First off…Hi everybody, I haven’t been on here for ages, wasn’t due to anything other than falling out of the habit of coming on…I hope I find you all well.
Anyway…I thought I was pretty clued up on weight restrictions however I’ve found one that’s a puzzle to me…it’s a plain red bordered circle with 16.5t in black letters written in the middle. There’s no pictogram of a lorry and no other additional signs at all (eg. except for loading, weak bridge, except empty vehicles, etc). No mention of Gross Vehicle Weight either. There’s nothing about this type of sign in the offical ‘Know Your Traffic Signs’ book. Is it possibly an out of date sign…it’s in a very, very out of the way rural location?
The question is, can you go past this sign if your actual weight at the time is under 16.5t as I have a delivery tomorrow where I may need to do so in a 26t vehicle. I can get weight under 16.5t by making two trips past it (I’ve got a hiab). Despite it not being explict on the sign I think the restriction is to protect a weak bridge.
According to a little rules and regs guide my company issued me, published by the FTA I believe, this should be the case although the information is a little unclear…this is the only place I’ve found reference to this version of the sign at all.
To complicate it all the further I’m not even sure if the bridge is on the public highway or at the beginning of a private driveway to the premises we need to access.
Sorry to be long winded, hope it’s fairly clear, all help greatly apprieciated…
Andyroo:
According to a little rules and regs guide my company issued me, published by the FTA I believe, this should be the case although the information is a little unclear…this is the only place I’ve found reference to this version of the sign at all.
It’s in this years FTA yearbook as well and definitely states “actual weight of the vehicle”, like you said above, so I’d say you’d be OK to use it providing you’re under/on the limit.
Thanks again fellas…all done now, bridge still intact.
I’m 12 tonne empty and I had 6 lifts of a tonne or thereabouts to deliver, so I did it in two trips at approx. 15 tonne a time.
I was previously under the impression that all weight limits were concerned only with the plated weight of the vehicle. Information about this different variation is really hard to come by.
Andyroo:
I was previously under the impression that all weight limits were concerned only with the plated weight of the vehicle. Information about this different variation is really hard to come by.
I think all new ones and many of the older ones are, but some have slipped through the net and remain based on actual weight. The reason for the change is simply ease of enforcement. They can simply read the plated weight off the plate so it’s trivial to check if you’re within the law or not. When it used to be based on actual weight they had to cart you off to a weighbridge to check and that’s far too much like hard work for them.
Andyroo:
I was previously under the impression that all weight limits were concerned only with the plated weight of the vehicle. Information about this different variation is really hard to come by.
I think all new ones and many of the older ones are, but some have slipped through the net and remain based on actual weight. The reason for the change is simply ease of enforcement. They can simply read the plated weight off the plate so it’s trivial to check if you’re within the law or not. When it used to be based on actual weight they had to cart you off to a weighbridge to check and that’s far too much like hard work for them.
Paul
Added to the fact that a lot of the restrictions are now nothing to do with weak bridges and all to do with keeping trucks, whether empty, fully loaded or part loaded, out of areas.
