Back in the neanderthal period before my retirement I remember that in order for a load to come under the “Weight Exemption” regulation, the load should be “Abnormal and Indivisible”. Can anyone advise me when the “Indivisible” part was amended as I have noticed an increasing number of mult-axled low loaders carrying loads of crane counterweights which clearly put the vehicle in excess of 44 tonnes but are just as obviously divisible into smaller (and lighter) units.
RIKKI ! 
Retired Old ■■■■:
Back in the neanderthal period before my retirement I remember that in order for a load to come under the “Weight Exemption” regulation, the load should be “Abnormal and Indivisible”. Can anyone advise me when the “Indivisible” part was amended as I have noticed an increasing number of mult-axled low loaders carrying loads of crane counterweights which clearly put the vehicle in excess of 44 tonnes but are just as obviously divisible into smaller (and lighter) units.
they are exempt from that rule 
I’m fairly certain that crane ballast is governed by different regulations. Some of the bigger kit can require ballast weighing upwards of 100 tonnes and it would not really be practical to have a fleet of trucks following it around would it?.
As far as indivisible loads it’s not all cut and dried either. For example if you were to load an item that would put you above C&U weights then it’s perfectly acceptable to additional pieces providing that you don’t exceed the plated weight of the vehicle and that all pieces are loaded and unloaded at the same place. Also regarding plant machinery it as acceptable to also carry an other items involved in the operation of the plant again providing the plated weight of the vehicle is not exceeded.
Cheers
Neilf
Thanks, chaps. I hadn’t realised that crane equipment was governed by different rules.
When I worked for Elliot Sergeants, we’d load 2 432 APC’s. Although it is clearly a divisible load, it was permitted as one alone would bring the vehicle into STGO cat 2 (my tare weight was 29 tonne). Given that I already had a bona fide STGO load, sticking another on as well to bring the whole carried load up towards 62 makes sense in every way.
Why run 2 STGO cat 1’s with one APC each when it can go on one Cat2?
Ey up lad, we were the same for John Dickinson.
Say if you’re plated at 80t (Cat 2), and you load a single piece that takes your gross train up to 70 tons, you can then load further 10 ton of secondary items.
As long as the secondary items you load do not project beyond the original single item (or projects beyond the normal trailer width).
For example, if you loaded a coil in the centre of the trailer that put you at 70 ton (but didn’t exceed the width of the trailer), you could put more items on to take you up to 80t. BUT, you couldn’t put, say, a staircase on that’d make your trailer 10 foot wide. Because the original ab load was not oversized.
I think :0