Could be much worse
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3RITAIN's lorry population would be nearly three times its present lize if maximum weights were still at their 1955 level, a senior 'reight Transport Association officer said last weekend.
Addressing the Hertfordshire kssociation of Local Councils, :TA planning and traffic services ;ontroller Richard Turner said fiat although the lorry popula:ion had stayed stable for 25 /ears, the vehicles now did three :imes the work of their foreears. Efficiency and productivity had increased by 270 per cent, and if the weights had not gone up, there would be nearly 1.5m lorries on the road instead of little more than 500,000.
Mr Turner said there was no proposal to go on increasing weights and sizes for ever, just to keep numbers down. There is widespread agreement, he said, that lorries were big enough already, but there is a strong case for increasing maximum weights in order to carry a greater density of goods.
He said that the increased weights proposed in the Armitage Report would result in there being 10,000 fewer maximumweight vehicles on the road.