White van may find himself forced to slow down thanks to new EU legislation.

A programme of legislations is set to start on January 1, 2005, which will ultimately see speed limiters fitted to vehicles, including many vans. The equipment, limiting vehicles to 56mph will need to be fitted to vehicles down to 3,501kg.

While the majority of UK white vans fall below this threshold, many will come into scope and the new regulations will also mean that these vehicles, like all of the other lorries on UK roads, will be banned from using the outside lane on motorways.

However, the Freight Transport Association said that the measures will help cut fuel consumption and reduce maintenance costs.

All new vehicles registered after 1 January 2005, in the weight range between 3501kg and 12000kg, and employed on international operations, must be fitted with a limiter.

For vehicles used solely in the UK then the requirement is for all vehicles between 7501kg and 12000kg to be fitted with limiters from the same date, 1 January 2005.

However, for new vehicles in the range 3501kg to 7500kg the fitment date is not for a further three years - 1 January 2008.

There is also a requirement to retrofit limiters to existing vehicles first registered after 1 October 2001. However, there is no requirement to fit limiters to vehicles first registered before that date.

FTA said that from 1 January 2005 all new vehicles in the range 3501kg to 7500kg will have the speed limiter function built into the engine as manufacturers will not know whether they are to be used nationally or internationally.

For vehicles used internationally the speed limiter will need to be calibrated immediately.

For vehicles used nationally, the customer should be able, for now, to choose the setting. If the customer chooses a speed above 56mph, the speed limiter will require recalibration, at his cost, by 1 January 2008.

FTA Chief Executive Richard Turner said: “The van is presently the biggest selling commercial vehicle in the UK with very substantial growth in numbers in recent years, marking its role as a versatile and efficient servant of British industry.

“Despite the frequent critical references to the misdemeanours of 'white van man', road safety statistics tell a different story with vans having the lowest accident involvement rate of any category of vehicle in the UK. There is no reason to believe that this trend will not continue.”

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