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tan Robinson is gazing out of the window onto his
Page 43
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yard. "I can see five or six of our trucks standing idle alongside subcontractors' vehicles," he says. And my trucks are standing there for one reason: I can't get the drivers. I'm having to pay subbies to do the work my vehicles should be doing."
It is a familiar refrain from Britain's hauliers, and with the Working Time Directive things are not going to get any easier. The answer—or at least part of it—is simple, says Stafford-based Robinson: roadtrains.
Roadtrains come in several shapes and sizes and. as Robinson rather wearily says, "As soon as you mention them, everyone thinks of Australia". The pm-long, three-trailer 125-tonne rigs running across the outback Down Under have a romantic appeal perhaps, although he is the first to admit there is a big difference between Alice Springs and Altrincharn.
Instead, Robinson is advocating something more modest. His roadtrain would consist of a six-wheel, double-drive, 500hp tractor with two trailers and would primarily be used for motorway driving. The way I look at it, they would only be depot to depot and maybe only overnight," he insists. "Most of my depots are two miles off the motorway and most of the traffic on the road at night is other trucks. I'm not talking about opening the floodgates to run roadtrains through Marble Arch! But if you could run two trailers overnight and bring two trailers back, I'd do it." As for cost benefits, Robinson reckons that one roadtrain replacing his two night trunks between Devon and Stafford would save L15o a trip.
Geoff Dos setter at the Freight Transport Association says there could be benefits. "Obviously in the face of increased congestion and doubts about the reliability of infrastructure, combined with the need for best economic operation, it's entirely feasible to look at energy savings," he says. "The growth of drawbars has not been a problem but anything more substantial than that means urban access becomes difficult. But we shouldn't close our minds to the options."
However, travel 40 miles from the FTA's Kent HQ up the Mu i into London and you will find the Department for Transport's collective mind (officially, at least) is about as closed as you could get. A spokesman says of roadtrains: "They are not allowed under British or European law and we don't want to allow them. There are serious road safety implications: if you have more than one trailer there is a swing effect which means the second is never wholly behind the one in front. If you are on the M6, your back one could swing into other lanes." Rubbish, says Stan Robinson politely. "If you put a Do note in the road, the back trailer would follow the front one round it," he insists. "As a driver you can start to get into trouble if you think about the back trailer, so ignore it—it just follows you like a snake. Braking is every bit as good as on a one-tractor unit."
Detractors point to the rise of drawbars to suggest that Robinson is wasting his time arguing for roadtrains. But he says: "Drawbars carry mostly high-volume loads, making the most of the legal length applicable. I'm not looking to deliver to Sainsbury's stores. What I'm trying to do is eliminate an engine and a driver on long haul—nothing else."
Environmental campaigners are cautious about the idea of Robinson's roadtrain, but do not reject it out of hand. Friends of the Earth senior campaigner Roger Higman says: "The obvious immediate concern is what it would be like to have something like that on the motorway." But Spencer Fitzgibbon, a member of the Green Party's national executive, says it is worth looking at the implications for road damage and emissions. "If the roadtrain had less impact than the equivalent tonnage of trucks, it would be an improvement. And if there is reduced pollution per tonne/km, that's something we would be interested in. We are currently looking into HGV reduction experiences on the Continent and it may be that roadtrains have a part in that."
Longer combinations
Robinson is convinced that his idea would be acceptable to all parties. "I can run at 84 tonnes and the heaviest axle is only 8.5-9 tonnes," he says. "You are at Euro-3 or 4 so there is a saving on emissions and fuel consumption is less than two-thirds of running two tractors. A lot of 45-footers don't carry 44 tonnes or even 38 tonnes if they are running foodstuffs or clothes. So we are not just talking about a big, greedy 85-tonne roadtrain—it's not just the weight side, but volume too."
You might think Robinson would be delighted about last month's call by Volvo for longer combinations to boost productivity, but his praise is muted. "Volvo is pushing a large rigid vehicle pulling a 45ft trailer. I see the point of it, but it is bringing in another animal: a 6-8 wheeler rigid." Nonetheless, the 25.25m/6o-tonne rig, which is allowed in Sweden and Finland, is the combination favoured by the European Shippers Council.
Still, Robinson certainly has supporters in this country. He has been talking to Wincanton about the roadtrain project, and Jost is providing couplings for it. "They have been helping me along but we need some more help from the politicians, the DfT and everyone else," admits Robinson. "We need pressure from different angles. We need to prove the demand is there. Major hauliers have to be involved. Look at the number of trucks that come out of Palletline each night."
Robinson keeps a model roadtrain in the office, which means he can at least sit at a desk and daydream of his brainchild one day gracing the UK's roads. "I can remember when 24 tonnes was the maximum weight,' he says with a laugh. "No-one ever dreamt of 44 tonnes!"
But despite his enthusiasm, the men from the Ministry are determined that a toy is all Robinson's roadtrain will ever be. "We increased load capacity to 44 tonnes, above the EU average," the DfT spokesman says. "If you want to carry 88 tonnes, you'll have to make two trips."