Van Drivers Beware!

goldspanners

seriously its in the highway code.
i wonder how they class people carriers like zafiras and voyagers,and what about merc v class and transit tourneos and taxis like the euro 7,what category do they come under?
are they van derived cars ?

zeon999

I belive you that its in the highway code, but I never even looked at the highway code to pass my licence, I never studied at all to pass either of my licences, practical experiance and thats it made it though both very very easy.

Thats what I am saying prehaps it is a bit to easy to get a license still then or they dont cover enough different questions when getting your license.

All my questions were dead stupid ones like what do you do if somebody steps out in front of you? A - speed up, B - Wave at him, C - Shout at him, D - Slow down or Stop the vehicle. Or questions saying what does this sign mean.

custardy

i know this issue has caught out the likes of the fiat doblo which is just heavy enough to fall into this bracket

ne of our technicians has found out about the speed limit and how it applies toa Doblo, the hardway.

He has been done for doing 71mph on a dual carriageway.... in a Doblo Cargo 1.9 m-jet. He saw the camera van and sat at what he thought was bang on the speed limit, until the ticket came through to the office..

Here is why..

The speed limit for a car or car derived van up to 2000kg GVW* or Max Laden Weight is 70mph on a dual carraigeway
http://www.highwaycode.gov.uk/09.htm#103

The Doblo Cargo 1.9 m-jet sx GVW is 2010kg and therefore the limit is 60mph
http://www.fiat.co.uk/cgi-bin/pbrand...ID=-1073787853

so 3 points and a £60 fine for being 10kg over the threshold - how harsh is that considering the guy was doing what he thought was bang on the speed limit! This also reduces the speed on single carraigeways too!

The Cargo 1.3 m-jet is bang on 2000kg

We are trying to find out if this affects the MPV version as the kerb weight of the 1.9SX is 1430kg, which only leaves 570kg, but I dont know how this is calculated, if at all in additional payload

Before anyone bangs on about that he should have known about the speed limit for a van - I am an advanced driver (IAM) and have to admit it never occured to me to check this!

*GVW is Kerb weight + Payload

Conor_3

One_step_forward wrote: »

Yes I'm sure it is in the New Highway code but how many of us read the Highway code after we have passed our tests?

When you have been driving 30 years especially!!!!

It was in the Highway Code 30 years ago as well.

Conor_3

zeon999 wrote: »

OMG I never knew that, there are loads of things with the law that they just make up and never give it any premotion so people are aware of these things.

Like you say if you passed you car test years ago and now this law exists how are you ment to know.

Oh what utter rubbish. They don't just make it up. It's not something new - the limits have been different for vans for DECADES. Yes that's right, decades. As in more than 20 years. Have you even had a licence 20 years?

If anyone has a reason to complain, it's HGV drivers who HAVE had laws that've changed several times in the last three years. For example, the drivers hours laws and tacho regs have undergone two changes in the last 12 months with another due next year. They don't get widely advertised but us thicko truck drivers seem to manage to keep up.

goldspanners

Conor wrote: »

Oh what utter rubbish. They don't just make it up. It's not something new - the limits have been different for vans for DECADES.

If anyone has a reason to complain, it's HGV drivers who HAVE had laws that've changed several times in the last three years. For example, the drivers hours laws and tacho regs have undergone two changes in the last 12 months with another due next year. They don't get widely advertised but us thicko truck drivers seem to manage to keep up.

with you being a proffesional driver it is your job to know these rules and regs.
i know the rules and regs in my line of work and i know how to drive.skilled or what! :rolleyes:

Conor_3

goldspanners wrote: »

with you being a proffesional driver it is your job to know these rules and regs.

As a car driver, it is your job to know the rules and regulations regarding the vehicle you're driving. The fact I'm a professional driver and you aren't is completely and utterly irrelevent.

Not knowing about something which has been the same for 30+ years is quite frankly, inexcusable.

zeon999

Conor wrote: »

Oh what utter rubbish. They don't just make it up. It's not something new - the limits have been different for vans for DECADES. Yes that's right, decades. As in more than 20 years. Have you even had a licence 20 years?

If anyone has a reason to complain, it's HGV drivers who HAVE had laws that've changed several times in the last three years. For example, the drivers hours laws and tacho regs have undergone two changes in the last 12 months with another due next year. They don't get widely advertised but us thicko truck drivers seem to manage to keep up.

Yeah I learnt this already as somebody else had already pointed out to me that it has been around for years, they also manged to do it without being a total !!! and I had also replyed to his comment about the fact it had been round for ages.

Why are you so rude about this matter?

You may know your laws of the road but have very poor social skills if you talk to people like that all the time.

Who said anything about truckers being "thicko truck drivers" aswell if you want to slag yourself of then go ahead but think its a bit unfair to class all truck drivers as Thick dont you think?

As already pointed out to you knowing the rules of the road is your a vital part of your job as a HGV driver and I would expect you to know these things. Saying all car drivers should know all the car laws is bull if thats the case then how can you get a license after passing a test without a 100% result? Nobody expects all car drivers to know every road law their is and I dont get why you have such an attitude with everybody.

Problem is lots of people drive vans and think nothing about rules of the road as you can drive them on a basic car license which is where the problem is really.

Back when they changed it so you could not drive 7.5 tonne trucks that should have covered vans also maybe, so then to drive anything other than a car you need to get the correct license, that way people would be trained to use the vehicle and also have been test on the knowlage they need to know.

goldspanners

Conor wrote: »

As a car driver, it is your job to know the rules and regulations regarding the vehicle you're driving. The fact I'm a professional driver and you aren't is completely and utterly irrelevent.

Not knowing about something which has been the same for 30+ years is quite frankly, inexcusable.

i agree with you there for once.
but you knowing your tacho regs etc.. you get paid to know this.

vaio

Conor wrote: »

Oh what utter rubbish. They don't just make it up. It's not something new - the limits have been different for vans for DECADES. Yes that's right, decades. As in more than 20 years. Have you even had a licence 20 years?

If anyone has a reason to complain, it's HGV drivers who HAVE had laws that've changed several times in the last three years. For example, the drivers hours laws and tacho regs have undergone two changes in the last 12 months with another due next year. They don't get widely advertised but us thicko truck drivers seem to manage to keep up.

All the HGV changes are always publicised in the truckers newspapers people read whilst they are shovelling bacon & egg down their necks