Bericht des Umweltbundesamtes

The Federal Environmental Agency supports the German federal government with scientific research into environmental protection issues. In its March 2007 report 'Longer and heavier on German roads – do mega trucks contribute towards sustainable transport?', the Environmental Agency answers questions of the issue of LHVs from an environmental point of view.

The Federal Environmental Agency concludes: “On the whole, mega trucks do not contribute towards sustainable development of freight transport. Their use relieves neither the environment nor road infrastructure. On the contrary, additional risks to road safety have to be expected as well as the environmentally unfavourable shifting of freight transport to the road.”

• The Environmental Agency disproves the argument put forward by supporters that two Gigaliners will replace three conventional heavy goods vehicles: “...due to reduced transport costs, much more freight transport would be shifted from rail and inland navigation to the road. As a result, following the introduction of mega trucks not fewer but rather more vehicles would be on the road.”

• Only when capacity utilisation exceeds more than 80 percent do LHVs produce less exhaust gas emissions per tonne of transported goods than a normal heavy goods vehicle. The average payload utilisation of normal HGVs is currently just 64 percent. However, even if LHVs could achieve a theoretical 100 percent capacity utilisation, the environmental record of rail freight would still be much better.

• The Federal Environmental Agency also points to the dangers of accidents involving Gigaliners: “Due to their greater weight, accidents involving megatrucks would have much more serious consequences than collisions with standard trucktrailers”