THREAT OF MEGA TRUCKS COURTESY OF THE EU

RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: november/december 2011 :: RMTnews 17 Mega trucks of 25 metres and up to 60 tonnes will come to Britain’s roads by default over time if European Commission proposals to allow cross-border mega-truck traffic are allowed. Mega trucks, which would be 50 per cent longer and a third heavier than existing HGVs, will result in more road fatalities, more road damage, more congestion and more pollution. The European Commission's own research found that mega trucks are individually more dangerous than standard HGVs. Mega trucks would not only undermine traditional bulk rail freight but would decimate consumer rail freight which has grown for the eighth consecutive year despite the recession and increased its market share. This emerging market has seen 29 per cent growth in the past five years and is forecast to grow by eight per cent each year for the next 20 years under current market conditions. However, if mega trucks get the go-head and a lorry can carry a 20-foot and a 40-foot trailer, rail freight will lose its market advantage of being able to carry two containers on a rail wagon. Rail freight produces 70 per cent less carbon dioxide emissions than the equivalent road journey and is therefore also more energy efficient; a gallon of diesel will carry a tonne of freight 246 miles by rail as opposed to 88 miles by road. Road congestion is now costing around £24 billion a year according to the Freight Transport Association based on government figures, so it would be mad to introduce mega trucks which will not only be slower to negotiate junctions thus increasing road congestion, but will also force trainloads of freight back onto the roads. The promoters will claim that these vehicles will be restricted to motorways, dual carriageways and major roads, but trying to restrict mega trucks in this way will not work. The reality is that the road haulage industry consistently opposes HGV access restrictions and there is no mechanism to control these vehicles which will need local road access to distribution hubs not on motorways or or dual carriage- ways. Mega trucks have dangers of their own due to their size and lack of manoeuvrability Rail freight is safer than long-distance road freight using motorway and A roads, as HGVs are over three times more likely to be involved in fatal accidents than cars due to a combination of size, lack of proper enforcement of drivers hours, vehicle overloading and differing foreign operating standards. The cost to adapt road infrastructure to cater for mega trucks would be prohibitive. HGVs are up to 160,000 times more damaging to road surfaces than the average car; some of the heaviest road-repair costs are therefore almost exclusively attributable to the heaviest vehicles. Austria, which is a small country, has estimated adaption costs of five billion euros. A proposed revision to directive 96/53, which controls the maximum weight and dimensions of HGVs, to let consenting member states allow cross-border mega-truck traffic could undermine the single market, as the road-haulage industry will claim that it was being disadvantaged if mega trucks are not allowed on UK roads. The case for longer lorries relies on the same questionable presumption used in the past to justify each increase in lorry dimensions: that there would be fewer but bigger trucks on the roads. But there is no direct evidence that previous increases in dimensions of lorries have led to improvements in average payloads or a reduction in empty running. Currently, one in four HGVs is driving around empty, and DfT research shows that almost 50 per cent of lorries are constrained neither by volume nor weight. The danger is that mega trucks could become travelling warehouses with the same amount of freight being carried further, resulting in more carbon emissions, more congestion and more exposure to road accidents, as well as undermining the low carbon- safe alternatives Please lobby your MP and MEP to oppose mega trucks. More details on www.freightonrail.org.uk THREAT OF MEGA TRUCKS COURTESY OF THE EU Philippa Edmunds of Freight on Rail warns that European Commission proposals for mega trucks will impose them on Britain by default