Denmark: Trial with up to 1000 Gigaliners started

27 Nov 2008. Denmark is another European country that sets the Gigaliners free. Since 24 November 2008 the 60 tones heavy and 25 meters long mega trucks are driving across the country. The road transport association Dansk Transport og Logistik (DTL) is expecting 1000 participating longer and heavier trucks. There is no official obligation to register a LHV, every company willing to participate can do so.

Officially the “trial” is restricted to the highways, but in practice the vehicles are driving right to the participating truckage companies. Roundabouts and crossroads had been altered already in advance to accommodate the mega trucks. This has been achieved with taxpayers' money to the amount of 150 million Danish Crowns (20m euros).

With its three year “test” Denmark follows the example of the Netherlands, where mega truck experiments happen for years. The Dutch trials have meanwhile been renamed into “experience phase” and will continue open-ended. This means no less than a permanent allowance for mega trucks. The just started service of Gigaliners in Denmark is a step in the same direction.

The Danish government is already for a long time committed to the service of the truck lobby. All the scientifically proofed negative consequences of Gigaliners for the environment, traffic safety and infrastructure are disregarded. The Danish government is also working hard on an EU level to get longer and heavier vehicles permitted so that Danish hauliers can drive their vehicles right across Europe.

As the Danish journal Ingeniøren reports, transport minister Lars Barfoed launched the first mega truck transport with the loading of a container from a railway wagon onto a Gigaliner. Given the expected traffic relocation from the rail to mega trucks a symbolic picture.

More on the Gigaliner trials in Denmark: