Van size you are allowed to drive

[Basildon Bond]

I was told that if you did your changeover assessment (for the newbies: the half day driving test/check RM do before you drive an RM van with a driving instructor to check you're "OK") in a small van (Vauxhall Combi, Peugeot Bipper, Fiat Doblo, Peugeot Partner etc.) you are not allowed to drive a larger van for RM. Hence you would be excluded from driving a Peugeot Expert, Citroen Dispatch, Mercedes Citan, Ford Transit, or VW Transporter. And anything larger (Crafter, Sprinter, etc.) is also excluded.

However if you did your check in an old sherpa van you can drive practically anything today.

How then, when Christmas comes you always end up getting thrown into anything available and told it's OK.

How strict is the rule at your office?

[scoobymunster]

Managers will give you whatever vans availabe as they don't want the hassle of ensuring you've been assessed for that size of van. HOWEVER, if you ended up in a crash in a bigger van than what you're assessed for, then it's your fault and you shouldn't have been driving it. Stand your ground and keep yourself covered, don't take the risk.

[tramssirhc]

Each duty should have an appropriate vehicle allocated to it. If the vehicle being allocated is not appropriate for the duty then request one that is.

[Barnacle]

I was told that if you did your changeover assessment (for the newbies: the half day driving test/check RM do before you drive an RM van with a driving instructor to check you're "OK") in a small van (Vauxhall Combi, Peugeot Bipper, Fiat Doblo, Peugeot Partner etc.) you are not allowed to drive a larger van for RM. Hence you would be excluded from driving a Peugeot Expert, Citroen Dispatch, Mercedes Citan, Ford Transit, or VW Transporter. And anything larger (Crafter, Sprinter, etc.) is also excluded.

However if you did your check in an old sherpa van you can drive practically anything today.

How then, when Christmas comes you always end up getting thrown into anything available and told it's OK.

How strict is the rule at your office?

I always tell newbies to do their driving assessments in a large van because they will be expected to drive them.

[pieoftheday]

I was told that if you did your changeover assessment (for the newbies: the half day driving test/check RM do before you drive an RM van with a driving instructor to check you're "OK") in a small van (Vauxhall Combi, Peugeot Bipper, Fiat Doblo, Peugeot Partner etc.) you are not allowed to drive a larger van for RM. Hence you would be excluded from driving a Peugeot Expert, Citroen Dispatch, Mercedes Citan, Ford Transit, or VW Transporter. And anything larger (Crafter, Sprinter, etc.) is also excluded.

However if you did your check in an old sherpa van you can drive practically anything today.

How then, when Christmas comes you always end up getting thrown into anything available and told it's OK.

How strict is the rule at your office?

It's not down to your office it's down to your driving licence, it will have which catagory of vehicle you can drive, however RM drivers will have to do another change over for electric vehicles, after the initial change over of course. I've known a few over the years that came very close to not being able to drive for RM after their initial assessment

[Seymour Buts]

Such a rule doesn't exist. Our office went to the union about this who confirmed as much. If a van has four wheels on it, you can drive it as per your driving licence. Excluding grand father rights if you're older, obviously. This is myth that at one time or another got shared between managers, who then took it as gospel.

[wallan]

We took our Test / Change Over in a 360 cf Vehicle ,
There was a time we were allocated some New Colum Gear Change Omv,s , they stayed in the yard used for weeks while change over training was arranged

[TopperGas]

I was told that if you did your changeover assessment (for the newbies: the half day driving test/check RM do before you drive an RM van with a driving instructor to check you're "OK") in a small van (Vauxhall Combi, Peugeot Bipper, Fiat Doblo, Peugeot Partner etc.) you are not allowed to drive a larger van for RM. Hence you would be excluded from driving a Peugeot Expert, Citroen Dispatch, Mercedes Citan, Ford Transit, or VW Transporter. And anything larger (Crafter, Sprinter, etc.) is also excluded.

However if you did your check in an old sherpa van you can drive practically anything today.

How then, when Christmas comes you always end up getting thrown into anything available and told it's OK.

How strict is the rule at your office?

It's not down to your office it's down to your driving licence, it will have which catagory of vehicle you can drive, however RM drivers will have to do another change over for electric vehicles, after the initial change over of course. I've known a few over the years that came very close to not being able to drive for RM after their initial assessment

If it's down simply to your license then why do RM drivers have to anther course for electric vehicles as your license should also cover driving one of those? Although how hard can it be to drive an electric van when you don't even need to use gears or a clutch!!

[ted_e_bear]

Such a rule doesn't exist. Our office went to the union about this who confirmed as much. If a van has four wheels on it, you can drive it as per your driving licence. Excluding grand father rights if you're older, obviously. This is myth that at one time or another got shared between managers, who then took it as gospel.

That's what we were told, although it used to be the case that regardless of driving licence categories you were only permitted to drive RM vehicles up to and including the 'size' that you did your changeover training in, that was back in the day when we didn't have such a varied fleet. It's like everything else these days, standards have disappeared, back then they ensured that you were competent to drive their vehicles.

[Mr Rush]

We've got a backlog of new starts going back months who haven't done the changeover and yet have been driving since they began. Makes you wonder what the hell is the point of it, then.

[pieoftheday]

I was told that if you did your changeover assessment (for the newbies: the half day driving test/check RM do before you drive an RM van with a driving instructor to check you're "OK") in a small van (Vauxhall Combi, Peugeot Bipper, Fiat Doblo, Peugeot Partner etc.) you are not allowed to drive a larger van for RM. Hence you would be excluded from driving a Peugeot Expert, Citroen Dispatch, Mercedes Citan, Ford Transit, or VW Transporter. And anything larger (Crafter, Sprinter, etc.) is also excluded.

However if you did your check in an old sherpa van you can drive practically anything today.

How then, when Christmas comes you always end up getting thrown into anything available and told it's OK.

How strict is the rule at your office?

It's not down to your office it's down to your driving licence, it will have which catagory of vehicle you can drive, however RM drivers will have to do another change over for electric vehicles, after the initial change over of course. I've known a few over the years that came very close to not being able to drive for RM after their initial assessment

If it's down simply to your license then why do RM drivers have to anther course for electric vehicles as your license should also cover driving one of those? Although how hard can it be to drive an electric van when you don't even need to use gears or a clutch!!

Well I called it a change over for electric but its really just a session to help people get used to electric, some people got the 'change over' in Peugeot vans then their duty got Mercedes and we're completely lost

[heapsy]

In our office, change over training has always been with a transit. In the office, there should be a list of staff, with the vehicle they are qualified to driver marked. As for grandfather rights, this refers to 7 tonnes. Most offices won't have these. You need to have a test with RM, as far as I know. Your licence will confirm if are able to drive these. Mine does, but you have to be of a certain age, to have this as standard.

[Ozzvaldo]

We've got a backlog of new starts going back months who haven't done the changeover and yet have been driving since they began. Makes you wonder what the hell is the point of it, then.

Same here.