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Van payload calculator

A van’s payload is its gross vehicle weight minus its kerbweight — and the usable payload is what survives after racking, ply lining, a roof rack, a towbar, the tools that live in the van, the crew and a full tank. This calculator subtracts all of it and tells you what is genuinely left for the load.

Free, instant, and never gated behind a form. Enter the two figures from your VIN plate and the kit you actually carry.

Updated September 2026

1 Your vehicle

Both figures are on the VIN / weight plate inside the vehicle and on the V5C. Use the plate on the van you are actually taking, not a brochure for the range.

Also called maximum authorised mass or design gross weight — the most the van may weigh fully loaded.

Only if that is what your plate says. 3,500 kg is the category B licence ceiling; 4,250 kg applies to zero-emission vans (GOV.UK, Driving a van, 2025).

What the van weighs before you put anything in it. Take it from the plate or the V5C for your exact variant.

Why we don’t suggest a typical kerbweight

Because there isn’t an honest one. Kerbweight moves by several hundred kilograms between wheelbases, roof heights, trims and conversions of the same model, so a “typical medium van” figure would be a guess dressed as data. We would rather send you to the plate.

What does that kerbweight figure include?

This matters more than people expect: getting it wrong shifts the answer by well over 100 kg.

2 Crew and fuel

A filled crew-cab row is the single biggest thing operators forget.

85 kg is the measured mean weight of an adult man in England (NHS Health Survey for England, 2019: 85.4 kg men, 72.1 kg women). Add for boots, workwear and personal kit.

Leave at 0 for an electric van — the battery is already in the kerbweight.

Diesel 0.84 kg/litre, petrol 0.75 kg/litre (BS EN 590 and BS EN 228 density bands).

3 Conversion, kit and what you carry

Every kilogram fitted to the van comes straight out of the payload. Leave anything you do not have at 0.

Ask your fitter for the fitted weight — steel and aluminium systems differ a lot.

Walls, doors and floor, if fitted.

Include the ladder if it lives up there.

Bracket, electrics and any bumper modification.

Tail lift, beacon bar, fridge unit, generator, welfare fit-out, livery.

Everything that lives in the van on a normal working day, before the job’s materials.

Your remaining payload will appear here

Enter the gross vehicle weight and the kerbweight from the plate to start. Nothing is sent anywhere and there is no form to fill in — the answer is yours either way.

Come out tight, or over?

Then the useful conversation is about the vehicle, not the load. Tell us the heaviest load you carry on a normal day, the longest item, how many people travel, and what you need fitted — racking, a towbar, a tail lift, livery. We come back with two or three genuinely suitable options and the plated payload of each, in writing, usually the same working day. Your agreement is with FleetMe, and if none of them will do the job we will say so.

Step 1 of 4
What does the vehicle actually have to carry?

Vans, pickups, tippers and company cars. Tap to start.

Can you supply any make or model?

We quote across the main commercial manufacturers. Availability, factory lead time and price depend on what the market is offering when you order, so treat any figure on this site as a guide price. We confirm the exact vehicle, term, mileage and monthly rental in writing before anything is agreed — and we’ll tell you honestly if we can’t get what you’ve asked for.

How do you work out a van’s payload?

Two numbers and one subtraction. Gross vehicle weight — also called maximum authorised mass, or design gross weight — is the heaviest the van may legally weigh fully loaded: vehicle, fuel, driver, passengers, equipment and load. It is stamped on the VIN plate inside the vehicle and appears on the V5C (GOV.UK/DVSA, Running a fleet of vans, 2025). Kerbweight is what the van weighs ready to drive but empty. Payload is the difference.

A 3,500kg van does not carry 3,500kg. If it weighs 2,050kg empty, the base payload is 1,450kg — and that is the number before a single bracket is bolted on.

Why is the real payload lower than the brochure figure?

