90 tons, 30 meters giant trucks in Sweden

16 Dec 2008. The use of even longer and heavier Gigaliners has recently started in Sweden. The mega trucks, which are used for timber transports, are 90 tons heavy and 30 meters long. For comparison: Such a giant truck is weighing more than twice as much as a European standard lorry (40 tons) and also 12 meters longer.

Involved in the “experiment” are amongst others the manufacturers Volvo and Parator. With the operation that is firstly scheduled to three years the transport companies and truck manufacturers seek to achieve a blank cheque for their Gigaliners. Neither the vehicles nor the “trials” are innovative. The intention of the experiments is always the same: to bring even longer and heavier trucks on the roads.

Gigaliners have been permitted in Finland and Sweden for some time. But Scandinavia's spacious, relatively sparsely populated regions with little road traffic cannot be compared with the rest of Europe, where the dense networks of heavily used roads are not suitable for mega trucks.

But Europe is what the Swedish truck manufacturers aim at. Here they see a market for their mega trucks and therefore put pressure on EU-politics. According to a dpa-report Swedish diplomats have already announced to put Gigaliners back on the agenda – during the Swedish EU council presidency (June – December 2009).