Abnormal loads
Where the rules come from, what the haulier owes, and where your team comes in.
Where the rules sit
The Construction and Use Regulations 1986 set the ordinary limits on size. The Authorised Weight Regulations 1998 set the ordinary weights. The Special Types Order 2003 (STGO) says when a vehicle may go past them.
Special types
Within the construction and use limits, a vehicle uses the road as normal. Past them, the special types order (STGO) covers loads that cannot be split without undue expense or risk of damage, and special vehicles such as mobile cranes. A load that could be split gets no such cover. So when a notice lands, you know what the haulier is relying on.
Notice
How much notice the haulier owes, and to whom, depends on how far past the limits the move goes. The biggest moves need longer notice and reach more organisations. Some also need their own authorisation: a VR1 or a Special Order. Check the notice fits the load. Then you know how long you have before it rolls.
The largest moves
A load between 5 and 6.1 metres wide needs a VR1 from National Highways, or Transport Scotland for a move that starts in Scotland. Over 150 tonnes, 6.1 metres wide or 30 metres rigid length, a move falls outside STGO and needs a Special Order. Then the police and every highway and bridge authority get five clear working days' notice.
In practice
The haulier owes the notice, and the order sets you no duty to reply. You still answer for your roads and bridges, so you check your structures on the route and raise any problem before the load moves. Auroute checks the haulier's vehicle against each structure's recorded limits. It logs who decided and when, so a question months later has an answer.
In Great Britain, most of the rules sit in three instruments. The Road Vehicles (Construction and Use) Regulations 1986 set the ordinary limits on size and construction. The Road Vehicles (Authorised Weight) Regulations 1998 set the ordinary weight limits. The Road Vehicles (Authorisation of Special Types) (General) Order 2003, known as STGO, says when a vehicle may go past them. The detail is intricate; the shape is not.
STGO covers abnormal indivisible loads, and named special vehicles such as mobile cranes. An abnormal indivisible load is one that cannot be split without undue expense or risk of damage, and is too big or heavy to carry within the ordinary limits. A vehicle over the limits only because its load could have been split is not covered. Those that are covered run on conditions. Above set sizes and weights, one is telling people in advance.
Even within construction and use, some loads need two clear working days' notice to the police. They include a load over 2.9 metres wide, a rigid vehicle over 18.65 metres long with its load, and a combination over 25.9 metres with its load. A load sticking out more than 3.05 metres at the front or back needs it too.
How much notice is owed, and to whom, depends on how far past the ordinary limits the movement goes. Over the ordinary weight limits, the haulier gives each highway and bridge authority on the route notice and an indemnity. That is two clear working days up to 80 tonnes, and five from 80 to 150 tonnes. The police get two clear working days' notice if the move is wide, long or over 80 tonnes gross.
A load between 5 and 6.1 metres wide also needs a VR1. National Highways issues it, or Transport Scotland for a move that starts in Scotland. The largest moves fall outside STGO: over 150 tonnes, over 6.1 metres wide or over 30 metres rigid length. They need a Special Order, and the police and the highway and bridge authorities all get five clear working days' notice.
This page is a summary and nothing more. It is not legal advice, and an authority's own legal and engineering advice governs. Where a movement matters, read the instrument rather than a summary of it.
We will show you notifications answered in one place and checked against your own structures.