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The public oppose mega trucks

The great majority of citizens oppose the introduction of mega trucks.

Polls on mega trucks

transport workers

Home // All about mega trucks // Why are mega trucks dangerous // transport workers

Gigaliners will cost jobs

Mega trucks from the transport workers' perspective

Above all, transport workers are interested in the effects on employment. Gigaliners will lead to a large-scale shift of transport from the railways back to the roads. Thousands of jobs in the railway sector are at stake. The losses in the combined transport and single wagon transport sectors will be a hard blow to the very heart of rail freight's valuable and labour intensive operations. Permitting longer and heavier vehicles will lead to a large scale shift from the railways to the roads, endangering thousands of railway jobs.

“We are supporting the campaign because permitting mega trucks will increase the pressure on truck drivers and lead to a greater risk of accident. That is unreasonable. In addition, freight transport will be shifted from the railways to the roads. This will put at risk thousands of jobs in the rail freight industry and will certainly not contribute to climate protection”.

^{Wilhelm Haberzettl, President of the European Transport Workers' Union ETF}

Accident risk and increased pressure on truck drivers

Gigaliners are a danger to the safety of all road users. This applies above all to the truck drivers in particular. After all, they are in the front line and will be directly affected by any accident, which would have severe consequences because of the vehicles' extra weight.

The additional psychological stress on drivers in their day-to-day work will be even worse. The safety risks resulting from the vehicles' extra length and extra weight will be left for the drivers themselves to deal with. Increased accident risk means that truck drivers will have even greater responsibility and be under more stress, which is an unreasonable worsening of their working conditions.

The lack of parking facilities for the 25 metre long Gigaliners will be particularly awkward for truck drivers. This will make it more difficult or even impossible for them to comply with the regulations on driving times.

“Gigaliners are not good for truck drivers. They will lead to more traffic without creating more jobs and they will benefit long-distance haulage only by worsening working and social conditions. We are against this anti-social deception, which at the same time will cost our railway colleagues their jobs.”

^{The Austrian union vida}

A risk to road traffic safety

passenger cars and lorries in a traffic jam

Greater pressure on the environment from increased traffic

Too long and too heavy for roads and bridges

What mega trucks would mean for Europe

Watch the film