Understanding Splitter Van Weight Restrictions for Touring Bands in the UK

Carrying a band and their backline in a splitter van has increasingly become a bit of a minefield as inspections by authorities become more frequent, vehicles become more luxurious and bands want to carry more production.

This post is focussed on the UK as I haven’t yet been able to fact check it against EU regulations, but experience suggests that rules across the channel are similar. I’d encourage you to check the restrictions and consequences in the countries you intend to visit on your tour.

What happens if I’m over loaded?

Worst case scenario, your vehicle’s breaks can’t handle the extra weight, you can’t stop in time and you kill someone. That should probably be enough to convince you, but even if that doesn’t happen there are other potential consequences. If you’re pulled over by the police or a Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) officer, weighed at a weigh station and found to be over weight you will likely be prevented from driving any further until the vehicle is within legal weight restrictions. You will need to find a way to lose some of the weight, or have another vehicle come and share the load. You will also likely be find fined and in extreme cases could get points on your license or be charged with dangerous driving.

How much can I carry?

With a standard UK drivers license you are permitted to drive a vehicle with up to 9 seats, two axels and a Maximum Gross Vehicle Weight (MGVW) of 3.5 tonnes. Most rental splitter vans from entertainment focussed hire companies will be within that specification, but a quick way to check is that the MGVW (or Maximum Authorised Mass, MAM) will likely be on a plate attached inside the drivers door, or in the vehicle handbook. You could eye ball it by counting the number of seats (9 or less), count the number of axels (two) and check that the rear axle only has two wheels and not an extra pair of just inside the normal two on the rear axle, and you should be good. Very occasionally you will come across a vehicle with 4 wheels on the rear axle which has been “down-plated” to 3.5 tonnes to be drive-able on a normal UK license, but if it has then it will still require you to understand the following, and you won’t be able to carry more weight. The vehicles paperwork will tell you if it’s been down-plated.

A Maximum Gross Vehicle Weight of 3.5 tonnes means that the whole weight of the vehicle, its passengers and any other load must not exceed that weight. When you consider that a long wheelbase Mercedes Sprinter’s curb weight (thats the empty vehicle without any extra seats, tables, entertainment systems, people or gear in it) will easily be over 2600kg, that won’t leave you with much to play with. Add nine people who each weigh around 10 stone (and knowing the crew I know that might be generous) and you’ve lost another half a tonne of potential gear - and thats before your reclining seats, TVs, air con units and power is accounted for.

How can I work that out?

Best practice here would be to ask your hire company for the “mass in running order” of the vehicle you’re hiring. Subtract that from 3.5 tonnes and you have the maximum amount everything else can weigh. Remember that includes you and the other people travelling in the vehicle! There are then two ways to check what you can carry:

You could load the vehicle and drive to a public weighbridge and weigh the vehicle, passengers and gear all together, but that risks being unsafe or stopped en route, and means you then need to solve the problem at short notice once you discover there’s an issue.

It might be more of a pain in advance, but the easiest way to prevent a short notice, unexpected problem would be to ask your passengers to weigh themselves and anything they wish to bring with them, as well as requesting the weights of any rental equipment from suppliers. Add all that up and make sure it fits within what you have left to work with. Remember personal suitcases and day bags will also account so it's sensible to leave yourself some wiggle room once all the main stuff is accounted for. As soon as someone brings a case of beers from the rider after the first show, you don’t want to be running in to issues.

This sounds complicated and annoying. Should I just risk it?

I’ve, somewhat fortunately, only been pulled over a couple of times over the course of nearly 20 years of touring, but I am led to understand that the DVSA and Police are much tighter on things than they once were. I thought it was worth giving you a couple of examples of what has happened when I’ve been pulled over, and talk about some more serious potential results of driving while over loaded.

I was pulled over in the UK while driving a three piece band with backline and one additional crew member. We had to chuck merch boards, cases of personalised beers and various other low value items away to try and get the vehicle weight down before realising that we were fighting a losing battle. Even being 20-30% over weight is so much weight! Ultimately we tracked down a driver with a panel van who lived nearby to help carry gear to the next city, and then found another van and driver to shadow us through the rest of the tour. This ultimately resulted in a fine and the unexpected (and inflated) cost of two vehicles and drivers for the remainder of the run.

Although its beyond the specific scope of this post as it occurred outside the UK, on another occasion I was driving in Sweden while working for an artist who hadn’t communicated the amount of backline and production we were to be carrying. At every stop more unexpected weight was added until we were beyond anything reasonable - but I lacked the confidence in myself to insist we either made other transport plans or cut the production back significantly. Ultimately we were pulled over in the middle of nowhere in rural Sweden, something like 300% overweight. I was told that had I not been so compliant and friendly with the Swedish Police, they would have taken my license off me on the spot. Instead we incurred a hefty fine and an additional night in a hotel while we worked to source a second vehicle, which we then had another member of the crew drive. Luckily it was an off day otherwise we would also have had to pull one of the biggest shows of the tour.

On another early tour I cracked a rear wheel rim, in part from the excess weight being put on the axles. This took a while to diagnose and two replacement tyres before we figured out what the problem was.

It can be very hard to convince management that they need to spring for an extra vehicle and driver, especially when so many bands, TMs and drivers will risk it when hundreds of kgs over the limit - but the potential consequences are worse than a fine and a slap on the wrist. The weight limits are there because the vehicle is only designed to operate safely up to a certain load, and the breaks are significantly less effective when you’re carrying so much extra weight. You will be much slower to stop or slow down, and if you hit something with so much extra mass you will do more damage to yourself and anyone else involved. You could potentially lose your license or kill someone and YOU will be responsible when that happens - not management or the artist. It’s worth making the case and putting your foot down if the law says what you’re doing isn’t safe, and refusing to drive if being asked to do something.

Anything I can do to get more weight allowance?

You could employ a driver with a license to drive a larger, dual rear axle vehicle or you could tow a trailer (the type of license you have will restrict what the total towing weight of vehicle you can drive is as well though) - something i intend to cover in a future post.

A simpler solution is to think about what you need from the vehicle itself. Budget vehicles with less bells and whistles like reclining seats, tables and large TVs are often a decent amount lighter than leather clad premium vehicles. A Medium Wheelbase splitter might have less space in the back, but it will be significantly lighter than a Long Wheelbase one, and consequently be able to carry more weight.

Several hire companies are taking on board the fact that their vehicles have, for a long time, been largely impractical for touring bands and investing in light-weight vehicles. Vans For Bands being a notable recent example, using lighter materials and being more thoughtful about what they include in the build.

Alternatively, think about the practicalities of what you’re able to carry on tour at this level. Can you share the heavy items like amps and cabs between bands on a tour? Can you drop ship merch in to shows rather than carrying it all for the whole run? Can you really afford to bring that lighting floor package / 14 stone backline technician? All these decisions unfortunately need to be thought through from a practical perspective rather than just cramming the back of the van floor to ceiling Tetris style.