Some real world figures on overloading.

The statisticians tell us that around 80% of the vans on the road are overloaded. We’re not sure how large a sample that is based upon but it’s an alarming figure.

In the world of real vans, real weights and real drivers, one of our customers has established his own level of overloading and, whilst the sample figure is relatively low, the incidence of overloading is high.

As part of their drive to ensure they are operating legally, one of the major utility companies bought some portable weighpads from us last year. With a number of depots around the company, the Transport Manager wanted to have a weighing facility in his car to do on site spot checks and driver training.

The perfect application for weighpads incidentally.

Axtec OnBoard Load Indicator - preventing van overloads

During a recent exercise at one of his depots, he weighed 60 vehicles before they left for work. Alarmingly, he found 40 of them were overloaded. That’s two-thirds of them.

Some were only slightly over the legal limit but some were seriously overloaded, one or two approaching 300kg overweight. A significant figure on a 3.5t van and well within the area that could attract a prosecution.

The reasons were the usual ones given by drivers such as not clearing scrap from the van after a job, keeping ‘one-extra’  spare component in the back just in case etc. These are common, daily occurrences for many operators. All avoidable but all could possibly lead to a prohibition, prosecution, and a fine.

And with overloading adversely affecting the brakes, steering, clutch suspension, tyres, fuel consumption etc, all of which are not cheap, not to mention possibly invalidating the insurance in the event of an accident, overloading your vans is something to be avoided.

If overloading is something you would like to discuss a resolution to in detail, come and see us at CV Show next week where you’ll find us on stand 5A79.