Why size matters
Page 10

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Brian Weatherley is tired of back pain and sleepless nights — and that's just from road testing for CM. Why don't we make train lengths longer and give drivers the space they deserve?
A truck cab is not a very inviting working environment when you think about it and it's not just for work, either. It's also where you have to sleep, in between those long hours of staring straight ahead. And once you're inside you can barely stand up straight to put your trousers on without rupturing a major organ. It makes you wonder why no-one has thought about offering a cab that's bigger.
Unfortunately, within the current EU overall artic length of 16.5m the space available for a driver is always going to be dictated by the need to have a 13.6m trailer behind him. A clear case of cargo winning over lumbago...
Back in the eighties, EU legislators and unions stopped the spread of those awful maximum-volume "Philips Concept" drawbars, complete with their tiny top-sleeper pods and trick couplings, by simply increasing the EU maximum drawbar length limit from 18.35m to 18.75m while keeping deck lengths to a total of 15.65m. Overnight drivers re-gained their "lebensraum".
top bleating about the Working me Directive and look at the ings that really matter to drivers... e space to put your trousers on"