Whats going on here?
I see that there is a difficulty with running at 16’ +. the last few weeks I’ve been running at 16’ 5" with roof trusses on board. yes its a pain a lot of the time with bridges, cables and the odd birthday banner hanging down low. The way I see it is no matter what you are driving car to DD trailer you need to watch your height. If the attitude of I don’t like driving with high loads don’t shake we are going to end up with everything on trains then specialist companies charging a fortune coz a HGV driver don’t like that height!!
the French run higher trailers than 4.0m
we can all run mega spec
at least we’ll get 100 cu metres loading
whats the cube of UK decker
what about car transporters?
car transporters can run at 4 metres
just not with 11/12 cars
autologic.co.uk/european-ope … nl-profile
chilistrucker:
what about car transporters?
It would mean the end of those multi deck ones, have to stick to the type they use in Europe
chris mc:
Whats going on here?
I see that there is a difficulty with running at 16’ +. the last few weeks I’ve been running at 16’ 5" with roof trusses on board. yes its a pain a lot of the time with bridges, cables and the odd birthday banner hanging down low. The way I see it is no matter what you are driving car to DD trailer you need to watch your height. If the attitude of I don’t like driving with high loads don’t shake we are going to end up with everything on trains then specialist companies charging a fortune coz a HGV driver don’t like that height!!
The problem is more that there’s too much opposition to longer trucks.4 metres high would be ok with 25+ metre long trucks.
Santa:
Maybe we should go back to 38 tonnes as well and 24 pallet trailers; that would create even more jobs… Or would it just make rail freight more appealing?
Well, yes, it is true. If you reduced the payload, then more vehicles would be required to move the same amount of goods, this would require more drivers and as our old friend the Law of Supply and Demand tells us, this would push wages upwards.
I doubt it would push a great deal more freight onto the railways for the simple reason that they are no good for the vast majority of freight movements in the UK, not least because the loading gauge on the majority of the network is not sufficient to allow movement of containers.
Harry Monk:
Santa:
Maybe we should go back to 38 tonnes as well and 24 pallet trailers; that would create even more jobs… Or would it just make rail freight more appealing?Well, yes, it is true. If you reduced the payload, then more vehicles would be required to move the same amount of goods, this would require more drivers and as our old friend the Law of Supply and Demand tells us, this would push wages upwards.
I doubt it would push a great deal more freight onto the railways for the simple reason that they are no good for the vast majority of freight movements in the UK, not least because the loading gauge on the majority of the network is not sufficient to allow movement of containers.
Just check out the amount of rail freight running through North London across the bridge over the North Circular if you believe that.The government are’nt opposing it for our benefit it’s because they know that LHV’s will be part of the package.
It would be cheaper to put a few more trucks on the road than rebuild all the bridges, tunnels and tramlines although France as already mentioned do run a higher truck than the rest of Euroland. But there are already too many trucks on the road so the practice of load sharing, proper planning and the end of JIT is necessary.
I followed a large UK haulier yesterday and was thinking how primitive the sliding skelly is and how dangerous it looks, when safety is all about a low centre of gravity, we still run old engineering practices with a box sat at least a foot higher than it needs to be.
Emons run double deckers and keep within the 4.0m limits
H.M Government doesn’t have to fight any EU legislation governing the running height of our vehicles. Mike Penning MP the latest to be Minister of Transport is actually in charge of Vosa all is required is for him to inform the jobsworths,no doubt already at Totem Timber obtaining their 4 metre poles to back off,forget it…don’t enforce.Just like happens in every other country in Europe with legislation they don’t approve of.
bring it on 4m trailers means more work for the little man thats struggling imo
It won’t happen here, Tesco won’t like it!
Armagedon:
H.M Government doesn’t have to fight any EU legislation governing the running height of our vehicles. Mike Penning MP the latest to be Minister of Transport is actually in charge of Vosa all is required is for him to inform the jobsworths,no doubt already at Totem Timber obtaining their 4 metre poles to back off,forget it…don’t enforce.Just like happens in every other country in Europe with legislation they don’t approve of.
from what i read of post
standardise all new-build semi-trailer heights to 4m
It’s new trailers. not the ending of running over 4m?
and also Spain run 4.2m trailers?
I’m running DD 16ft every day to Penrith and they are full to top with cages on both decks but not nice in windy conditions
Wheel Nut:
It would be cheaper to put a few more trucks on the road than rebuild all the bridges, tunnels and tramlines although France as already mentioned do run a higher truck than the rest of Euroland. But there are already too many trucks on the road so the practice of load sharing, proper planning and the end of JIT is necessary.I followed a large UK haulier yesterday and was thinking how primitive the sliding skelly is and how dangerous it looks, when safety is all about a low centre of gravity, we still run old engineering practices with a box sat at least a foot higher than it needs to be.
