National trials of mega trucks to be massively extended

Berlin. The announcement by the German Federal Transport Ministry that the trials of longer and heavier vehicles (LHVs) , planned for 2011, will take place without any criteria being imposed on participants and without any upper limit on amount, has astonished the German Pro-Rail Alliance. "These trials are obviously going to be a free-for-all, anyone can join in," criticised Martin Roggermann, the Pro-Rail Alliance's campaign coordinator. The secretary of state with responsibility for logistics, Andreas Scheuer from the coalition government's junior partner CSU, said at a meeting of the Association of Automobile Logistics that not only the limit on the amount of goods would be removed, but that there would also now be no need for companies wanting to take part in the trials to make an application. Scheuer said that companies would simply have to register, according to the magazine Verkehrsrundschau. "It is apparent that all the safety concerns have been brushed aside," said Roggermann, who also coordinates the European campaign NO MEGA TRUCKS. "It would seem that the fact that these longer vehicles are more difficult to handle is no longer a cause for concern."

Roggermann pointed out that numerous studies had concluded that mega trucks are more dangerous than normal HGVs. "That fact won't be changed just because the ministry has given them a new name - long HGVs," criticised Roggermann. He went on to warn Scheuer against going it alone in the face of opposition from the federal states. "A summit of state transport ministers in 2007 came out solidly against mega trucks and rejected new trials of the longer vehicles. Mass trials with low quality standards and a fig-leaf of obligatory registration is an affront to the federal states," Roggermann called on the transport ministry to put its political energy into more meaningful projects. "Transport policy needs creative people. Longer and heavier HGVs on the roads will not solve any problems they will only cause new ones."