I have recently enoyed some email correspondence with VOSA about overloading.
I asked, “How can i protect myself from prosecution for ovrloading when, as an agency driver, i am unfamiliar with the vehicle, commodity or load”
I received couteous (edited) reply,…" …driving an overloaded vehicle is an absolute offence and if found proven result in an automatic guilty verdict. However if you were travelling tothe nearest possible weighbridge prosecution would be unlikely if VOSA were satisfied that weighing was or had been in pprogress. (RTA 1988 s.41(B)(2)(a)). vehicle unfamiliarity may mitigate in sentencing."
I replied asking how I should know that i should abort my journey and go to a weighbridge and if there was a list of available weighbridges
The author of the reply apologised for the lack of info and refered me to local authority Trading Standards who are responsibel for keeping a register of weighbridges in that local authority area. he suggested a reasonable guideline to give a driver is:, “…if they have a reason to think the vehicle is overloaded then they should seek a check weighing. Signs of overloading are bulging tyres, springs straightened out or inverted, very small clearances between axles and bump stops etc.”
I appreciate the need for overloading prevention and am grateful for official enforcement to make our roads safer. My intention was to have some official guidelines so that if I wind up in the dock, I can say that these are the guidelines. I followed them and plead not guilty to the offence without having to depend on “Unlikely” and “mitigation”. Just say if anyone wants copies of the correspondence.
English law is based upon what a reasonable person thinks. It’s horrendously complex, yet ignorance of the law is not a defence, after all, how can a reasonable person not be aware of a law that is in itself perfectly reasonable !
Why are you questioning VOSA specifically about overloading?
You would need to be a very green driver not to suspect when ANY vehicle carrying ANY load is +/- an approximate percentage of its limit. Being a green driver and caught 20-25% overweight would be a mitigating circumstance when stood in front of a Magistrate, if you’ve been doing it for a few decades, years, months sometimes even weeks or days . . . then you’re in Trouble with a capital T.
Knowing the Police’s, VOSA’s & Trading Standards approach to overloaded vehicles I’d say you’d have to be seriously overloaded, doing it regularly, or not really very green for it to ever get in front of a Beak.
If you’re a green driver & genuinely worried then don’t be, if you had no cause to be concerned about the weight of your vehicle then chances are that no one will throw you into the stocks, deport you, or even lighten your wallet by a few £100quids.
If, however you’re looking for a ‘legal loophole’ simply because they have no simple answer to what may seem your simple question, then you’d better look elsewhere for your emergency exit. Their attitude, when they think/suspect you’re taking the P is to prosecute, the Beaks know this & if you’re up in front of the Beak & you didn’t pass your test yesterday, you’re in trouble with a capital T.
Euro:
I have recently enoyed some email correspondence with VOSA about overloading.
I asked, “How can i protect myself from prosecution for ovrloading when, as an agency driver, i am unfamiliar with the vehicle, commodity or load”
By doing what you’re supposed to do which is, if in doubt, drive by direct route to the nearest weighbridge if there’s not one on site and get weighed.
The fact you’re an agency driver is irrelevent as is your unfamiliarity with the vehicle and the type of load. I’ve never been done for being overweight and I spent most of my 16 year career driving for agencies doing everything from 7.5t to 44 tonne artic with all types of load.
Oxon Trading Standards done a labourer in a transit tipper last week at our pit. Was a ton overweight he was told but decided to take it and signed for it. T.S and copper booked him before he’d left the quarry how can that be legal? Is it because the weighbridge is public and therefore the haulroad is a public road?
I have had similar thoughts, like where are these weigh bridges and how much do they cost? only saying this as my last firm basically said you know where the gate is if you don’t want to take the wagon and looking at the square wheels it was over loaded everytime it left the gates, I always wanted to just drive it to vosa and tell them, but the thought of shoting myself in the foot always came into play as would vosa attack me for the vehicle or the company. I still ask the same question today when I am not happy with the vehicle and get made to drive it because I am not a mechanic and not sure what I am talking about or that no work = no pay and there is plenty of drivers looking for jobs ready to take mine because I have 2 lights smashed and a card board registion plate for the trailer (this one has happened today) and the company is and will not doing anything about it.
Do VOSA still give some margin, used to be something like 5% or several hundred kilo’s before they started sharpening their pencils, or in this new age of enforcement does a few kg’s over now mean bend over
Big Joe:
Do VOSA still give some margin, used to be something like 5% or several hundred kilo’s before they started sharpening their pencils, or in this new age of enforcement does a few kg’s over now mean bend over
yes they allow 5% but only if the vosa man is in a good mood and has met his target for the shift
Euro:
My intention was to have some official guidelines so that if I wind up in the dock, I can say that these are the guidelines. I followed them and plead not guilty to the offence
You cannot plead not guilty to an overloading offence no matter what research you have done or what guidelines you have followed.
Was thinking that myself, if your in a 44t and you weigh at 44100 your overweight,job done,your done and the bank account is lighter. Cannot understand why people always push the limits,if im loaded to 43700 im outa there, the little the company lose on the rate is nowt to what i`ll get if tugged when over.
dowahdiddyman:
Was thinking that myself, if your in a 44t and you weigh at 44100 your overweight,job done,your done and the bank account is lighter. Cannot understand why people always push the limits,if im loaded to 43700 im outa there, the little the company lose on the rate is nowt to what i`ll get if tugged when over.
And 100kg overload spread over 6 axles is nothing when you think every builder has 1.5 ton put on his pickup that tares at 2.50. My onboard weigher has an alarm that I can set to go off at what I want, so I set it to 14.5t which is 1.2 under my payload-most machine drivers will finish emptying their buckets with the alarm sounding anyway, thinking they’ve put that bit extra on.
Muckaway:
Oxon Trading Standards done a labourer in a transit tipper last week at our pit. Was a ton overweight he was told but decided to take it and signed for it. T.S and copper booked him before he’d left the quarry how can that be legal? Is it because the weighbridge is public and therefore the haulroad is a public road?
I would think this bit had some bearing on it.
Was a ton overweight he was told but decided to take it and signed for it.
