`supertruck put through its paces'
mapleflot
Posts: 81
Oh joy... Can't wait for this to overtake and left hook me....
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8387111.stm
"The Department for Transport say they are banned here but the company says its specially designed truck circumvents the regulations. "
:x
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8387111.stm
"The Department for Transport say they are banned here but the company says its specially designed truck circumvents the regulations. "
:x
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Comments
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Can it reverse ?0
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Saw that on the news this morning. How on earth does the driver know where the back is?
Deathtrap.0 -
Stand down. Apparently it was stopped by the authorities as soon as it went out.0
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It would be safer if you put it on rails. In fact, if you did that, you would be able to have like 100 of them all joined together. :roll:0
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Always Tyred wrote:It would be safer if you put it on rails. In fact, if you did that, you would be able to have like 100 of them all joined together. :roll:
That's a brilliant idea. And if you loaded the cargo into some sort of container, you could unload it close to its final destination and carry it on the back of a much smaller truck to precisely where you need it!0 -
rhext wrote:Always Tyred wrote:It would be safer if you put it on rails. In fact, if you did that, you would be able to have like 100 of them all joined together. :roll:
That's a brilliant idea. And if you loaded the cargo into some sort of container, you could unload it close to its final destination and carry it on the back of a much smaller truck to precisely where you need it!
Yeah, but, like, I've seen those things with people in them. And like, it's AMAZING that they don't crash into each other. They like fly towards each other really really fast, and then they miss each other by like, inches. In a totally freaky like-OhMyGodHowDidTheyMissIWasTOEtallySureTheyWereGoingToHitEachOther kind of way. Way weirds me out.0 -
those kind of trucks have been around for years in Australia, they dont let them into town/city centres and are mainly used for long distance/trunking runs
also Denby have been playing with their truck for at least the last 4 years and they still cant use them, so i wouldnt worry about them being on the roads any time soon0 -
rhext wrote:Always Tyred wrote:It would be safer if you put it on rails. In fact, if you did that, you would be able to have like 100 of them all joined together. :roll:
That's a brilliant idea. And if you loaded the cargo into some sort of container, you could unload it close to its final destination and carry it on the back of a much smaller truck to precisely where you need it!
It's damned expensive though. You still have all the overheads of running trucks, plus the extra overheads of running these "trucks on rails" (which cost way more than trucks) plus the overheads of maintaining the rails themselves, and it's not like the rails go to all that many places either.
It's far cheaper to just use slightly bigger trucks and do the whole thing by road. Nice idea though.0 -
Eau Rouge wrote:rhext wrote:Always Tyred wrote:It would be safer if you put it on rails. In fact, if you did that, you would be able to have like 100 of them all joined together. :roll:
That's a brilliant idea. And if you loaded the cargo into some sort of container, you could unload it close to its final destination and carry it on the back of a much smaller truck to precisely where you need it!
It's damned expensive though. You still have all the overheads of running trucks, plus the extra overheads of running these "trucks on rails" (which cost way more than trucks) plus the overheads of maintaining the rails themselves, and it's not like the rails go to all that many places either.
It's far cheaper to just use slightly bigger trucks and do the whole thing by road. Nice idea though.
Ah, good point! Roads maintaining themselves of course!0 -
rhext wrote:Ah, good point! Roads maintaining themselves of course!
The council/central government pays for those and doesn't (contrary to the cries of "I pay road tax") run their maintanence as a business that tries to recover the costs, unlike Network Rail that charges companies more explicitly for the usage of the rails.
The bigger costs of still having to run a fleet of trucks (small savings but most of the costs are actually the same either way) as well as paying for rail transport are far more of a problem than the cost of using rail over road though, and thats before you ever get to thinking about where you put your distribution centres.0 -
I seem to remember hearing that in the 70s there was a small campaign to tarmac over the railways so that instead of trains there would be authorised passenger and cargo services. Essentially road trains, but the idea was to get rid of the huge cost and poor reliabiity of track, signals and expensive rolling stock.
Perhaps with these types of trucks the time has come to kill off Southwest trains, hurrah the revolution!0 -
davmaggs wrote:Perhaps with these types of trucks the time has come to kill off Southwest trains, hurrah the revolution!
Nah, I actually like trains as a national infrastructure solution, they just aren't valued in the way roads are, and therefore cost more to use. The government effectively subsidises road transport by not charging anywhere near fully for it's use, which is fair enough, but the amount is spends on the rail network could be higher and could make rail a more viable option for more people. It's just not a strategic plan right now.
There is an effort to get people "out of cars", but no correspoding effort to enable the train system to actualy take them by giving it more capacity or lower costs. It's all a bit silly.
The issue of rolling stock ownership and how the leasing market works is at least being looked at, only 10 years too late of course.0