Emons run double deckers and keep within the 4.0m limits
Those sliders were last checked for safety when they were running at 32t gross. They are now 44t. & on any sharp bend when freighted are unstable to say the least, especially when wet.
Yes, there is so much Health & Safety around these days, I’m just amazed that it doesn’t extend to towing 16’ tall trailers around or having nine hours off at night.
Armagedon:
H.M Government doesn’t have to fight any EU legislation governing the running height of our vehicles. Mike Penning MP the latest to be Minister of Transport is actually in charge of Vosa all is required is for him to inform the jobsworths,no doubt already at Totem Timber obtaining their 4 metre poles to back off,forget it…don’t enforce.Just like happens in every other country in Europe with legislation they don’t approve of.
That’s right - just like the WTD.
Harry Monk:
Yes, there is so much Health & Safety around these days, I’m just amazed that it doesn’t extend to towing 16’ tall trailers around or having nine hours off at night.
It looks like 4.8 metres high and 2.5 metres wide is hardly a safe bet though 
parliament.uk/briefingpapers … -00654.pdf
1986 (SI 1986/1078), as amended, are as follows:
And this document has probably already been approved!
Weight
44 tonnes for lorries with 6 axles with maximum axle weight limit of 10.5 tonnes
40 tonnes for lorries with 5 or 6 axles with maximum axle weight limit of 11.5 tonnes
Length
12 metres for a rigid vehicle
16.5 metres for an articulated vehicle if the articulated combination can turn within a concentric radii of 12.5 metres and 5.3 metres; otherwise 15.5 metres
18.75 metres for a road train (a combination of a lorry and a trailer)
Width
2.5 metres excluding driving mirrors
refrigerated vehicles are permitted to be 2.6 metres wide to allow for the extra thickness of the insulation
Height
no limit except that any articulated vehicle over 35 tonnes may not exceed 4.2 metres
limeyphil:
we are supposed to be trading with all EU countries on equal terms. that’s why we have tachographs. so it’s only right to have the same maximum load space rules in all member states. Fuel duty should be the same as well.
As long as we are on equal terms shouldn’t we have the same speed limits for type of road, 80kph on motorways for example, be allowed to run double trailers like the French or super road trains like the Scandinavians and the Dutch?
As much as we have the same Driving regs each country has always had it’s own solutions to it’s own transport problems, in Scandinavia the public see nothing wrong with longer trucks, but in the UK we don’t like them, but the public see no problem with higher trucks, problem solved. I cannot for the life of me see why the EC should even be bothered about what we do at home, it has no bearing on what happens in the rest of Europe so they should keep their opinions to themselves.
With regard to equal terms and fuel Duty, if we harmonise that should we also get a system the same as the Germans and have to pay per KM when we drive around our home country, I bet that costs a lot more than we pay in fuel tax! and tolls on the motorway like the french, Spanish, Italians etc etc.
We raise revenue through fuel charging other countries do it their way. Last time I was in Germany the price difference was only a few pence per litre compared to the UK so we get off lightly compared to them when it comes to running costs for trucks per KM
jimti:
limeyphil:
we are supposed to be trading with all EU countries on equal terms. that’s why we have tachographs. so it’s only right to have the same maximum load space rules in all member states. Fuel duty should be the same as well.As long as we are on equal terms shouldn’t we have the same speed limits for type of road, 80kph on motorways for example, be allowed to run double trailers like the French or super road trains like the Scandinavians and the Dutch?
As much as we have the same Driving regs each country has always had it’s own solutions to it’s own transport problems, in Scandinavia the public see nothing wrong with longer trucks, but in the UK we don’t like them, but the public see no problem with higher trucks, problem solved. I cannot for the life of me see why the EC should even be bothered about what we do at home, it has no bearing on what happens in the rest of Europe so they should keep their opinions to themselves.
With regard to equal terms and fuel Duty, if we harmonise that should we also get a system the same as the Germans and have to pay per KM when we drive around our home country, I bet that costs a lot more than we pay in fuel tax! and tolls on the motorway like the french, Spanish, Italians etc etc.
We raise revenue through fuel charging other countries do it their way. Last time I was in Germany the price difference was only a few pence per litre compared to the UK so we get off lightly compared to them when it comes to running costs for trucks per KM
I work for a company in Calgary Alberta Canada and all are trailers are 53" ft to start with then we double them up on trips to far stores
