high value load.Vosa or the police wont accept that I can assure you of that.
They will say if its due to security they should plan your stops at a secure area…Not true was stopped two days after driving for 10 and a half hours had done a print out and written high value load on, gave a description of the goods and a contact number of where I loaded and the policeman was fine with it, nearest secure location was the port I was shipping out of so if done properly you will have no bother
I think it was more about drivers regularly going over drivers hours, and using high value goods as a reason for it. Not for a one off event.
dreamingofoz:
I had a curtain slashed and 2 1/2 pallets of cadburys chocolate bars pinched when i was asleep in a layby on the 303 a few years back. annoying thing was I was only there because I ran out of hours, I wasn’t meant to be on a night out and I still reckon if I’d gone the way I wanted to instead of the way the traffic office told me to I would have got home with time to spare.
Now the problem with my situation at the time as I see it was this.
1, They were chocolate bars not cigarettes or alcohol so not especially high in value, or so you may think.
2, Who can decide if a load is high value or not. I mean its not like we’re hauling trailer loads of gold bullion around is it?
3, If I had continued on my merry way and been involved in an accident would Mr Vosa and Mr Plod have said “Oh thats ok drive we can see your over your hours but its ok as you had all that really valuable chocolate on board”.
4, Supposing the above mentioned authorities happened to be not quite so understanding would my employer have kept my job for me whilst I waited for the return of my licence or my release from prison depending on the severity of supposed accident.Yeah, sorry about that - it was my hungry chocolate week :stuck_out_tongue:
Ran cigarettes and tobacco for imperial tobacco out of nottingham for a bit around UK and Euro we were never exempt.
All runs were planned with only imperial tobacco approved secure parking allowed, which there aren’t many.
Only thing we was given was a laminated sign to show police/vosa pulled us over that until imperial tobacco security confirmed there identity we couldnt open the cab.
Same as above I ran cigarettes out of stakehill for Gallaghers early 90’s just a card to stick up to the police if they tried to stop me no other exemptions
A l c:
Same as above I ran cigarettes out of stakehill for Gallaghers early 90’s just a card to stick up to the police if they tried to stop me no other exemptions
Was you working for Gallaghers when the lad from crewe had his load " stolen " then turned up at the building society the next week to pay off his house in his brand new shogun!!
stuh:
A l c:
Same as above I ran cigarettes out of stakehill for Gallaghers early 90’s just a card to stick up to the police if they tried to stop me no other exemptionsWas you working for Gallaghers when the lad from crewe had his load " stolen " then turned up at the building society the next week to pay off his house in his brand new shogun!!
Not the sharpest tool in the box then.
Talking about high value load
Was there a post on here a few month back about this and someone posted a pic of a trailer with gold bars in the back ?
I saw on the itv news that police helicopter that crashed in Glasgow it was on a back of a trailer going to farnboro would that be classed as a high value load ?
stuh:
A l c:
Same as above I ran cigarettes out of stakehill for Gallaghers early 90’s just a card to stick up to the police if they tried to stop me no other exemptionsWas you working for Gallaghers when the lad from crewe had his load " stolen " then turned up at the building society the next week to pay off his house in his brand new shogun!!
No I was on contract through B R S so must have missed that one,he sounds like a clever fella 
it was a good job every time we left the yard 3 packets of ■■■■ of security and I didn’t smoke I think at the time I was selling them for about a quid a pack and I thought I was loaded lol