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Germany gets set to enter the age of the road train
Page 14
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Roads in Lower Saxony will witness the first German road trains when a three-month trial gets under way. Andy Salter reports.
CM EXCLUSIVE GERMAN TRUCK operators could soon be benefiting from the use of 25.25-metre combinations if trials in the Lower Saxony region of the country prove successful.
From the end of this month three German haulage operators will put the 'road trains' into service in a 12-month trial to gain experience of the bigger trucks, already in use in Sweden and Finland and, more recently subject to trials of almost 100 vehicle combinations in the Netherlands.
Special dispensation to use 25.25m combinations was granted by the Ministry of Transport of Lower Saxony, which takes in important industrial and shipping centres such as Bremen, Hanover and Wolfsburg. It is seen as an acknowledgment of extended lobbying by German trailer makers and sections of the country's haulage industry, who have stressed the economic advantages of using longer road trains.
New combinations The German project initially allows just one of the new combinations to each of the three participating operators, including Volkswagen, Logistics GmbH and Boll Spedition. The selected vehicles will be confined to dedicated roads and motorways in the Lower Saxony province and will operate at Germany's existing 40 tonne gross vehicle weight. The extra load volume offered by the combination of a semi-trailer with a drawbar trailer will, however, give users valuable benefits in the movement of certain types of traffic.
Each road train must be handled by experienced drivers — specially trained to meet the space constraints imposed by the greater length —while special markings are called for on the vehicles to "warn" other road users.
In addition, provision must be made to allow the mounting of external video cameras for use in assessing road performance and the behaviour of the Gigaliners in certain critical traffic situations. The launch of the German scheme comes six weeks ahead of the giant IAA truck show in Hanover. A major theme of the show will be aimed at promoting an increase in commercial vehicle size. The so-called Euro Kombi philosophy will be showcased by a number of truck and trailer producers.
Speaking at a recent pre-IAA press briefing in Frankfurt, Bernhard Krone,head of Krone Trailers, Europe's second-largest trailer manufacturer, and supplier of the Gigaliner equipment to be used in the trials, stressed the need to harmonise — on a Europe-wide scale —technology and legislation if maximum benefit is to be derived from the use of the "new dimension".
The IAA Show in Hanover is organised by the VDA, the German equivalent of the SMMT, and its president Bernd Gottschalk was cautiously optimistic that the trials would bring some leverage to government. "We are looking to open the debate for the strategic development of vehicle dimensions," he told the press conference. "We are talking about something very real."
Potential solution In addition to the familiar 25.25m combination used in Sweden and Finland. Iveco also revealed it will be promoting the employment of 18-metre semi-trailers as another potential solution for increased operating productivity at the Hanover Show.
Sam Burman, board member at Iveco Magirus, the German division of Iveco indicated significant profit and revenue improvements could be made by shifting to bigger trucks.
Further information was not forthcoming. "See you at the IA A for all the details," said Burman.