Because the brochure figure describes a vehicle nobody actually operates. Manufacturer payload is quoted for the base vehicle: no racking, no ply lining, no roof rack, no towbar, no tail lift, no second row of seats, no tools. A working van has most of that fitted before it leaves the yard on day one.

None of that is exotic. It is an ordinary trade van. It is also entirely possible to lose several hundred kilograms of a medium van’s payload to it, which is why the honest answer to “will it carry my load?” starts with a subtraction rather than a brochure.

What does “kerbweight” actually include?

This is the trap inside the trap, and it is why the calculator asks. There are three figures in circulation and they are not interchangeable:

Figure Includes a driver? Includes fuel?
Mass in running order Yes — 75kg Yes — tank at 90%+
Kerbweight (common brochure usage) Usually not Usually full
Dry weight No No

Mass in running order is the type-approval definition: the vehicle with its tank filled to at least 90% of capacity, including the mass of the driver, fuel and liquids, standard equipment, spare wheel and tools (Commission Regulation (EU) No 1230/2012, art. 2, retained in UK law). Add a driver and a full tank on top of that figure and you have double-counted roughly 135kg on a typical medium van. Fail to add them to a dry figure and you have under-counted by the same. Both errors are large enough to change the answer, which is why the calculator asks rather than assuming.

What weight of van can you drive on a car licence?

A category B licence — the standard car licence — covers vehicles with a maximum authorised mass of 3,500kg for petrol, diesel and hybrid, and 4,250kg for electric or hydrogen vehicles (GOV.UK, Driving licence categories, 2025). That 3,500kg ceiling is why so much of the UK van market stops dead at 3.5 tonnes: it is the heaviest vehicle most of your drivers can legally drive.

The zero-emission allowance is the change worth knowing. Regulations that came into force on 10 June 2025 removed the requirement for category B holders to take additional training before driving a zero-emission goods vehicle up to 4,250kg, and harmonised the towing rules (The Motor Vehicles (Driving Licences) (Amendment) (No. 2) Regulations 2025, SI 2025/608). The extra 750kg is conditional on the vehicle being zero emission — it does not apply to a diesel van. A vehicle and trailer combination must still stay within 7,000kg (GOV.UK/DVLA, 2025).

Above the category B ceiling you need category C1, which covers 3,500kg to 7,500kg. Drivers who passed their test before 1 January 1997 generally hold C1 under grandfather rights; anyone who passed after has to take the test. You cannot staff a fleet on the assumption your drivers are old enough.

What happens if a van is overloaded?

At the roadside, DVSA issues an immediate prohibition and the vehicle may be immobilised — it does not continue its day. Graduated fixed penalties for excess weight are £100 for an overload of under 10%, £200 from 10% to under 15%, and £300 at 15% and over; examiners allow a 5% leeway before issuing a penalty or prohibition unless the relevant weight is exceeded by a tonne or more, and serious cases go to court rather than being dealt with by fixed penalty (GOV.UK/DVSA, 2019).

The penalty is rarely the worst of it. An overloaded van brakes further, steers worse, destroys tyres and suspension, exposes the business to an insurance argument at exactly the wrong moment, and breaches the terms of the hire agreement. Overloading accounted for the overwhelming majority of prohibitions in DVSA’s van checks (GOV.UK/DVSA, Running a fleet of vans, 2025).

How do you check the real figures for your own van?

  1. 1 Find the VIN / weight plate. It is inside the vehicle — commonly on the door pillar, under the bonnet or on the floor by the driver’s seat — and carries the design gross weight along with the individual axle limits.
  2. 2 Cross-check the V5C. The registration document carries the revenue weight and the mass in service for the vehicle as registered.
  3. 3 Weigh a typical loaded van. Public weighbridges are widely available and this is the only figure that is not an estimate. Weigh it as it leaves on a normal morning, then size the next vehicle from that number rather than a brochure.
  4. 4 Check the axles, not just the total. A van can sit inside its gross weight and still be over on the rear axle if a dense load sits behind the wheels. The plate gives you both limits.

