• English Site
• >SPIEGEL Magazine
• >

  Kings of the Road: Monster Trucks Come to Germany

Kings of the Road Monster Trucks Come to Germany

By Christian Wüst

Part 2: Part 2: Heavy Loads

Instead, the government commissioned a study from Germany's Federal Highway Research Institute (BASt) to analyze the issue from a purely theoretical perspective. The study has since been submitted to the Federal Ministry of Transport and is scheduled to be published in its entirety in February. Based on the parts of the report the government has already disclosed, the general tone is negative, however.

The BASt performed its analysis on the basis of a total weight of 60 tons per vehicle instead of the 40 tons currently allowed. According to the study, the current infrastructure is not designed to support such heavy loads. Bridges would have to be "reinforced or gradually replaced." And the current guide rails would not be capable of withstanding the impact of such vehicles. The outcome of accidents would be "significantly more serious," the report says.

This sounds like a pretty strong argument against the German logistic industry's plans for gigaliners. However, the BASt's verdict oddly contradicts the opinions of the Dutch transportation ministry, which are based not only on purely theoretical analyses but also on a real-life trial.

Tractor-trailers with a total length of 25.25 meters and 60 tons of allowable gross weight have been driven on the Netherlands' roads for years in a large-scale experiment. The vehicles, of which 162 are already in use, are called "Longer and Heavier Vehicle Combinations" (LHVs) in the Netherlands.

The Dutch transportation ministry produced an interim assessment in November 2005. According to the report, "there is no reason to assume that an LHV has a higher safety risk compared with a regular vehicle combination." On the contrary, the ministry concluded, "Since LHVs reduce (mileage driven), ... traffic safety can increase."

The dangers of greater weight are apparently more theoretical. This is because volume is usually what limits cargo weight in normal shipping practice. According to the Dutch transportation ministry, the LHVs are usually not heavier than 36 tons, cargo included. For this reason, the currently allowed maximum gross weight of 40 tons did not even need to be increased in the Lower Saxony trial.

Cotrans CEO Hausherr is already arguing for a "first step," in which only the larger vehicle types would be allowed and gross weight could be limited to about 44 tons. This is already the maximum gross weight for all trucks that currently operate in conjunction with railroads in the transshipment system.

But there are other hurdles to large-scale use of the long tractor-trailers. Their use on two-lane highways would make passing virtually impossible.

And other infrastructure is not always suitable for such monsters. "Highway rest stops and many freight terminals are not at all designed for such vehicles," complains Klaus Peter Röskes, Vice President of the Federal Association of Freight Transportation, Logistics and Waste Disposal (BGL). The test drivers of the first models are currently parking in the few spaces normally reserved for extra-long freight vehicles, which cannot be a permanent solution. A fundamental redesign of rest stops would be necessary to complete a major shift to gigaliners, which, according to the Dutch transport ministry, could replace up to 31 percent of all conventional long-distance trucks.

But would such a development really ease congestion on the roads? Or could a boom in these super-trucks actually divert rail freight into the road-based system?

Kombiverkehr, a subsidiary of Deutsche Bahn, is already apprehensive about the new competition. Its business model involves reloading tractor-trailer loads onto trains at suitable terminals, thereby making rail transport more attractive for customers without rail access. But the company still transports less than one twentieth of the volume being shipped by road, although annual growth rates of about 10 percent suggest that interest is growing.

But the gigaliner, says Kombiverkehr CEO Armin Riedl, could crush his company's fledgling business. Riedl hired economists from Mannheim-based consultancy TIM Consult to analyze the competition the new gigaliners would present. According to TIM Consult, the new gigaliners would reduce trucking costs by 20 to 25 percent and shift more than half of current combined road/rail freight entirely to the roads.

Germany's truck lobby is having a tough time finding arguments to disprove such predictions, especially now that the trials are already confirming the trend. The Cotrans gigaliner carries side panels for VW's compact van, the Touran, from Emden to Wolfsburg. In the past these panels were transported by rail.

Translated from the German by Christopher Sultan

For reasons of data protection and privacy, your IP address will only be stored if you are a registered user of Facebook and you are currently logged in to the service. For more detailed information, please click on the "i" symbol.

Post to other social networks:

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
•