The Threat of Mega Trucks

8th October 2007

This month the Secretary of State for Transport will receive a report outlining whether the Government should allow trials of longer and heavier lorries (LHVs) on the UK's roads. The option most favoured by the road freight industry is 25.5 metres long and 60 tonnes in weight which would be fifty per cent longer and over a third heavier than the current maximum limit of 44 tonne lorries.

Freight on Rail believes that these vehicles are totally unsuited to our roads on a number of safety and environmental grounds and should therefore be rejected on the following grounds.

• LHVs will mean more lorry-miles not fewer because demand will be stimulated if transport becomes cheaper at point of use
• Seriously damage rail freight, a low carbon option i., resulting in major modal shift from rail to road leading to more road congestion and carbon emissions as lorries replace trains
• LHVs have safety dangers due to their size and lack of
  manoeuvrability
• The claimed environmental benefits rely on very high levels of load utilisation - in excess of that routinely achieved within the haulage sector. At lower levels of utilisation the environmental performance is worse
• Restricting LHVs to dual-carriageways and motorways simply will not work as there is no mechanism to keep them to this. The reality is that these vehicles will need local access to distribution hubs
• The poor record of compliance with existing road regulations needs to be factored into any decision on increasing the existing weight and lengths of HGVs
• A national Opinion Poll (NOP) survey in August 2007 shows that 75% of the general public is opposed to the introduction of 'super trucks - known as LHVs - onto UK Roads. The survey further revealed that 80% of the general public favoured the Government encouraging more freight to
  go by rail instead of by road Freight on Rail campaigner

Philippa Edmunds said, "At a time when the Government is committed to reducing carbon emissions it seems perverse to
allow trials of vehicles which will decimate intermodal rail freight and significant bulk flows when rail freight has a much better environmental record than road haulage 2.. The fast route to reducing transport's carbon footprint is to increase rail freight and that is why we are campaigning for longer heavier trains instead".

She continued, “Why is the Government considering trials of super trucks, which in effect would be traveling warehouses, on our congested road network when many HGVs are not following existing road regulations ranging from exceeding speed, weight and driving hours limits thus putting the public at extra risk.

 
Notes to editors

The scale of these vehicles,
Range from 25.5 metres to 31 metres long with weights of 60 to 84 tonnes, is a step change from previous increases; the 60 tonne 25.25 metre super truck (the most favoured option) is the same weight of a Challenger tank and the length of a competition swimming pool. 

Access issues
The safety and social implications of allowing LHVs onto non motorway/dual carriageway roads to access transhipment depots must not be underestimated. This is a massive issue as vehicles of this scale are totally unsuited to non dual carriageway roads, as highlighted by German trials findings.

However, unlike other European countries, the UK allows all vehicles to operate on any road and at any time unless specifically prohibited from doing so.

Road safety concerns
The impact of these vehicles if they are involved in an accident will be proportionately greater because of their extra weight, with severe implications on braking distances, stability, manoeuvrability at roundabout for example, possible jack-knifing, overtaking and reversing complications. The DfT Focus on Freight Dec 2006 stated that because of their size and weight, when they are involved in accidents the level of injury tends to be higher with HGVs, (this is at the existing weight and length limits); In 2005, HGVs were twice as likely to be involved in fatal accidents as cars 3.. For example on major non built up single carriage roads a staggering 76 per cent of articulated HGVs exceeded their 40 mph limit by 6mph on average, with 28 per cent exceeding the limit by more than 10 mph in 2005. Even Bendy buses, which are 18 metres long, cause more than twice as many injuries as any other bus 4..

Road congestion benefits of rail
Rail freight can act as a freight by-pass and offers an important alternative low carbon mode to road.  ie An average freight train can remove 50 HGVs from our roads with an aggregates train removing 120 HGVs 5..

LHVs would undermine rail freight and lead to modal shift to road
Such vehicles would cause a substantial proportion of  intermodal rail freight and significant quantities of bulk flows of freight to shift from rail to our congested road network and thus increase harmful emissions 6.. If LHVs were not introduced, intermodal rail freight is forecasted to grow by over 60 per cent over the next 10 years.

Rail also provides an alternative to road at a time when there is uncertainty about energy sources, road reliability is worsening and rail freight provides a low carbon option to help ameliorate climate change.

Need to improve efficiency of existing road operations
We do not believe that the claimed efficiency benefits of larger vehicles are likely to be realized, borne out by the current lack of efficiency in current road transportation. There is empty running on around 25- 30 per cent of existing lorries while load factors have actually been falling recently. In 2005, Heriot Watt University noted that on only 30 per cent of the distance that 44 tonne vehicles travel with a load were they fully laden in weight terms 7.. Lower emissions per tonne carried by LHVs would therefore only be achieved at higher loading capacities than are routinely achieved with HGVs. Therefore at lower levesl levels of utilisation the environmental performance would be worse. German trials found that utilization below 77 per cent in LHVs used more fuel and therefore more emissions than in HGVs 8..
 

1. Freight trains emit five times less carbon dioxide per tonne mile than road haulage
 
2. Recent research by HerriotWattUniversity for EWS shows that a tonne of freight moved by rail creates five times less Carbon Dioxide than the same tonne being moved on the roads. Rail freight is also up to fifteen times better than road in terms of other noxious emissions.
 
3. Focus on Freight December 2006 chart 5.2b Deaths/KSIs in accidents involving HGVs per million km travelled
 
4. From the Evening Standard June7th 2007
 
5. Network Rail 2007
 
6. EWS report and analysis by Oxera May 2007 findings that nearly half of existing rail freight traffic in commodities such as aggregates will transfer to road if LHVs were permitted.
 
7. Transport Research  The economic and environmental benefits of increasing maximum truck weight Professor McKinnon January 2005
 
8. Umweltbundesamt 2007 Hinterfrundpapier, Langer und schwere auf Deutchland Strassen: Tragen Riesen-LkW su einer nachhaltigen Mobilitat bei? www.umwelbundesamt.de