Snap election delays mega truck trial

Britain's snap election appears to have saved the country's road users from the introduction of the mega truck - a type of giant articulated HGV measuring up to 25.25 metres long and weighing up to 60 tons.

According to Local Transport Today, a freight company hoping to put 1,000 of the giant vehicles on British roads was close to gaining approval for the trial before the election was called.

The vehicle comprises a 4.5 metre tractor unit pulling two trailer - one of 8.75 metres and the other 12 metres long. The trial has been previously rejected by the Labour government in 2006. A further application was rejected in 2008 after the DfT assessed the likely impacts of mega trucks.

Mega truck vehicles are permitted in Sweden, Finland, Denmark and the Netherlands. However, cross-border and international use of these vehicles remains forbidden.

Proponents of the mega truck claim these giant lorries have a positive effect on the environment and road safety, but studies suggest the effect of widespread use of mega trucks would make road freight cheaper and thereby undermine efforts to shift goods from road to rail. Furthermore, there are serious concerns that the substantial weight and size would increase road danger.

Currently, the maximum permitted length for a lorry on British roads is 18.25 metres with a total combined weight of 40 tons. But the new mega trucks would be 6.5 metres longer and 20 tons heavier. In comparison, a Boeing 737-300 carrying its maximum 127 passengers weighs 57.6 tons at take-off, making it lighter than a mega-truck.

The Environmental Transport Association (ETA) is part of a pan-European coalition of organisations against the widespread introduction of the mega trucks. A spokesperson explained that the mega truck represents an unacceptable risk to other road users: “One in five fatal road collisions involves a heavy goods vehicle and a mega truck is like an articulated lorries on steroids – simply too big, too heavy and too dangerous in many situations.”

In London, 55 per cent of all bicycle deaths between 2008 and 2013 involved a heavy-goods vehicle. Despite HGVs accounting for only four per cent of London’s road miles; 20 per cent of pedestrian fatalities in 2013 involved an HGV in the city.

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