In reply to peebles boy:
> and so law enforcement people/cameras can't tell what the vehicle is/should be and therefore what speed it can/should be doing.
I spent some time looking in to this a while back, here's what I learned then:
This is nonsense anyway though. There seems to be much confusion here, among police and magistrates as much as the rest of us. (And if they get it wrong and you are right, tough shit, unfortunately, unless you can afford to spend a *vast* amount of money appealing a decision.)
The same speed limits apply to a 'dual purpose vehicle' as to a car (not an unconverted van). The definition of a 'dual purpose vehicle' is given in the Construction and Use Regulations, and if that definition fits the van it is one regardless of what the V5 says. (In fact if a van is a 'dual purpose vehicle' but not a minibus or a camper, there is no appropriate V5 category that could say that it is. The bureaucratic structure underlying the V5 document does not perfectly fit the Construction and Use legislation. It would be necessary to look at the van, not the V5 to properly determine which speed limit applies. Hence the difficulty. It requires the use of resources and the application of diligence - the police can't just rely on 'computer says yes' or 'computer says no', and who the hell has time for that these days?)
Under the regs the van is a 'dual purpose vehicle' if it's either 4-wheel drive, or has a rigid roof, is below a certain gross weight, has at least one row of permanent transverse rear seats, side and rear windows of a certain minimum size, and a certain ratio of seating space to 'luggage' space is not exceeded.
Link here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/car-derived-vans-and-dual-purpos...
Legal definition of a 'dual purpose vehicle' here (scroll down a bit): http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1986/1078/regulation/3/made
Based on my 30-odd years experience of using a van for personal transport though (an un-ambiguously van van, to which the lower speed limits apply) - if you're not over the speed limit for a car you're *extremely* unlikely to get busted and won't have a problem. You're not going to get a ticket for doing 60mph on a single carriageway road where the national limit applies. It's just that if you get clocked at 75mph you will be found to have been 25mph over the limit, not 15mph.
Edit to add:
> If you put windows in though, it's definitely worth getting V5 changed to "panel van with windows" for insurance purposes
D'Oh! I missed this in your post - and this is exactly what I'm on about. There is no "panel van with windows" category that can be put on a V5, hence the problem. For insurance purposes the V5 is irrelevant, as long as the insurance company are aware of the modifications that have been done to the base van and agree to give you cover on that basis.
Post edited at 07:59