Ask ten people for the maximum weight of a UK lorry and most will say 44 tonnes. That is the ceiling for the heaviest combinations, but the real system is more layered: two parallel sets of regulations, weight limits that depend on axle count and suspension type, plates on the vehicle that can cap it lower than the law, and an overloading rule that treats every axle as a separate offence. DVSA’s HGV maximum weights guidance lays it all out.
GB maximum gross weights for goods vehicles are set in two places: the Road Vehicles (Construction and Use) Regulations 1986, known as C&U, and the Road Vehicles (Authorised Weight) Regulations 1998, known as AWR, which adopted the European weights directive. The two regimes run in parallel, but a vehicle may only comply with one of them: you cannot mix and match individual parts of the two regulations.
The guidance’s summary table, with the principal criteria:
Rigid vehicles:
Articulated vehicles:
Drawbar combinations follow a similar ladder, topping out at 44,000kg for 6-axle outfits, with a required distance of at least 3 metres between the rear axle of the motor vehicle and the front axle of the trailer.
Road friendly suspension, the phrase that unlocks the higher figures, is defined as a suspension where at least 75% of the spring effect comes from air or another compressible fluid under pressure, or an equivalent recognised system.
Operation above 38,000kg under C&U is restricted to combined transport operations. And anything above 44 tonnes is abnormal-load territory, handled under the Special Types General Order 2003 with its own special provisions.
The law’s maximum is not your maximum. Two plates can set a lower, binding limit:
The weights on either plate must not be exceeded. A 44-tonne-legal tractor unit plated at 38 tonnes is a 38-tonne truck.
DVSA’s guidance is stark about the consequences. A vehicle is overloaded if it exceeds the weight limits on the manufacturer’s or ministry plates, and it can be overloaded on its axle weights, its gross weight and its train weight. Each is a separate offence: a 3-axle artic over its plated weight on the first axle, the second axle and gross makes both the operator and the driver liable to three separate offences.
Why the system cares so much:
If DVSA, the police or trading standards find gross or axle limits exceeded, the company and/or the driver risk prosecution, and an overloading conviction is one of the factors that can lead a traffic commissioner to take disciplinary action against the operator’s licence.
The weight rules look like a table, but they behave like a system: regulation set, axle count, suspension, plate and load distribution all have to line up, on every vehicle, on every journey.