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Cab fear at length limit
Page 11
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• Transport union leaders are pressing the government to tighten up legislation on vehicle lengths, following the announcement last week that the maximum length for articulated trucks in the UK is to increase to 16-5m from 1 January 1990 (CM 14-20 Sept).
Unions are concerned that one effect of allowing longer vehicles will be to squeeze cab sizes to increase payloads.
"We are worried about safety dimensions for the whole vehicle," says Frank Griffin, general secretary of the United Road Transport Union (URTU). "There's going to be some clever designer who makes the cab smaller, and the driver will end up standing like a tramdriver."
The Road Haulage Association refutes these claims. It maintains that an increase in permitted vehicle length will in fact "reverse the trend" towards smaller cabs because maximum trailer lengths will now be specified by EC regulations.
The Dip confirms that strict limits will be set for the size of semi-trailers; 12m will be the maximum length from the rear of the trailer to the kingpin, and 2.4m will be the outside limit from the kingpin to any point on the front of the trailer.