Safer, cleaner
Page 14
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and cheaper
LAST MONTH Louise Ellman MP, chair of the Transport Select Committee, wrote to the minister concerned asking what their policy is for high productivity lorries and, in particular, what plans they have for trialling such vehicles. This is timely because ministers now have early experience of the trials of longer semi-trailers, which have 15% extra cubic capacity compared with today's standard
lorry. Cube is the priority for our supermarket traffics, which have more packaging and air than actual goods.
Trials have not gone well, but against the 15% gain, the highproductivity lorry offers 57% gain.
Furthermore, the high-productivity B Double has free circulation in other EU member states and without the safety problems associated with the longer semis. Indeed, it is safer than today's standard truck. With modern technology, this truck will require no highway
modification. Any expense falls on the operator, not the tax payer.
Not much can be done until Ellman receives a reply from the Department for Transport, which we hope will be published. This time, I hope ministers will be told that the B Double is more stable than today's standard artic and, important to the rail lobby, that the fleet of 1,000 LHVs (longer, heavier vehicles) running in the Netherlands has taken all its traffic from the standard lorries and nothing at all from the Dutch Railways. In short, the high-productivity
lorry is not only safer and cleaner, but cheaper too.
lorry is not only safer and cleaner, but cheaper too. Dick Denby Denby Transport
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