Denmark: Mega trucks don’t stick to official trial roads

4 September 2009. 100 longer and heavier trucks are already driving on Danish roads. The newspaper Jydske Vestkysten reported that not all of them adhere to the prescribed routes. "We know with certainty that there are some that drove outside of the network. This was reported to us by the police and also from inside the transport sector. But we do not know whether this is done systematically" said Hendrik Ludvigsen of the Danish Road Administration (Vejdirektoratet).

Officially the mega trucks in Denmark are admitted only on certain routes. Now the experiences of trials in other countries prove true: The restriction to certain routes has failed already in the attempt. Also during mega truck trials in Germany LHVs drove on routes they were not authorized to use.

The Danish transport industry is meanwhile working on an extension of the experiments. Since September the trial has been extended to 36 destinations. According to Ove Holm of the Danish Road Transport Association (DTL) at least 50 companies, ports and organizations have expressed their interest in the trial: "If most of these requests will be approved then I think we can have 1000 modular trucks. There is a lot of creativity and interest in the industry and a lot of benefits to gain."

Its scepticism about mega truck trials expressed the Danish Automobile Club (FDM). It regards the extension of the trials as a danger to other road users, because now also smaller harbours and narrow roads are being used by mega trucks.

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