They are over 25 metres long and have up to 60 tonnes of weight, 2 tonnes more than a passenger Boeing 737-300. They are the “monster trucks”, also known as longer and heavier vehicles, mega-trucks or Eurocombi, the vehicles that the profile industry is slowly trying to impose for heavy weight or dangerous goods transport to the detriment of trains.
According to data from Allianz pro Schiene Association, we find out that in Germany only 28 road transport companies have had a total of 36 mega-trucks for testing of which 28 vehicles are in exploitation. Figures are not that high considering the fact that the German Federal Government had considered 400 such vehicles to be tested. However, an analysis of the same Allianz pro Schiene Association referring to the length of the road network which permits the traffic of vehicles in Europe shows that the network had been extended by 1,800 km in the first year of tests 2012-2013 which is not good news at all.
The acceptance of mega-trucks in cross-border transport generated a series of disputes between the European Commission and the European Parliament at the middle of last year. The reason for these disputes was the provision included in Directive 53/96 which allows member states to accept their territory being transited by mega-trucks if the infrastructure of the respective state can sustain the operation of these vehicles. The European Parliament is against this provision and wants it amended. The latest data show that in 2013 the Directive which sets the weight and the length of heavy road vehicles will be reviewed.
Currently, the use of modular heavy-weight trucks is already permitted in Finland and Sweden and is tested in Denmark, the Low Countries and seven German lands Schleswig-Holstein, Hamburg, Lower Saxony, Hesse, Thuringia, Saxony and Bavaria.
Most of the people in Europe are aware of the danger and high level of pollution ge-nerated by the presence of these vehicles on roads and oppose to their acceptance by national governments. Therefore, 88% of the Belgians are against mega-trucks on roads, as well as 69% of Poles, 77% of Germans, 80% of Swiss , 81% of the French also say “no” and 75% of the people in Great Britain. The No Mega Trucks Association has launched a campaign with the same name which aims at signalling the multiple dangers generated by the presence of mega-trucks in Europe, even though they are currently operated only in the Scandinavian Peninsula and tested in Western Europe.
The fact that LHVs – under ideal test conditions – can save fuel and cut the number of journeys is just a naïve calculation that does not add up in the everyday world of nation-wide transportation. As a series of railway freight operators in Western Europe, next to different authorities involved and infrastructure managers test the efficiency of longer trains and higher axle loads for increasing freight transport in the Eurasian platform, the mega-trucks seem useless.
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