What is the difference between kerb weight and gross vehicle weight?
Kerb weight and gross vehicle weight (GVW) measure two different things — one is how heavy the car is empty, and the other is the maximum it's legally allowed to weigh when loaded.
The key difference:
- Kerb weight — the weight of the vehicle as it sits ready to drive, including a full tank of fuel and standard equipment, but without passengers, cargo, or any additional accessories
- Gross vehicle weight (GVW), also called maximum authorised mass (MAM) — the maximum total weight the vehicle is legally permitted to reach once you add passengers, cargo, and any towing nose weight, as set by the manufacturer
Why the difference matters:
The gap between kerb weight and GVW is effectively your available payload — how much you can legally add in people and belongings before you're overloaded. Overloading a vehicle isn't just a safety issue; it can affect insurance validity, MOT compliance, and in the case of vans or larger vehicles, which licence category is required to drive it legally. Both figures are usually listed on the vehicle's V5C logbook or manufacturer specification sheet, and it's worth checking both rather than assuming kerb weight is "close enough" for load-planning purposes.