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Weight limit increase would save money
Page 31
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INCREASING maximum load weights without upping the physical size of trucks could cut haulage costs by up to 11 per cent per ton,according to a special report commissioned by Foden and published this week.
The report says that compared with a vehicle with a gvw of 32 tons, a similar vehicle plated for 38 tons could carry the load at the maximum 11 per cent cost reduction — and the number of trucks needed would also be cut by around 20 per cent.
At present in order to carry 30 tons of load two trucks are needed and they will use an extra 14 per cent fuel over the one heavier truck's consumption.
Massive congestion will be the result of weight limits imposed by local authorities, says the report. It points out that a 3.5 ton limit would mean that 18 vans will be needed to carry the same load as a 44 ton articulated vehicle.
This in turn would mean an extra fuel consumption of five and a half times as much fuel and take 87 times as much road space pushing transport costs up by a staggering seven hundred per cent.
"It would be environmental disaster as well as an intolerable economic price to pay," says the report.
The report's authors' Transport Press Services, say that if a truck with a poor resale value is bought by a haulage contractor then it could mean an extra £3,000 a year in costs and will wipe out any profit that the truck has made over the year.
It now costs £17,000 a year to run a top-weight truck and the report says that expensive vehicles can pay for themselves on the secondhand values they can command compared with the truck that was not expensive to buy.