Its dangerous and wasteful to allow even heavier trucks up to 53 tonnes onto NZ roads it has been claimed...

Image via Wikipedia

 It's dangerous and wasteful to allow heavier trucks on New Zealand roads, says the car buyers' Dog & Lemon Guide. Commenting after the government announced that it would allow trucks of up to 53 tonnes on public roads, Dog & Lemon Guide editor Clive Matthew-Wilson said: "This is insane. Not only is this incredibly wasteful of energy, it's also a serious risk to other motorists. One in five trucks were found to have brake faults in 2007, and the larger the truck, the harder it is to stop." "Trucks make up only 4% of the vehicle fleet but cause 16% of all road deaths. This risk is only going to rise with larger trucks" "Claims that larger trucks are part of the government's energy-saving strategy are simply a lie. The government's own figures show that transporting goods by rail is over five times more efficient that transporting goods by truck." 1 "The government is also implying that road user charges will pay for the roads the trucks travel down. This is another lie. The trucking industry didn't pay one cent for the cost of building these roads. The ordinary motorist paid for our roads, and one of the reasons our roads are so expensive to build is that they are being built to carry larger and larger trucks. The trucking industry pays a relatively small fee for some of the damage it does to the road surface. The taxpayer foots the rest of the bill."



Matthew-Wilson believes that the trucking industry is driving much of the government's transport strategy. "The government's policies start to make sense when you remember that Road Transport Forum chief executive Tony Friedlander is a former National Party cabinet minister." The Road Transport Forum was a major donor to political parties at the last election, contributing nearly $100,000 to Labour, National and also to individual MPs. http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10566887 "We need to rethink the whole process of transportation instead of trying to patch a sinking ship. The government's own figures show that the current road-based transport system is unsustainable, yet the government wants to expand this system."


New Zealand's roads were never designed for the heavy trucks that now use them, and the National Government wants even heavier trucks running on them. The former restrictions on the transportation of goods more than 40 miles from the railhead were more commonsense and protected our roads, and rail over long distances suited New Zealand's geography in any case. Road transporters made no contribution towards the construction of the roads or the maintenance of them. Road-users charges probably find their way into the consolidated fund rather than being targetted for road maintenance.

Related articles by Zemanta

• NEWS BRIEF -- TransCore's Logistics Software 4.0 Adds Carrier Module for Brokers with Assets (eon.businesswire.com)
• NZ MPs reject software patents (boingboing.net)
• Marine Corps orders 400 heavy trucks from Oshkosh (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• Now Prepping: Food Truck TV Show. So Which LA Truck Should Try Out? (laist.com)
• Video: Truck speeds happily along with a car stuck under its grill (inquisitr.com)