If you run a fleet of vehicles, it is likely you have an ‘O’ Licence. When you signed up for this licence, you agreed to meet a number of conditions to do with the safe running of your fleet. One of these was “Vehicle and Trailers are not overloaded”. In addition to this, an ‘O’ Licence holder has an obligation to notify the Traffic Commissioner of any convictions which are not spent – and this includes fines and prohibitions for overloading. This will harm your OCRS (Operator Compliance Risk Score), often known as the VOSA traffic light system.
Download the PDF format of our
guide to vehicle weighing
Even if you don’t require the above licence, you must still comply with the law. Overloading a vehicle can also make you fall foul of Health & Safety legislation, Duty of Care, and even (in extreme cases) Corporate Manslaughter.
As such, you have a duty of care to yourself, your employees and the general public to ensure that your vehicle (and those of the people who work for you) are safe and used in a legally compliant fashion. Overloading is an absolute offence – there are no excuses!
RedForge
