Pick-up speed limits

[Treewolf]

It's more complex than "hire or reward", it affects you if you're carrying any load (with a very few exceptions) in connection with a trade or business, even if it's not your own trade or business.

 

So even if you're not being paid or rewarded you may need a tacho. If you're towing a caravan which you're delivering for your mate who sells them, you need a tacho if over 3500kg GTW.

 

It's a nightmare trying to stay legal nowadays!

[Johnnyboxer]

It's a nightmare trying to stay legal nowadays!

 

Especially when the Law is unclear or those employed to enforce aren't sure of the specifics of the law that they are trying to enforce

 

Amen

[Johnnyboxer]

We seem to have come full circle and arrived back where we started.

 

There are in essence three broad types of vehicle recognised in UK law, these being "motor cars", "goods vehicles", and "dual purpose vehicles". These categories are defined by the Road Vehicles (Construction & Use) Regulations 1986 (as amended). [Within some of these categories there are sub-categories, such as "heavy motor car" etc. Anything not in one of these categories can only be driven on the road by virtue of Special Types regulations.]

 

If you drive a Landrover Defender, then irrespective of what it is used for, who owns it, how it is taxed, you are NOT driving a light goods vehicle, you are driving a Dual Purpose Vehicle. It may be taxed in a VED category called "N1 Light Goods" but it is not a light goods vehicle.

 

Any vehicle which is a Dual Purpose Vehicle as defined in C&U(86) must be MOT tested as Class 4 and is subject to normal car-type speed limits. That is the law, to do anything else is illegal.

 

It is true that a Class 7 MOT tests the same things but to a more rigourous standard tha Class 4, but if you lose income because your vehicle has failed a incorrectly-administered Class 7 test when it should have passed a Class 4 test, I imagine you could now sue the test station. Similarly if you have presented the vehicle for test and the test station has carried out and charged you for a Class 7 test when it should have been Class 4, they have overcharged you (or mis-sold you the test).

 

You can argue the absurdity of the situation, but you cannot argue the facts of the situation.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Are you really sure?

 

The DPV classification for me, hinges on the 2040kg UNLADEN weight

 

Over that weight, it cannot be classed a DPV

 

The main problem is that neither the manufacturers, nor DVLA, nor VOSA or even EU record or recognise the UNLADEN weight as quote in the Construction and Use regs

 

They only recognise Mass in Service - an EU definition which was probably in all intents and purpose, very similar to Kerb weight

 

No Single cab pickups, with or without Tippers, or LR 90 Truckcabs/Hardtops or 110 Hardtops/Pickups/HiCaps and 110 DCab PU's can be classed as DPV's as they either don't satisfy the rear seat/cab glass rules or are over the 2040kg weight to be a DPV

 

Therefore they are limited to 50/60/70 mph speed limits

[Stoatally]

The rear seat and glass part is only applicable to stuff like transits. The pick ups are dpv (providing the unladen weight is under 2040kg) because they have permanent or switchable 4x4

[openspaceman]

It's more complex than "hire or reward", it affects you if you're carrying any load (with a very few exceptions) in connection with a trade or business, even if it's not your own trade or business.

 

So even if you're not being paid or rewarded you may need a tacho. If you're towing a caravan which you're delivering for your mate who sells them, you need a tacho if over 3500kg GTW.

 

It's a nightmare trying to stay legal nowadays!

 

Here are two scenarios from real life:

 

A rep for a chipper company takes a trailer with a chipper on it to demonstrate to a customer within 100km of base, he spends 1.5 hours driving there, does 2 hour demo then returns to office for 1.5 hours.

 

The next week the customer buys the vehicle delivered to his premises again within 100km of dealer

 

First doesn't require a tacho second does.

 

In practice the dealer was only prosecuted for a delivery over 100km from base. IIRC £200 fine and £1200 to fit tacho in Discovery. I never found out what brought the outfit to the attention of the authorities, it may have been another traffic offence but once stopped they start looking.

