World Transport Forum: Demonstration against mega trucks

27 Jun 2010. As the World Transport Forum kicked-off in Leipzig with the slogan “Transport and Innovation”, the German Pro-Rail Alliance and the railway union Transnet started a spontaneous demonstration against mega trucks and attacked the mascot chosen by the high-caliber congress hosted in Leipzig. Protesters with placards surrounded the showcase longer, heavier truck (LHV) that had been positioned directly in front of the Leipzig exhibition centre by the International Road Transport Union IRU.

“While politicians and business leaders from all over the world are looking for solutions to transport problems inside the exhibition, the wrong symbol is parked right in front of the doors,” said the managing director of the Pro-Rail Alliance, Dirk Flege. LHVs are not exactly an expression of innovation; they represent the outmoded belief that it is sufficient to simply make road transport cheaper. “Mega trucks are not new and innovative, they are simply bigger and heavier,” criticised Flege. “With this symbol, the World Transport Forum is damaging its own ideals.”

Mega trucks are the very opposite of innovation for three reasons: they are damaging to the environment because they will cause a shift in transport away from the railways to the roads; they are expensive because road infrastructure will have to be modified and paid for by taxpayers; and they are dangerous because they pose a high risk for all road users. “The fact that a certain group of beneficiaries wants to make a profit at society’s expense should not be sold as solution to transport problems,” said Flege

Television reports about the demonstration against LHVs at the World Transport Forum (in German)