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Why big is beautiful
Page 9
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No doubt many Commercial Motor readers will welcome the planned widening of key stretches of the UK motorway network. But these attempts to alleviate chronic road congestion should be seen as shortterm relief at best, and merely tinkering at the edges at worst. After the brief 'post-widening' honeymoon, the MT and MG will soon be back to full capacity again.
If we really want to reduce congestion on our motorways then we've got to cut the number of vehicles using them — and so far the Government has proved itself totally incapable of doing it.
While car ownership continues to rise (and rail passengers continue to grumble) what's the haulage industry's answer? Having already cut the number of HGVs over 3.5 tonnes running on our roads by T9,000 since 1997, it's time to consider a far more radical solution: increase the size and load capacity of HGVs. This has already been proposed by the European Shippers Council and by Stan Robinson at the recent IMechE Improving Fleet Efficiency conference.