W.TONNERS MAKE A LOT OF SENSE El May I comment
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on the 17tonne vehicle and all the fuss about axle weights.
When we had 16-tonnes, with curtainsided bodywork, you were vety lucky to get a vehicle with a realistic body size which could carry 10 tonnes and still be legal. Axle weights had to be spot on and it often, on multi-drop work, involved unloading from the front for the first drop before starting again from the rear, ending up with four or six pallets somewhere in the middle as unloading progressed.
This is quite easy to do with curtainsided or platform vehicles, provided they are loaded correctly, using a bit of brain power.
We are either uprating axles, or using new vehicles plated for 17-tonne, to enable not more payload to be carried, but to make the job of staying legal just that bit easier than it has been in the past. This in itself is worthwhile from a cost point of view.
A R Goss,
Haulage Contractor, Sandy, Bedfordshire.