No Mega Trucks
Tell your local MEPs that the UK does not want megatrucks imposed by European Commission.
Please take the opportunity to ask your new MEPs, from the different parties, whether they will oppose mega truck (25 metres long and 60 tonnes weight).
While the UK Government's rejected trials of 60-tonne 25.5 metre lorries on UK roads in June 2008, if the European Parliament allows longer heavier lorries to travel across member states, it will mean in the medium term that mega trucks would come to the UK because of pressure from the road haulage industry. Even the European Commission research of January 2009 admitted that mega trucks are more dangerous than existing HGVs.
Freight on Rail proved that the European Commission (EC) research published last year was flawed so further research is now being undertaken which we are monitoring closely. There is a huge lobby pushing for mega trucks which would be fifty per cent longer and a third heavier than existing HGVs to be allowed for cross border operations. A new Transport Commissioner Vice President Siim Kallas of Estonia was appointed last November so it is crucial that he and his cabinet are made aware of the extent of the opposition to mega trucks.
We need your support in making sure that the MEPs realise that public opinion is opposed to massive lorries. Aslef opinion polling in both 2005 and 2007 showed that over 75% of people oppose LHVs.
