Weight increase paper published
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• The Department of Transport took its first steps towards raising gross weights for medium-to-heavy trucks with the issue of a new consultation paper.
It outlines how some, but not all, of the EC standards for international journeys which take effect in 1993 are likely to be adopted for UK domestic haulage. Trucks with 'road-friendly' suspensions — with air or equivalent on the drive axle — will be allowed higher payloads than trucks with conventional steel suspensions.
The planned new limits for domestic work, with (and without) 'friendly' suspensions, are: 26 (25) tonnes, for three-axle rigids; 32 (30) tonnes, for fouraxle rigids; and 35 (32.5) tonnes, for four-axle artics and four and five-axle drawbars. Truck manufacturers are not happy with the proposals: "They don't really seem to know what they want," says lveco Ford.