March 2008, Work Truck - Feature
Re-rating GVWR: Why and How it's Done
By Paul Dexler
If the GVW is rated below 26,000 lbs., the driver does not need a commercial driver’s license.
Normally, ordering a truck is fairly simple. You know what capabilities you need, and you spec the truck accordingly.
If only it were always that simple. Sometimes, outside constraints rise up and bite the ordering process, and a truck must not only be special-ordered, but specially special-ordered.
To accommodate these unique orders, manufacturers have departments set up to handle them, with people and processes in place. At Ford Motor Co., for example, those people and processes are in the Vehicle Special Order (VSO) department.
Cathy Beattie works in Ford's VSO Option Development department. Work Truck spoke with Beattie and with Bill Chew, VSO engineering supervisor. Beattie takes customer requests, and Chew makes sure the modifications requested by fleet customers will actually work.
Cutaway vans are occasionally up-rated for upfit reasons.
Why Re-Rate?
Our first questions delved into the reasons for down- or up-rating a particular chassis model's GVWR. Up-rating is usually requested for a simple reason. Purchasers want as much GVW as they can get and are willing to pay for the upgraded chassis components that will deliver it.
Occasionally, however, purchasers want to up-rate a vehicle because, particularly in the case of multipassenger vehicles such as shuttle buses, going to a higher GVW means that certain federal requirements no longer apply.
Down-rating is different, and, as usual in so many cases, an important factor is money.
Chew noted the 12-percent federal excise tax on trucks rated over 33,000 lbs. GVW. Unless a company needs a Class 8 over-the-road tractor, usually rated at 40,000 lbs. or more, the company will seek a vehicle rated at 33,000 lbs. or less for tax savings.
"Rather than allowing de-rating vehicles by eliminating readily detachable components, government regulations require the front axle and the rear axle capacity to be 33,000 lbs. or less when added together. So that's one reason why the industry as a whole shifted to vehicles that were 33,000 lbs. or less," Chew explained.
According to Chew, that's why designations such as a 34,000 lb. GVWR don't show up on order sheets any more. Trucks are either Class 8, at over 40,000 lbs., or Class 7, under 33,000 lbs. "Unless you absolutely need all that payload, you're going to buy a vehicle that's 33,000 lbs. GVWR or less," he said.
The next breakpoint in ordering commercial vehicles comes at the 26,000 lbs. GVW level. For vehicles at or below that weight, a commercial driver's license (CDL) is no longer required. Thus, drivers are much easier to find and less expensive to retain.
"You don't get too many vehicles in that gap between 26,000 and 33,000 lbs. any more because it's difficult to find drivers with a CDL. There's a professional driver shortage in the U.S. That's another reason why if you traditionally purchased vehicles at 28,000 lbs., today you're going to go with 26,000 lbs.," Chew said.