LHV study shows: road hauliers see little demand

Berlin. The response to an opinion poll of regional transport companies on the question of using longer and heavier vehicles, carried out by the University of Applied Sciences in Erfurt, was unequivocal: over 90 percent of the 247 regional road hauliers saw no need to use longer vehicles. "This level of clarity is new," said Martin Roggermann, the coordinator of the EU wide campaign alliance No Mega Trucks. "Up until now we thought that mega trucks were environmentally damaging, dangerous and expensive for taxpayers. Now we learn that LHVs are not even particularly popular among road transport companies."

The Erfurt study has shown that longer and heavier trucks only fulfil the interests of a few large road transport companies, added Roggermann. Apart from that, the report offers nothing new. "The fact that LHVs - under ideal test conditions - can save fuel and cut the number of journeys is just a naïve calculation that does not add up in the everyday world of nation-wide transportation," said Roggermann. "The proponents of mega trucks are slowly running out of arguments."

The Pro-Rail Alliance warmly welcomed the recent decision by the state of Thuringia to not participate in the nation-wide trial of mega trucks planned for the start of 2011. "Thuringia would be well advised to take a good look at shifting freight onto the railways instead of allowing mega trucks that nobody really wants," said Roggermann. Now that more and more German states are rejecting test trials of mega trucks in their territory, it is becoming less likely that the federal transport ministry will be able to push through its plans, added Roggermann.