Let's put the hgv message across...
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Spot the difference-we challenged 1e public, part of a CM/Mercedes-Benz campaign for heavier vehicles
4 HEAVIER lorry is not neces3arily a bigger vehicle, but can 3e one of the same size carrying 3 load at a more economical price, and therefore an additio lel weapon in the LJK's armoury 31 these times when we are 'ighting both inflation and Con:inental competitors.
Most members of the public Jo not know this. For too long he anti-lorry groups have been lominating the propaganda ield. In order to combat this, to )rovide people with information
.ather than mere propaganda, Viercedes-Benz has joined CM n a -let the people'' know :ampaign.
CM's Bill Brock and Tim 3lakemore, who usually carry Rat most of our road testing, last Neel< made a tour through Brijland with two identical Vlertedes-Benz 1626 tractive inits coupled to 40ft Crane =ruehauf box trailers. On their rvay to their destination, 3Ieneagles in Scotland, where he CM Mercedes-Benz -Trans3ort and Society"' conference Nas being held, they put the pad transport industry's case ro the provincial journalists and TV commentators, businessmen, housewives and passersay.
Press coverage on the day before the conference was sketchy because of the launch of a new car from Vauxhall. But vve did meet the BBC, and got ocal network coverage the Jame evening.
Bill and Tim repeatedly ;tressed to the public that leavier lorries do not necessarly mean bigger or more intrusve vehicles.
In transport matters the pubic are an uninformed body of )eople. We believe that in too nany papers road transport ioes not get the serious treatrent it deserves; the populars, ind some up-market papers, oo, concentrate rather on 'anti-juggernautknocking itories. So few people who were nterviewed at random had any (nowledge of the investigations )eing carried out by a commitee headed by Professor \rmitage, whose findings will )e given to the Transport Minster, Norman Fm.vier. He is ex)ected to present a Transport 3ill before Parliament after ktober.
Existing weight regulations lave been operative for the past 16 years, but the upper limit of 32 tons gvw falls well short of hat allowed by almost all other European countries. Hardly inyone outside of transport mows that this gives them an iconomic advantage. The
Netherlands head the list with 50 tonnes, next comes Italy with 44 tonnes followed by Germany, France and Belgium at 38 tonnes.
Other reporters invited from the local press were equally surprised to learn that although restricted to 32 tons all up weight in Britain, the same vehicles are built to operate with substantial payload advantage on the Continent.
We explained that modern suspension systems cannot be compared with those of even ten years ago. The present-day axle with longer springs, the especially flexible taper-leaf springs or air susoensior inflict less shock loads to the road sur face. The old static axle load of ten tons is comparable with today's 11-ton axle in dynamic terms. Our route started from the Chiswick flyover in London on Easter Monday; two 1 5-metre combinations didn't attract a lot of attention there, but we were supported by Tony Fletcher, of the Institute of Road Transport Engineers, a reporter from Road Way, another for Continental haulage journals, an Edinburgh paper, a municipal journal and some freelance journalists.
Driving the two M-B lorries, we joined the holiday traffic heading North on M1 and obviously became a topic of conversation for many family car passengers as they overtook
US.
At Birmingham the ATV cameraman who filmed us accepted The argument that heavier vehicles don't necessarily mean bigger or intrusive vehicles. However, he criticised
the excessive speeds at which some lorries travel on motorways, and said he had been overtaken by maximum-weight artics reaching 70 to 80mph, which made him feel "'threatened-.
Few lorries are capable of breaking speed limits in this way, but drivers who speed obviously do great harm to the public image of the industry as a whole. We accept that transport managers must redouble their efforts to see that this never happens.
We left the Birmingham National Exhibition Centre on the A446 and then continued north east on the A38 bypassing Burton on Trent where hgv are banned from the town centre. We rejoined the M1 at Junction 24 just past East Midlands airport.
Garforth was our next stop, continued overleaf just outside Leeds. Here there was .definitely some ill feeling towards lorries in general, mainly because the A642 running through the small town is used as a short cut between the Al and M62. A recently retired gentleman told us he was impressed with the sophistication of modern vehicles and can see no reaso4 why there shouldn't be an increase in gross weight.
Comparing the two Mercedes, he said: -The heavier vehicle takes up the same amount of space but carries more goods than the lighter one, so it must be preferable." But he .did feel that there should be stricter r'outeing of heavy vehicles to avoid small towns such as Garforth.
We explained that sometimes detours are unavoidable, and cited as an example our own journey into Garforth where we had to 'turn off the main road and drive through a very small village in order to circumnavigate a low bridge.
A housewife in Leeds was typical of the many people we met. She had little knowledge of the physical problems involved in increasing the weight limit
and had no idea what existing limits are set at. She said it would not worry her if lorries were allowed to carry more weight if their overall size stayed the same, but made the point that she lives away from the main road and might have different ideas if vehicles were passing close by to her home all day long.
A young mother with a toddler might have been expected to have some positive anti views. However, she said that she knows very little about the subject but took the viewpoint that provided the vehicles are built strongly enough and had been tested to show that they would be safe she could see no objections. She thought that they might have to be restricted to special routes to avoid overloading old bridges.
A security officer in the Midlands thought that the whole idea of heavier vehicles had been scrapped, but said that as we have joined Europe we should have common standards. He did not know how these standards differed between countries.
Just south of Glasgow a postman said that big (meaning heavy) lorries break up the edges of the country lanes, but added that he did not see why they should not be allowed to operate on main roads. We pointed out that virtually all deliveries end their journey by road, road maintenance provision is important and presentday axle springs cause much iess damage than, say, those of A young teacher from Cumbria thought that much more traffic should be put on the railways in order to lighten the burden on the roads, lessen the country's dependence on oil and improve the environment. When questioned on the feasibility of the railways handling many more goods he admitted to having no knowledge of the relative capacities of the two transport systems. But at least by the time we moved on he had reluctantly agreed that if extra weight means the same size' and eventually fewer vehicles, it was probably the best we can expect.
Our conclusions after talking with dozens of people and those journalists interested enough to meet us at our several stops, was that the general public appear to be totally unaware of the decisions that are about to be made on their behalf.
It is time for the road transport industry to publicise that it does not indiscriminantly impose social costs such as noise, air pollution, road wear and visual intrusion. It is no use saying that it is too late to win our case; this tour has cost CM and M-B money on behalf of both of our own interests and those of the industry. Other firms must decide how they can make a contribution; the UK needs a debate, not a foregone conclusion. .
The demand for freight transport is derived from the demand for goods, and at the end of the day the consumer must pay — one way or another.