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  Trucks (in general) - 2



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Who would have thought that so much rationalisation in the haulage sector would ever be possible? Due to this, when loading containers, human intervention is only necessary when docking and unloading. Similar to the airplane before taking off and after landing, everything else is taken care of by computers. Their use in transport and logistics is quite irreversible. Thus, the truck becomes a rolling stockyard and the driver, a dispatch employee. Farewell, captain of the highways or semi-self-employed enterpriser, the scheduler now decides when and where you travel.

In this respect the truck can easily hold its own, e.g., against shipping transport, although shipping is substantially cheaper and seen from the energy-political view, can not be beaten. Indeed, the goods have to be unloaded from the ships, which brings us back to the distributor traffic. Because the transporting is slow, one is forced to plan ahead and thus, is not very flexible. Apart from that, is cargo shipping dependable?, think about the low-water limitations in the last few years caused by the recent climatic changes.

What we're left with is rail- and air-transport, whereby, the latter only makes sense if the very high energy expenses are paid for by someone. The railways are, for bringing the goods to their destination, a sensible method, however, here one has to rely on there being rails to almost everywhere and of course, freight yards. Mountainous terrain also poses a considerable problem for the railways. Once again, we're back with the distributor traffic, which also means, the necessary time and transfer logistics.

Indeed, in this respect, the truck, due to its disadvantages, also does not remain unchallenged. There are, first of all, the other road users who, at least on the two-lane motorways, consider the heavy trucks to be a nuisance, particularly in Germany where there is no general speed limit. The road construction authorities also see the truck as being the main cause of road-surface repairs. The home haulage companies, in view of the toll-charge, the restrictions applied to driving hours, and above all, the foreign competition, are also by no means satisfied.

By the way, some drivers who use the car to go on holiday, should follow the example of the truck-drivers, their regulations do not allow them to drive for six hours on the trott without, at least, a 45 minute break. The toughest example is probably, that after a 56-hour driving-week, in the following week they are only allowed to drive for 34 hours. Would you like another example? On country roads the truck driver may not exceed 60 km/h. So, the next time you're stuck behind one of these trucks, don't slate the driver, it's not his/her fault. 05/12

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