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WEIGH INTO THE 60-TONNE DEBATE
Page 3
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Ok, we admit it — bigger isn't always better. But in the case of 60-tonne trucks the advantages are obvious: higher productivity, easier compliance with the Working Time Directive and lower cost per tonne carried. And ironically, the groups who will object most strongly have the most to gain.
Congestion campaigners and environmental lobbyists won't like 60-tonne trucks one bit. Just wait for their squeals — "too big"... more congestion"... "more pollution"... more road damage"... we've heard it every time the top weight limit rises. But this time our money's on the road transport lobby. The protagonists of 60-tonners have been active for some time, and they have their arguments sorted. They've run fuel trials and have proved the case on emissions and fuel economy.
But the public is in desperate need of education about these vehicles, and the trucks that are already on Britain's roads. Let's not let the backroom research on this go to waste: the green benefits of bigger trucks should be on the air and on the billboards. If there's to be a debate the onus is on the DfT, the ETA, the RHA, and anyone else who has the resources to make it a well-informed debate, based on fact and not clouded by ill-informed, emotive clap-trap.
Of course the Department for Transport will have to take the opposition's views into account. But the calculations add up and it's time 60-tonners were given an opportunity to prove their worth. If we don't try, we'll never know just how much more efficient they could make Britain's road freight industry.
"We'll be working ceaselessly to make your agenda their agenda
• Exactly 645 copies of CM left our offices this week: it's our first shot at getting MPs in this Parliament to take road transport seriously. We've mailed them all, and with their copies of CMthey'll receive a letter from the editor explaining just how important and how besieged this industry is. We're determined to educate every MP in the UK about road transport, and we'll be working ceaselessly to make your agenda their agenda.