Overloading HGVs: What Drivers Must Refuse and Report

One topic

Overloading — gross vehicle weight and axle weights beyond legal limits. Load securing and height are separate articles; this one is mass.

Why drivers get named

You are the last person who can refuse to move an illegal weight. DVSA and police weighbridges do not accept “the shipper printed 24 tonnes on the paper” when the scales show more. Fines, prohibitions, and operator action can follow.

Before you leave the bay

• Know the plated weights for the vehicle and combination you are driving
• Compare paperwork / declared weight with what you can see and feel (obvious overload, axle dive, tyre squash)
• Ask for a weigh if your site or procedure provides one and something looks wrong

When to refuse

If you reasonably believe the vehicle is over gross or over axle, do not leave. Call traffic / compliance. Get the refusal on record (time, bay, who you spoke to). Moving “just to the next site” can still be an offence.

Redistribution vs pretend fix

Shifting pallets to balance axles can help when the total is legal. It does not fix an over-gross load. Cutting corners by leaving the site overweight is not a redistribution.

After a weighbridge hit

• Follow officer instructions; do not argue physics on the scales
• Notify the operator immediately with ticket / notice details
• Do not accept pressure to “just go” if a prohibition is in force

Driver habit

Learn the plated figures for the fleet you drive most. Guessing “it always looks like this” is how overload tickets happen on familiar work.

What to remember

Overloaded axles and over-gross vehicles are not a “warehouse problem only”. If you know the load is illegal and you move it, you own part of the risk.

Read the article through before you apply the rule on the road. Figures and exceptions change. If your operator’s procedure or a roadside check says something different from a web summary, follow the written procedure and official sources (DVSA, DVLA, GOV.UK, and the regulation that applies).

For “Overloading HGVs: What Drivers Must Refuse and Report”, keep the practical chain: check before you leave, record correctly on the tachograph or in documents, tell planning when something does not add up, and do not move the vehicle if you know it is illegal or unsafe.

If a colleague, customer or short message asks you to skip a check, ask for it in writing. Stopping on time and a call to the desk costs less than a penalty, a prohibition, or a collision.