Guides
Written from the yard, not a rental desk.
Ace has run its own delivery fleet across London & the South East since 2019. These are the things we have learned keeping vans on the road and rounds covered — licensing, emissions, downtime, and how to size a fleet for peak without paying for it in February.
Compliance & operations · 5 min
Do you need an O licence for a 3.5 tonne van?
When a goods vehicle operator's licence is required in the UK, why most 3.5t delivery vans do not need one, and the international exception that catches operators out.
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Compliance & operations · 5 min
What a category B licence actually lets you drive
The 3,500kg limit on a standard UK car licence, what it means for delivery vans, trailer entitlements, and the pre-1997 grandfather rights that still matter.
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Compliance & operations · 6 min
The real cost of a van off the road
A van that cannot run costs far more than the hire rate you saved. How to work out the true daily cost of downtime on a delivery contract, and what to do about it.
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Compliance & operations · 6 min
Peak season fleet planning: how to size Q4 without carrying it all year
How delivery operators size a fleet for the Q4 surge, when to commit, and how to avoid paying for vehicles through January that you only needed in December.
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Compliance & operations · 7 min
Rent or buy? Fleet economics for a growing delivery operation
The real trade-offs between renting and buying delivery vans: cash, flexibility, depreciation, maintenance risk and contract length, for operators scaling a fleet.
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We have run these routes ourselves since 2019. Ask us directly — you will get a straight answer, not a sales pitch.