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One for van drivers


Alan Zoff
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My brain is hopeless when it comes to diagrams, charts, tables, etc, and I often get myself in a mess when booking online services. Before I drive myself crazy trawling through ferry booking sites, I would appreciate any short-cuts that van users can suggest for getting the best deal for the crossing (Dover area to Calais area) with a largish van. Two-week return trip.

I have just acquired an LDV Convoy panel van - short wheel base but still just over 5 metres long and just over 2 metres high. I have been told that, although it will be carrying domestic stuff for the French house, rather than commercial goods, it might still have to be treated as freight travel and incur higher crossing charges.

And can I use the autoroute transponder (doofer) that I have had for my car for past few years or will I have problems taking the van through the peages with it?

Many thanks

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[quote user="Alan Zoff"]

My brain is hopeless when it comes to diagrams, charts, tables, etc, and I often get myself in a mess when booking online services. Before I drive myself crazy trawling through ferry booking sites, I would appreciate any short-cuts that van users can suggest for getting the best deal for the crossing (Dover area to Calais area) with a largish van. Two-week return trip.

I have just acquired an LDV Convoy panel van - short wheel base but still just over 5 metres long and just over 2 metres high. I have been told that, although it will be carrying domestic stuff for the French house, rather than commercial goods, it might still have to be treated as freight travel and incur higher crossing charges.

And can I use the autoroute transponder (doofer) that I have had for my car for past few years or will I have problems taking the van through the peages with it?

Many thanks

[/quote]

Re using the doofer: your doofer is for a class 1 vehicle (ie <2m high and <3.5 tonnes PTAC). If you use it for a class 2 (eg >2m or >3.5 tonnes PTAC or when towing a caravan greater than 2m high) then you are supposed to take a ticket at the entry and use a manned lane on exit, handing over the badge with the ticket so that the correct amount can be charged to your account.

Having said that, if you use an automated toll lane (without height limit) with a class 1 doofer in an over-height vehicle or combination (eg caravan), my understanding is that there are height sensors (and weight sensors) which will charge the correct amount, though this is not clear from the various operators' websites, eg: 

http://www.asf-telepeage.fr/telepeage-professionnels/questions-reponses-telepeage-pro.php

There may be enough leeway such that if your van is say 2.03 m high, it may pass through the height-restricted lanes and be charged as a class 1. Incidentally, it seems that the height-restricted lanes charge everything as a class 1, so motorbikers apparently have to use other lanes ...

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[quote user="Alan Zoff"]My brain is hopeless when it comes to diagrams, charts, tables, etc, and I often get myself in a mess when booking online services. Before I drive myself crazy trawling through ferry booking sites, I would appreciate any short-cuts that van users can suggest for getting the best deal for the crossing (Dover area to Calais area) with a largish van. Two-week return trip.

I have just acquired an LDV Convoy panel van - short wheel base but still just over 5 metres long and just over 2 metres high. I have been told that, although it will be carrying domestic stuff for the French house, rather than commercial goods, it might still have to be treated as freight travel and incur higher crossing charges.[/quote]

Regarding the ferries: you may be better looking at the operator's own sites, as I think that each takes its own view. Eurotunnel certainly used to be able to treat a private van as non-commercial, as did one or more of the ferry operators, whereas others seemed to classify any panel van as commercial.

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Sme years ago I took a hire van across with what was then Norfolk lines - now DFDS.  They insisted it be booked as freight rather than car even though it was for personal use and not commercial.  The extra cost was however minimal.  Things may have changed now but they might be worth a look - Dover to Dunkerque
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I have found the ferries to be very expensive now for vans, so I use the Eurotunnel. That said i use my frequent traveller tickets which are excellent value for van use, i.e. 2 trips with my van on the ferry would cost the same as 10 tickets on the frequent traveller deal £390 pa.
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Thanks Theiere. I hadn't appreciated that vans were rated the same as cars under the Frequent Traveller deal. That being so, it wins hands down over the ferries.

My main gripe with the Frequent Traveller deal has been the suggestion that it gives you a year's worth of travel when in fact the year starts from the date you buy the tickets, which has to be in advance of the first trip. So you can't plan very far ahead with confidence, unless you want to lose several days - which could be important to make maximum use of the tickets.

But the van terms make that seem almost irrelevant now.

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We had a standard height short wheelbase Transit, which was just under 5m long and just over 2m height. I used to book it on the ferry as a motorhome, which cost virtually the same as a car, and we seemed to get away with that because it had a window in the sliding side door. That always worked OK with Brittany Ferries and P&O as it was then - though I think LD is a bit more fussy about vans.

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[quote user="Alan Zoff"]What's the significance of your "heavily loaded" comment in your last post Theiere?[/quote]

At a guess, reduced clearance when going over ramps!

Having towed heavy (car-carrying) trailers via ferry and via the Chunnel, I found the Chunnel to be an absolute breeze: nice gradual ramps on and off, an easy approach from the motorway at one end and onto the autoroute at the other. When I did the same via a ferry from Folkestone to Boulogne, the approach through the streets of Folkestone and the departure through Boulogne were horrible, as were the manoeuvres to get on and off the ferry, with horrible graunching sounds coming from the underneath at a couple of points.

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And it was a guess Pickles but in this case a wrong one [:)]

T&C's on the Euro tunnels site state that (not an exact copy) even if your van holds 5m3 you are only allowed 3m3 or you have to go commercial.  So heavily loaded could be a bit over 3m3 [Www] but at 4am we have so far got away with it [:D]

Of course I would argue that insulation (95% air) couldn't possibly be more than 3m3 and when my van is empty it still contains almost the same amount of air. I would expect to loose but if I smile a lot who knows. Someone who did get stopped and made to pay the extra through commercial was also surprised that the cost was still less than the ferry for the same vehicle and coming back would be empty.

 

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[quote user="Théière"]And it was a guess Pickles but in this case a wrong one [:)] [/quote]

I'm guilty of committing displacement activity to avoid marking: it would be easier to get on with it if I had any confidence that I would be considering whether an answer is worth just over or just under 80%: unfortunately the discussion is (as usual) "Has the student done just about enough to pass?"

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  • 2 weeks later...

The helpful booking chap at Eurotunnel said size of van and weight of load wasn't the issue. The volume of the load is what matters, regardless of weight, "due to fire regulations which apply differently for freight and non-freight traffic". He said a SWB transit-size van, for example, has a nominal load capacity of approx 6 cubic metres so if you fill it up and they check, they will insist you rebook as freight, which could mean a delay and very expensive adjustment.

He gave the impression that they allow some leeway but suggested I ensured that there was plenty of free space around the contents of the van. If they peak inside and see it is loaded to the gunnels, there will be a problem. (I don't understand the logic, though, as if you took a smaller van, and stuffed it full without exceeding the 3 cubic metres, there wouldn't be any air space around the items but you would comply with the restriction. There must be some other explanation as to why 3 cubic metres has some relevance for fire regulations.) 

A useful feature is that you register the person, not the vehicle, when signing up for the frequent travel deal. The vehicle is specified only when you book the tickets for each crossing. So provided you take a vehicle of the same class (e.g. car or van), you don't exceed the 3 cubic metres limit, and the registered person travels on each trip, you can switch between vehicles without incurring amendment fees. The disadvantage, of course, is that the deal is not transferable between people, but that is to be expected, given the discount achieved.

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