darter:
Sam, I know how to find the max weight of the vehicle, that was not my question, my question was how to find the maximum payload, may be I should have worded it differently, I have my dcpc and have just passed my C+E and the max payload was never mentioned.
I knew what you were after
If you always keep the same rigid then its easier because all you do is to fill up the tank and put you and everything else that you normally carry in it along to a weightbridge to get the unladen weight just the once
If the load is always weighed before its loaded then its easy to work out if its likely to be over or not
darter:
Sam, I know how to find the max weight of the vehicle, that was not my question, my question was how to find the maximum payload, may be I should have worded it differently, I have my dcpc and have just passed my C+E and the max payload was never mentioned.
I knew what you were after
If you always keep the same rigid then its easier because all you do is to fill up the tank and put you and everything else that you normally carry in it along to a weightbridge to get the unladen weight just the once
If the load is always weighed before its loaded then its easy to work out if its likely to be over or not
thatâs how it used to be when i worked for a large company but now I work for agency using different vehicles some with tailgates,without tailgates,curtains and box half the time they donât know how much the payload weights or how much my vehicles max load is,luckily i think i have only been close to the weight once (9.5 tonne) so next time it will be off to the weighbridge.
Ignore them, perfectly legitimate question and not something a DCPC trainer could probably tell you much about anyway.
Public weighbridges arenât as abundant as you might think and chances are youâll never come across one on site outside of the bulk freight sector. The insufficient provision of accessible public weighbridges with extensive opening hours suggests the authorities donât really think vehicle overloading is as much of a road safety issue as they pretend to, an element of it is ensuring fair competition. Also if your route doesnât travel past a VOSA checkpoint with a weighbridge youâre extremely unlikely to get pulled and weighed and even less so if the operator is green on OCRS or youâre travelling at night.
Although the company is supposed to pay the weighbridge. I personally wouldnât be handing over ÂŁ5-ÂŁ15 of my own money in anticipation of them re-paying it later. Personally I would not have an agency driver back who had dicked around taking a vehicle to a weighbridge when I had verbally informed them it was legally loaded.
Edit: I would add my own rough rule of thumb would probably be 12 ton+ on a curtainside 18 ton, before I was worrying, and even then you can nearly scrape up to that if itâs a day-cabbed, short-ish body curtainside with no tail-lift and a make thatâs quite a light chassis build. If itâs 9.5ton in an average box or curtain body 18t youâve got nowt to worry about.
But- Iâve always wondered, (for information) On a rigid, why they donât put the Tare/Unladen weight on the plate , allowing for a full tank of fuel,oil,water, average weight of the Driver (say 100kg/Fat Bastad) & possible passenger.
Obviously itâs a different kettle of fish on an artic, then it comes down to experience & taking a note of the different trailers weights when you get the chance, I have written the different weights down in my diary so i can refer to them if Iâve got a funny load going on.
The reason will be because a lot cab be added on to operator spec after it leaves the factory eg tail-lift or extra fuel tanks. Having said that it would not be difficult to weigh each lorry at annual MOT and add it to the plate as test stations can print new plates if needed. As I said above thought the authorities donât care as much about overloading as they pretend too.
On the odd time Iâve wanted a weight for my own piece of mind, Iâve asked in the weighbridge office if I can weigh the truck and read the weight off, no ticket required, no effort involved on their part, no cash either. Iâve never been refused yet.
Of course parking on the weighbridge and going in to the office will get the same result as long as you can see the readout
darter:
hi,can somebody tell me how to find out how much wieght I can load on a ridgid,when i passed my class 2 I worked for a large company they told me how much a truck could carry and my manifest would have complete wieght on the bottom,now i work for a agency most the companys I work for just say you will be alright,
Hi darter,
As already mentioned, you need to find the plate that tells you the allowable weights for your vehicle.
The pic is a little out of date, but the plate will look something like this:
To keep things easy (for now,) the weight of the load plus the empty weight of the vehicle cannot exceed the stated Gross Vehicle Weight (GVW.)
In order that you can calculate this, you need to know what the vehicle weighs when itâs not loaded.
This includes the weight of your fuel, tools, spare wheel (if carried) and yourself.
Once you know this, you subtract it from the stated GVW to discover the weight that you can legally carry.
This (allowable cargo) weight is known as âpayload.â
It goes without saying that the individual axle weights as stated on the plate also cannot be exceeded.
You can see just above Daveâs arrow that it says, âWeights not to be exceeded in Great Britain.â The design weight may be higher, make sure you read the correct weights before your calculation is done.
This topic is taught on many dcpc courses and, personally, I resent the comment that itâs
not something a DCPC trainer could probably tell you much about anyway.
But my point is that questions are asked about the plate on Mod 4 tests (Initial Qualification Dcpc Prac Test) which means that newer drivers are possibly better educated than some of the established ones. This has to be positive move forward. Certainly, nothing was ever taught about the plate when I started.
Some of the comments in Periodic Training dcpc courses from experienced drivers are mind shattering to put it mildly!
Iâve always wondered, (for information) On a rigid, why they donât put the Tare/Unladen weight on the plate , allowing for a full tank of fuel,oil,water, average weight of the Driver (say 100kg/Fat Bastad) & possible passenger.
