trailers ‘n’ horseboxes Are you Overweight?
New figures released by VOSA relating to vehicle offences on our roads are showing an alarming rise in vehicle overloading specifically in the Light Commercial Vehicle range, a category which includes lightweight horseboxes. According to VOSA nearly 70% of those vehicles stopped were overweight, and have led to subsequent convictions and/or fines. Richard Drinkwater of SVTech explains more.....
For the past 3 years, SvTech has been offering free weight checks to horsebox owners, so as to highlight this overloading issue. Fortunately, we are able to help those people who are unwittingly overloading their horseboxes, along with those who are completely aware that they are overloading their horsebox, since we offer an uprating service which increases your payload by up to 400kg.
What has been noticeable over the past few years is the amount of newer horseboxes on the road. These are built to high specifications, with the best materials, with luxurious living areas. However these reduce the amount of space for the horses, meaning that a 7.5 tonne box will in truth only carry 2 horses maximum. Indeed evidence suggests that to be totally safe and within payload allowance, you should only carry one horse.
We have regularly seen 2 horses inside the 3.5 tonnes horseboxes and we all know these are overweight, nullifying the driver’s insurance in the event of a claim, and making it a very unsafe vehicle. VOSA officers rub their hands together with enthusiasm when they see these vehicles heading towards the checkpoint.
Very soon we will see the emergence of more Weigh-in-Motion enforcement areas. Transport for London (TfL) has been trialling a new system, which we expect will be rolled out nationwide. TfL has invested in a new site office on the Blackwall Tunnel Northern Approach, which will be used by VOSA and the Met Police to carry out enforcement activity. A new automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) and weigh-in-motion system has been installed on the A2 to identify potentially overweight vehicles in advance of approaching the tunnel. Vehicles that are identified as potentially overweight will then be accurately weighed and inspected at the new site office.
Ultimately we would always recommend that horsebox owners weigh their vehicles, completely empty, other than diesel. Get an axle 1 and axle 2 weight, and a combined GVW. You will then be able to weigh tack, horses, food etc as you load the vehicle, meaning you should never again be overloaded. You could also use our Load Distribution Calculation (LDA), which is available for free on our website,
www.svtech.co.uk/lda ; this enables you to input unladen weights, add your loads, and then it calculates your axle weights and gross vehicle weight, showing whether or not you have overloaded.
Almost 70% of horseboxes in the Light Commercial Vehicle range are overweight - is yours one of them?
Equine Page 34
www.farmnequine.co.uk
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