Company Van - Light Goods Vehicle

AdrianC

onomatopoeia99 wrote: »

Interesting page, especially the part about speed limiters at the bottom. I have a minibus that had 14 passenger seats fitted from new (VW Caravelle) and was used as such by the first three owners, so according to that site it should have a speed limiter.

It has never had a speed limiter fitted in its 32 years of life. The puny wasserboxer engine and the extra drag from the 4x4 transmission mean it won't actually do 70mph unless downhill with the wind behind it though.

Only if registered after the start of 2005, 2001 if it was diesel...

http://www.transportoffice.gov.uk/crt/repository/Speed%20Limiters%20-%20New%20Regulations.pdf

I'm more intrigued as to how the heck you can fit 15 seats into a T25.
Three up front, sure, with a van double passenger seat. But three rows of four seats each in the back...? Legroom (and width!) must be... restricted... especially for the rearmost row - and headroom in the very back. And how do people even access the rearward rows? Posted over the tops? And why on a Syncro? Site transport for exploited labourers on farms?

I'd love to see a pic of how that actually works...

(We've got a DJ Club Joker, so I'm well aware of how much interior space there is)

Car_54

onomatopoeia99 wrote: »

Interesting page, especially the part about speed limiters at the bottom. I have a minibus that had 14 passenger seats fitted from new (VW Caravelle) and was used as such by the first three owners, so according to that site it should have a speed limiter.

It has never had a speed limiter fitted in its 32 years of life. The puny wasserboxer engine and the extra drag from the 4x4 transmission mean it won't actually do 70mph unless downhill with the wind behind it though.

The gov.uk website gives a simplified explanation of the law. Since the law is complicated, the simplified version can never be totally accurate.



You need to look at the actual legislation: there may be exemptions, e.g. for old vehicles, or those used for non-commercial purposes.

Iceweasel

Supersonos wrote: »

I had a Caddy for years and always believed it to be a car-derived van, so drove at whatever the posted limit was.

I now have a Vito... and still drive at the posted limit. If you drive slower, people get very very angry.

I've always assumed speed cameras can't distinguish that I'm a LGV so won't flash me.

And I never see the police these days.

So you knowingly and deliberately exceed the speed limit.

Scrapit

Iceweasel wrote: »

So you knowingly and deliberately exceed the speed limit.

Lot of that about.

AdrianC

Iceweasel wrote: »

So you knowingly and deliberately exceed the speed limit.

I do. Almost every time I go out in the car.

And I'm sure I'm absolutely not alone in that... In fact, if people were honest, I'm sure the vast majority would admit they did. And the rest would either be lying or simply didn't know what the limit was or what their speed was.

It's one of the most basic driving skills to be able to assess a safe and appropriate speed for the conditions. The speed limit sign doesn't tell us what it is. That sign just gives an upper bound on what's legal.

The default urban 30 limit was introduced in 1936, after six years of absolutely no limits at all across the country (the Transport Minister said in 1930 that they were being removed because "the existing speed limit was so universally disobeyed that its maintenance brought the law into contempt" - and fatalities fell over that derestricted period. There was no extra-urban limit until 1965, when it was introduced as 70mph. It was formally reduced to the current 60mph in 1977, in the aftermath of temporary reductions during the oil crisis.

In 1936, many cars only had two-wheel brakes, and very few had hydraulic brakes.
In 1965, virtually no cars had disc brakes or servos.
In 1977, many cars still didn't have disc brakes.

dannyrst

Iceweasel wrote: »

So you knowingly and deliberately exceed the speed limit.

Do you go 5mph in Tesco car park?

sevenhills

tilly122 wrote: »

He wasn’t aware that his van was classified as a light goods vehicle.
Should this be common sense or something his employer should have advised him of? Hes from overseas but in fairness its not anything I was aware of.

I thought a Caddy van would be smaller and not need CPC or to drive to the lower limits, but if you and your staff are lacking in road knowledge perhaps you should concider a Certificate of Proffessional Commpetance course?
If you are a van driver who drives a vehicle between 3.5T and 7.5T (that is anything from a Transit sized van with double rear wheels and up to LGV) and are using the category C1 class on your licence to do it, you MUST do the Driver CPC which entails 35 hours of training by September 2014. This will affect many drivers such as builders, landscape gardeners etc.

Car_54

sevenhills wrote: »

If you are a van driver who drives a vehicle between 3.5T and 7.5T (that is anything from a Transit sized van with double rear wheels and up to LGV) and are using the category C1 class on your licence to do it, you MUST do the Driver CPC which entails 35 hours of training by September 2014. This will affect many drivers such as builders, landscape gardeners etc.

It also requires the ability to time-travel.

System

dannyrst wrote: »

Do you go 5mph in Tesco car park?

You mean on the private land that isn't covered by the Road Traffic Act?

System

sevenhills wrote: »

If you are a van driver who drives a vehicle between 3.5T and 7.5T (that is anything from a Transit sized van with double rear wheels and up to LGV) and are using the category C1 class on your licence to do it, you MUST do the Driver CPC

WRONG. There are lots of exemptions to the DCPC. You only need to do the DCPC if driving is the main part of your duties. If for example you're a tradesman using such a vehicle to go from job to job, a market trader using the vehicle to take goods to a market you're at for the day, a scaffolder transporting scaffolding and lots of other stuff then you do not need a DCPC.