What this calculator will not do

It will not tell you that a vehicle is legal. It is an arithmetic tool working from figures you supply, and it is only ever as good as they are. It does not know your axle loading, it does not know how the load sits, and it does not know what your fitter actually bolted on.

We also do not publish “typical” kerbweights, and that is deliberate. Kerbweight moves by several hundred kilograms between wheelbases, roof heights, trims and conversions of the same model, so a typical figure would be a guess presented as data — and a guess is exactly what puts a van over its plate. Take the numbers from the plate on the vehicle you are actually operating, and if anything is close, weigh it.

Van payload: common questions

How is van payload calculated?

Payload is gross vehicle weight minus kerbweight. Gross vehicle weight — also called maximum authorised mass or design gross weight — is the most the van may legally weigh fully loaded, and it is on the VIN plate in the vehicle. Kerbweight is what the van weighs empty. The difference is everything you are allowed to add: crew, fuel, racking, tools and the load itself.

Does racking reduce a van’s payload?

Yes, directly and permanently. Racking, ply lining, a roof rack, a ladder gantry, a towbar, a tail lift and a second row of seats all add to what the van weighs, and every kilogram of that comes straight out of the payload. So does anything that lives in the van permanently — hand tools, consumables, a compressor, a step ladder. Manufacturer payload figures are quoted before any of it.

How much payload does a passenger use up?

A person plus their workwear and personal kit is typically 75 to 90kg. For scale, the measured mean weight of adults in England is 85.4kg for men and 72.1kg for women (NHS Health Survey for England, 2019 data). A filled crew-cab row of three passengers can therefore take roughly a quarter of a tonne out of a medium van’s payload before any materials go in.

Is payload the same as gross vehicle weight?

No, and confusing the two is the most common mistake. Gross vehicle weight is the total the loaded van may weigh. Payload is what is left of it once the van’s own weight is taken off. A 3,500kg van does not carry 3,500kg — it might carry 1,100kg, and considerably less once it is converted and crewed.

Does a full tank of fuel count against payload?

It depends which weight figure you started from. The type-approval figure, mass in running order, already includes a 75kg driver and a tank filled to at least 90% (Commission Regulation (EU) No 1230/2012). A brochure kerbweight often includes a full tank but no driver. A dry figure includes neither. Diesel weighs roughly 0.84kg a litre, so a 90 litre tank is about 75kg — enough to matter. The calculator asks which basis your figure is on so it does not double-count.

Can I drive a 4,250kg electric van on a car licence?

Yes. A category B licence covers a zero-emission electric or hydrogen goods vehicle with a maximum authorised mass of up to 4,250kg, and the previous additional-training requirement was removed on 10 June 2025 (SI 2025/608; GOV.UK, 2025). The vehicle must be zero emission — a diesel van at that weight still needs category C1. Towing is allowed provided the vehicle and trailer combination stays within 7,000kg.

What happens if you overload a van?

DVSA can issue an immediate prohibition that stops the vehicle where it stands and may immobilise it. Graduated fixed penalties for excess weight run at £100 for an overload under 10%, £200 from 10% to under 15%, and £300 at 15% and over, with serious cases going to court instead (GOV.UK/DVSA, 2019). Overloading also affects braking and handling, can create an insurance argument, and breaches the terms of a hire agreement.

Is this calculator a legal check?

No. It is an estimate built from the figures you enter. The authoritative weights for your vehicle are the ones on its VIN plate, and the only reliable way to know what a loaded van weighs is a weighbridge. Axle limits matter as well as the total — a van can be within its gross weight and still over on an axle if the load sits too far back. If a figure is close, weigh it, and take advice if you are unsure.

Sources

Every regulatory figure above is taken from a named source and checked against the live page on the date shown. Rules change — if you are reading this long after that date, check the source.

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