Page 27 - issue-27

Talking vans – with editor Matt Eisenegger
EU van intervention: it’s largely our own fault
The faceless bureaucrats of Brussels are threatening HGV style rules for vans again – and it could change the entire face of the industry. You have been warned!
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can be ignored. WRONG! We still have to abide by all EU legislation until we actually leave – and that won’t be for a few years yet at the earliest.
And let me introduce you to a little humdinger of a piece of proposed legislation that is currently traversing the corridors of Brussels at present and that – if passed – will create more mayhem for van users than they could ever imagine.
The great faceless EU bureaucrats are proposing HGV style legislation for panel vans – and that means O-licences, tachographs and restricted drivers’ hours for most of my readers.
I also happen to be editor of a truck drivers’ magazine, CV Driver, which you may also read, so I know irst-hand all the hoops that HGV leets have to jump through just to keep on the road and stay legal.
O-licences put all sorts of constraints on leet managers, tachographs put constraints on drivers and there’s a host of other legislation which – at present – van owners can just ignore because they don’t apply.
The magic cut-off weight at present is 3.5-tonnes gvw and it
is no surprise to anyone that this weight of van is the biggest seller in the UK.
It is pretty obvious what has happened. Rather than buy a
ou may think that now we have voted to leave the EU,
all their rules and regulations
traditional 7.5-tonner, many operators have scaled down to 3.5-tonnes and have simply carried on lugging the same weights. Illegally of course.
You see any number
of long wheelbase high roof 3.5-tonners on the motorways loaded down to the gills every day, happily thumbing their collective nose at the law.
Maintenance
And what about
maintenance? Whereas
trucks have to have a legal check-up every six weeks, vans get away with the normal MoT rules that apply to cars. And nearly half of them fail their irst MoT.
The Freight Transport Association, under the auspices of Mark Cartwright, has done wonders with its Van Excellence programme which aims to improve the image
of the van industry. But, sad to say, Mark and his team are often preaching to the converted.
Most of the people in the scheme are the big leets who toe the line legally anyway.
Target the wrong ‘uns
The cowboys are the ones Mark wants to target and they are proving extremely hard to pin down. And why would they want to be pinned down if they simply don’t care about rules and regulations?
So without getting too heavy, my message this month is clear. I hope that all my readers will stop a minute and just think about their vehicles. Are the maintained properly? Could they be overloaded? Are they driven by tired drivers? If the answer to any of these questions is either yes or maybe, then I suggest that you act accordingly.
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Now, if you were an EU regulator, what would all this say to you? It would tell me that something needs to be done urgently – and that’s exactly what is proposed.
Things might change for the worse – and I’m sorry to say that if they do, some van owners will have brought it upon themselves.
I don’t want to start pointing ingers as I know that most of my readers run pretty good vehicles, all street legal and smart to give a good impression of their businesses.
But equally, there are quite a few cowboys out there who simply don’t give a damn about their vehicles
– and they are the ones who are going to spoil it for everyone.
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If your vans look anything like this, you deserve everything the EU law makers throw at you
Something needs to be done urgently – and I~ sorry to say that many van owners will have brought
it upon themselves
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