Mega Trucks

[mushroom25]

Draft EU legislation is to be discussed and voted on in the coming weeks, which would provide for the operation of 60T 82'0" long mega trucks across the EU, including the UK.

the compelling argument for this is that 2 megatrucks can carry the payload of 3 of the present 44T variety, thus providing a road network capacity increase. They also provide for up 25% in efficiency savings for trunk freight journeys.

Against that, the efficiency saving will make road haulage (particularly for long journeys) more financially attractive, which will result in wholesale modal shift of freight back to the roads, thus eliminating the capacity advantage. Plus the sheer size of these trucks makes maneuvering them in towns very difficult, with the obvious effects on safety and environmental concerns.

more reading here:-
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2542491/Overtake-peril-Monster-Megatrucks-83ft-long-roll-British-roads-rules-considered-EU.html?ITO=1490&ns_mchannel=rss&;ns_campaign=1490
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/road-and-rail-transport/10582519/Mega-trucks-could-enter-Britain-under-EU-plans.html
http://www.cer.be/index.php?eID=tx_nawsecuredl&u=0&file=uploads/media//FINAL_CER_MegatrucksBrochure_WEB.pdf&;t=1390316793&hash=2602f7657680cb599da97690f30f7bd662ca5908

Are the environmental and safety concerns (not to mention the expected modal shift) an acceptable price to pay to maintain the price of bread at £1 a loaf?

[anotheoldgit]

Perhaps the EU should then give the UK a massive grant so as to improve our road system.

But I would rather see more fright carried by rail and get some congestion off our roads, we are a small island not a continent.

[ToraToraTora]

so the whole plan is about the price of a loaf is it? Right oh! You started off with a sensible premise then spoilt it at the end with a partisan evaluation of the whole scheme based on an irrelevance. Genius!

[mikey4444]

I am not sure of the exact details here but didn't the max. weight of trucks increase over the 80's and 90's ? So much so, that all those Motorway bridges, etc are now wearing out at a much faster rate than they were initially designed to ?

The danger with this is that before very long we will see that it won't remain at 2 mega trucks for 3 ordinary trucks. There will be more and more of these mega trucks, and our roads will end up carrying much heavier payloads than they do at present, thus wearing out much quicker.

Wouldn't it be cheaper to reopen up all the local Bakeries that have closed down, so that we can buy a loaf of bread that doesn't need gargantuan trucks to transport them to our shops. My local Co-op has milk deliveries in a huge truck that b*ggers up the village every morning, and the milk comes from a bottling plant 140 miles away ! God knows how many cows the truck must pass on its way here.

[Buenchico]

Longer trucks have a better safety record:
http://www.chalmers.se/en/news/Pages/Long-trucks-are-involved-in-fewer-severe-crashes-than-short-ones.aspx
and many UK road safety campaigners believe that the current length restriction on lorries makes them inherently unsafe as longer cab units are required in order to introduce a crumple zone to the front of trucks. (Changes to the cab design, made possible by allowing longer lorries on our roads, would also enable the better positioning of mirrors on the sides of the cab, giving drivers a better view of vehicles alongside them).

[sunny-dave]

Oh great - so the HGV lobby, which is already shattering our road system, whilst paying a pittance in road tax, will get the green light for more destruction at my expense.

Bloody Brilliant.

[mushroom25]

mikey, the question here is one of scale. a local bakery cannot hope to compete with a megaplant that can churn out many multiples of production of any local facility - so notwithstanding the cost of transport, the economics of local production just don't stack up.

[sunny-dave]

I just can't believe that anyone thinks that even bigger trucks make any sense.

It's the HGVs which are smashing the roads to pieces - and not paying anything like their fair share of the cost of providing/maintaining the road system. All HGVs (whether UK or foreign) should pay a properly calculated VED which reflects their damage to the road network. Actually perhaps a 'per mile' usage tax, which corresponds to their axle weight, would be better.

Either way the maths is frightening :

Road damage rises as the square of axle weight - a car has an axle weight of about half a ton, a 44 ton HGV has an axle weight of up to 10 tons.

This means that if a maximum size HGV was paying the same economic cost for the use of the road as a car, it would pay well around 400x the VED

Average road tax for a car (say) £150 - so the proper cost for a juggernaut HGV should be well over £60,000 - but they pay around £1,800 .... so ... take the monsters off the road until they pay their proper share of the costs.

Whilst we are at it, we could also perhaps address the economic costs of the abysmal standard of HGV driving and the danger and inconvenience caused to other road users by tailgating and 'elephant racing'. Perhaps a government minister should get out of their blue-lighted limo and spend a day driving him/herself back and forward along the length of the A14 to see just how dangerous and anti-social many HGV drivers are ...

[mikey4444]

Not sure I agree mushroom. All the local Bakeries in Supermarkets seems to be very popular. I realise that they probably buy in the flour, etc but it has to be better than clogging up our roads needlessly. I can appreciate that bananas, oranges, lemons, etc can't be had locally but I still can't see why other stuff that we need everyday can't be had without carting them halfway across the country. In Wales milk bottling units, called Creameries have been closed. The milk that comes from Welsh farms, now goes over the border to England, put in plastic bottles and then is brought back over the border again, to sell in shops near the original farms.

The red braces and pointy-heads may tell us that it makes economic sense, but, to quote Mandy Rice Davies, they would wouldn't they ?

[jake-the-peg]

Germans voted No in 2007

We said No in 2005



I don't think the road haulage association will get it approved this time either - but it's not going to stop them trying is it?

[mushroom25]

// All the local Bakeries in Supermarkets seems to be very popular.//

indeed. but an in-store bakery, as part of a greater whole, has almost no overheads.

[Fudiot]

It is all about "Growth".... that word that keeps cropping up in every news bulletin. A company may make billions year after year but unless there is "growth" they are failing! You have "growth" in everything except any governments ability to solve the problems that "growth" creates. Traffic has grown and so has the population. The government would have you believe that is good for the country because of extra tax... yer right, so how come hospital, schools, housing and roads are buckling under the weight of "Growth" We are a small island and traffic and population will sink us.

[ToraToraTora]

personally I'd tax the trucks off the road and get them using rail again, lets' restore our once comprehensive rail system, vandalised by Beeching.

[mushroom25]

//lets' restore our once comprehensive rail system//

here's a report on a recent rail infrastructure opening, cost £41m for 1km of single track railway.

http://www.eadt.co.uk/news/felixstowe_work_starts_on_new_rail_line_to_take_containers_off_the_a14_1_1497487

is this really making best use of public money, £41m for 1km of railway for a handful of trains a day, when £1.5bn will buy 25 miles of upgraded A14 that everybody can use?

[ToraToraTora]

That price cannot be realistic they must be further complications. With mass track laying the price will come down dramatically.

[Hopkirk]

Ridiculous.

I drive big trucks, and it is hard enough pulling onto a busy roundabout from being stationary as it is. Make them even longer and heavier and it will be impossible.

[mushroom25]

//That price cannot be realistic they must be further complications. With mass track laying the price will come down dramatically. //

physical track laying is not much more expensive than equivalent road building; the expense comes in the form of the signaling and other safety systems that are now mandated for all new railway infrastructure schemes.

here's another example
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-south-scotland-25035749

[alexinder123]

Mega trucks are best when it comes to Logistics & supply chain management | Truck service. http://www.trunkpool.com
They are undoubtedly best friends of truckers.