[Johnnyboxer]

The rear seat and glass part is only applicable to stuff like transits. The pick ups are dpv (providing the unladen weight is under 2040kg) because they have permanent or switchable 4x4

 

 

That is incorrect, the rear seat and glass are very much part of DPV ruling, along with being 4wd and an unladen weight of less than 2040kg

 

Single Cab and Tipper Pickups cannot ever be classed as DPV's, because they have no rear seats, behind the driver and so are restricted to 50/60/70 Goods Vehicle speed restrictions

 

Transits Crew Buses cannot ever be classed as DPV as they are not 4wd and more than likely over 2040kg unladen

Edited October 14, 2016 by Johnnyboxer

[Stoatally]

Nope. All pickups, single or dual cab with 4x4 are dpv if under 2040kg ulw

[Stoatally]

From C&U regs:

 

dual-purpose vehicle

a vehicle constructed or adapted for the carriage both of passengers and of goods or burden of any description, being a vehicle of which the unladen weight does not exceed 2040 kg, and which

Initla requirement to start the selection of DPV

 

either—

 

(i)is so constructed or adapted that the driving power of the engine is, or by the appropriate use of the controls of the vehicle can be, transmitted to all the wheels of the vehicle;

4x4 pick up, single, king or double cab

 

 

or

 

 

(ii)satisfies the following conditions as to construction, namely—

(a)the vehicle must be permanently fitted with a rigid roof, with or without a sliding panel;

(b)the area of the vehicle to the rear of the driver's seat must—

(i)be permanently fitted with at least one row of transverse seats (fixed or folding) for two or more passengers and those seats must be properly sprung or cushioned and provided with upholstered back-rests, attached either to the seats or to a side or the floor of the vehicle; and

(ii)be lit on each side and at the rear by a window or windows of glass or other transparent material having an area or aggregate area of not less than 1850 square centimetres on each side and not less than 770 square centimetres at the rear; and

©the distance between the rearmost part of the steering wheel and the back-rests of the row of transverse seats satisfying the requirements specified in head (i) of sub-paragraph (b) (or, if there is more than one such row of seats, the distance between the rearmost part of the steering wheel and the back-rests of the rearmost such row) must, when the seats are ready for use, be not less than one-third of the distance between the rearmost part of the steering wheel and the rearmost part of the floor of the vehicle.

ANYTHING that isn't a pick-up

 

That is what MOT testers have been told for the last 15 years, to sort out the issues with what is and isn't DPV and what is or isn't Class4/7

[openspaceman]

(ii)satisfies the following conditions as to construction, namely—

(a)the vehicle must be permanently fitted with a rigid roof, with or without a sliding panel;

(b)the area of the vehicle to the rear of the driver's seat must—

(i)be permanently fitted with at least one row of transverse seats (fixed or folding) for two or more passengers and those seats must be properly sprung or cushioned and provided with upholstered back-rests, attached either to the seats or to a side or the floor of the vehicle; and

(ii)be lit on each side and at the rear by a window or windows of glass or other transparent material having an area or aggregate area of not less than 1850 square centimetres on each side and not less than 770 square centimetres at the rear; and

©the distance between the rearmost part of the steering wheel and the back-rests of the row of transverse seats satisfying the requirements specified in head (i) of sub-paragraph (b) (or, if there is more than one such row of seats, the distance between the rearmost part of the steering wheel and the back-rests of the rearmost such row) must, when the seats are ready for use, be not less than one-third of the distance between the rearmost part of the steering wheel and the rearmost part of the floor of the vehicle.

 

I've never bothered with this second bit as I had 4WD but:

 

so a long wheelbase Kangoo, not being a car derived van, with rear seats and windows at side and back could well be a dual purpose vehicle as long as the seating area is more than a 33% of the total interior behind the steering wheel??

[Treewolf]

Are you really sure? ...

 

Yes, I really am really sure! In fact I am more sure even than that, I am completely certain.