What Load Rating Do I Need for My Site Traffic?

Match the mat to the machine

Hiring ground protection without knowing your load requirements is like buying tyres without checking the weight of your car. You either pay for capacity you will never use, or worse, put down mats that fail under load halfway through the job. Rutted ground, stuck vehicles, site delays. All avoidable.

The question is simple: what is driving or walking across your site, and how heavy is it?

Know your vehicles

Before you look at products, look at your traffic. Different vehicles exert vastly different ground pressures, even if they look similar in size.

Pedestrians and wheelchairs are the lightest. A crowd of people on wet grass will churn it to mud within hours, but a single person exerts less than 0.1 tonne. The challenge here is coverage and surface finish, not raw load capacity.

Cars, 4x4s, and transit vans weigh between 1.5 and 3.5 tonnes loaded. Light enough that basic ground protection can handle them, but heavy enough to leave deep ruts in soft ground within a few passes.

Rigid lorries and tippers typically run from 7.5 to 32 tonnes fully loaded. These are serious vehicles. You need proper trackway rated for the weight, particularly if the ground is soft or wet.

Articulated HGVs max out at 44 tonnes in the UK. That is a lot of weight concentrated on relatively small tyre contact patches. The mat beneath needs to spread that load wide.

Mobile cranes and heavy plant can exceed 100 tonnes. A 150-tonne crawler crane needs ground protection that matches its weight, not just the access road leading to it. Outrigger pads and crane platforms are a specialised requirement.

The product lineup: what handles what

GT Trax ground protection spans the full range, from pedestrian walkways to 150-tonne rated trackway. Here is how they line up against your traffic.

WalkOvers (0.75 tonne). Pedestrian only. These rubber mats, made from recycled tyres, are designed for foot traffic, wheelchairs, and the occasional wheelbarrow. Do not drive a van over them. They are grass protection mats first and foremost, with an anti-slip surface and edging ramps for safe, inclusive access. Perfect for festival walkways, marquee entrances, and construction site pedestrian routes.

EuroMats (30 tonne). The lightest vehicle-rated option. EuroMats handle cars, vans, minibuses, and light commercial vehicles comfortably. At 2.4 metres by 1.2 metres and just 12 millimetres thick, they are quick to lay by hand and cost-effective per square metre. Ideal for temporary car parks, event access routes for catering vans, and light vehicle compounds where the ground is reasonably firm.

PowerTrax 20 (38 tonne). The middleweight. Rated for 38 tonnes, these mats cover most rigid lorries, tippers, and construction vehicles. They are a modern alternative to traditional timber bog mats: lighter, easier to handle, and fitted with ground securing pins that stop them shifting under traffic. A solid choice for construction access roads and delivery routes where the vehicles are substantial but not at the extreme end.

TuffTrak (150 tonne). Heavy-duty and versatile. The Chevron traction surface gives excellent grip in wet conditions, and the 150-tonne rating means HGVs, mobile cranes, and heavy plant can cross without issue. TuffTrak is widely used for construction site entrances, festival back-of-house vehicle routes, and anywhere that needs a single surface to handle mixed traffic from vans up to fully loaded artics.

PowerTrax 40 (150 tonne). Rubber heavy-duty mats with the same 150-tonne capacity as TuffTrak but a different profile. At 2.4 metres by 3 metres and 40 millimetres thick, these are large-format panels that cover ground fast. They work well for temporary car parks on soft fields, crane pads, and event sites where articulated lorries and stage trucks need reliable access.

PowerTrax 60 (150 tonne). The top of the range. Aluminium construction, 150-tonne rated, with a market-leading interlocking connection system. These are the mats you specify when the loads are extreme and the ground conditions are poor. Crane operations, heavy-lift projects, and major construction access roads. The 60 millimetre profile and 3-metre by 1.88-metre footprint provide maximum load distribution.

Quick reference table

Ground conditions matter as much as weight

A 30-tonne lorry crossing dry, compacted gravel might not need heavy mats at all. The same lorry on waterlogged clay after a week of rain needs the full 150-tonne rating just to stay above the surface. Load rating is only half the equation.

Soft ground reduces the effective capacity of any mat. Waterlogged soil offers almost no support beneath the panel, meaning the mat itself must bridge the load across a wider area. If your site is wet, sloping, or recently disturbed, go up a product tier. EuroMats on a dry summer field might be fine for delivery vans, but if the same field is saturated in November, PowerTrax 20 or TuffTrak is a safer bet.

When in doubt, ask

Most site managers can list their vehicles but not their weights. If you are unsure, check the vehicle plate or the hire documentation. A fully loaded 18-tonne rigid is very different to the same vehicle running empty at 8 tonnes.

Still uncertain? Contact our team. We will help you match the right ground protection to your traffic, your ground conditions, and your budget. Getting it right before the mats arrive costs nothing. Getting it wrong once the vehicles are stuck costs a great deal more.

Products mentioned in this article

• WalkOvers: pedestrian-only rubber mats for foot traffic and wheelchair access
• EuroMats: light vehicle ground protection for cars, vans, and minibuses
• PowerTrax 20: mid-range track mats rated for rigid lorries and tippers
• TuffTrak: heavy-duty 150-tonne mats with Chevron grip surface
• PowerTrax 40: large-format rubber mats rated for HGVs and cranes
• PowerTrax 60: aluminium interlocking mats for the heaviest loads

You may also be interested in

• How Much Does Ground Protection Hire Cost?: understand what affects ground protection pricing so you can budget accurately.