robinhood_1984:
I’ve always considered this to be a big factor in the demise of the British international work. The company I worked at before moving to Canada were all 6x2 baring one truck and I was turned away many a time in Germany for a load because my extra axle meant I could not load what they’d wanted to load and still be within 40 tons. Yet a 4x2 for a British company is then just as problematic when it comes to UK only work so you have an issue where unless the firm in question only does international work, or only does UK work they’re stuck with equipment that is an issue one way or the other. Obviously not every load is maximum weight but the issue would arise often enough to make it an obstacle. Also add to the equation that no one in the UK has 4m high trailers unless they’re bought for the express purpose of going abroad, then that 4m trailer could often be an issue within the UK where many loads require 4.2 or 4.4 etc and a 4.2 and especially a 4.4 are absolutely useless in Europe. British haulage is in a position where it has to focus on one thing or another but struggles to operate in both because of equipment. The same is not the case in Germany, Poland or Romania where anything used on domestic work can at the click of a finger be sent over the border and to any other country. Once much of the money disappeared from international work and most British firms who did some European work but also UK work just focused entirely on UK only work and speced their fleets for that work, they lost all ability to ever re-enter European work again without re-equipping with suitable trucks and trailers, which isn’t going to happen.
The flip side of course is that foreign trucks in the UK are all going to be restricted by their trailer height and gross weight so should cabotage be abolished like the EU and UK governments are so desperate to be the case, those trucks will be at an operational disadvantage, should they seek to operate within the law. In reality we all know a Pole, Czech or Dutch truck on five axles wouldn’t lose a moments sleep about running internally in the UK at 44+ tons because the likelihood of ever getting caught is very small. In North America I usually have to run across numerous weigh bridges each day, in the UK I don’t think I was ever weighed by Vosa once.
Ever heard of paragraphs? lol