U.S. AMERICAN Reacts to the Difference Between European and American Trucks
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- čas přidán 22. 02. 2023
- Hello friends! In this video I react to why American and European trucks are so different. Do you know of any other differences? Let me know in the comments below! Thanks for watching!
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Original Video -- bit.ly/3EoEMWz
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Art is the lie that enables us to see the truth. - Pablo Picasso - Zábava
I’m a truck driver in the UK.Those soft side trailers that you refer to we call them curtainsider trailers.The reason for the canvas sides is so that we pull back the curtains so that the trailer can be loaded by a forklift on each side leading for a quick efficient loading.
The closed curtain keeps the load dry compared to a flatbed trailer.
A curtainsider trailer also has rear barn doors for deliveries that require a bay to reversed up to.
A curtainsider trailer is a very versatile trailer that is perfect for most general trucking use in Europe .
Curtainsiders are quite rare here in Sweden. We use side doors, instead. A lot easier to work with than having to pull that curtain back and forth.
@@sandywatson
Mostly the length restriction is because a lot of European roads are very old so a longer truck wouldn’t get around the corners between the buildings.
Also a lot of the companies that us lorry drivers deliver or collect from don’t have raised concrete docks to reverse up to so the trucks need the opening curtains to allow the forklifts to side load the trailers.
You are correct about the length for ferry spaces to park lorries efficiently
@@sandywatson Exactly. The ferries have a certain amount of truck spaces and they are always a certain size. The curtain trailers are used mainly because they're slightly lighter, cheaper and they can be loaded both through the back doors and from the side. Though, in Sweden we mostly use trucks and trailers with side doors if we haul goods that needs to be loaded from the side. An empty European semi truck and trailer weighs roughly 15 to 17 tons, depending on axle configurations and what type of trailer it is. An empty rigid truck and trailer in northern Europe weighs roughly 24-26 tons. However, the semis on the continent can usually load around 24-26 tons, but a Swedish rigid with full trailer can sometimes load over 40 tons since they have a max gross weight of 64 tons instead of 40/44 tons that you'll see on the European continent. Especially the new ones that are made for the class 4 roads. They're usually 8x4 rigid trucks with 5-axle trailers and have a max gross weight of 74 tons. These are mostly excavation trucks or lumber trucks, though.
@@tntfreddan3138 You don't have to pull the curtain back and forth. If the trailer is full you would usually just uncover the entire side and it's really convenient.
The curtainsider also helps with multi-drops too, you don't need to plan the loading as meticulously when you can just pull the curtain back and unload an item from the front of the trailer, or one of your loads is refused and has to be returned, you can work round it without having to remove it to get to the others.
One of the reasons for the specified total length in Europe got to do with having a unified solution for all the ferries. With a max total length loading ferries and planning ferry load balancing becomes relatively straight forward; the computer system knows how much room is left on a ferry's car decks at all times.
That ferry-theory of yours is just fantasy and has nothing with reality to do. Ferries are not loaded that way. One size trailers does not in any shape or form equal the same weight. Fill up one trailer ....to the brim... with polystyrene foam ....and it weigh next to zero. Fill another with metal profiles, or whatever heavy stuff, and the trailer isn't even half full before the allowed weight limit is reached. On the display in the trucks of today one can directly read out weight ....both totally and on each axle. Norway, Sweden and Finland use ferries to get to for example Germany. The Scandinavians have bigger lengths and much higher weight limits than Germany so they can not take those trailers with them on the ferries.... So where are the uniform regulations....????
@@Dan-fo9dk Ofc! I didn't say it was the _only_ measure they go by. It just helps them know how many trailers they can fit in there and where. Actually balancing their weight and figuring out which trailer goes where is the next step in the process.
The general rules of each nation are just that nation's rules for when pilot/follower cars as well as special permits are needed. So most of Europe has a limit at 19.75m, Norway has theirs at 20.5. That doesn't mean all Scandinavian semis will be 20.5m long. Any company doing international long haul will follow the EU standard. Ferries adopted that standard in their planning and pricing. Due to that it got nicknamed the ferry standard.
Ordering a special ticket for any special sized load is prohibitively expensive and is thus only done when unavoidable due to the nature of the freight. The extra cost also covers the extra work done by the ferry company to make sure that your overly sized load also has any required permits where it is going so that they don't end up having to ferry the load back over. (I used to work in imports.)
I don't know the exact nature of the agreements made when the European standards were last edited, but I do remember learning that the ferry companies were heavily engaged in the process of setting the current standards. No "theorizing" was performed on my part.
@Dan the uniform size is for the volume capacity on the ferry, they do also use the load weights to evenly distribute them when loading the ferry.
The overall length originally came in because of the width of roads and the sharpness of corners in European countries, I don't know if it was standardised across the EU from the start, or a later occurance after countries already had maximum lengths.
@@kaneworsnop1007 Well probably most countries and companies adhered to whatever Germany had as the maximum because Germany is a logistical hub between allot of destinations with good roads.
It is as you point out but it has more to do with international container sizes. My wife is a civil engineer specialising in roads, bridges and highways design and her job is made much more straightforward knowing the maximum dimensions of a HGV.
A major factor that the video doesn't mention is Europe's extended train network. It's a lot more efficient to transport large groups of cargo over long distances by train, and then using a truck for the last few hours. Of course that doesn't mean cross-continent jobs don't happen, but they're a lot rarer than in the US.
The US freight train network is actually larger than the one in Europe (over twice the length of track of the European network). It is usually used for high volume goods rather than just general transport.
@@rich7447 its size doesn't really matter if it's built like garbage. Single-lane tracks that are very low quality and aren't put under maintenance ever. If it was a good network with at least passing tracks frequently enough or just 2 tracks the entire way, trains could go twice as fast with tons more trains going at one time.
@@Slimmeyy Freight trains aren't moving at close to the speed that the tracks can take anyway.
@@rich7447 Sounds like cope.
@@KoeddkHD Not sure what you mean by that.
Trucks something we are proud of here in little Sweden 🇸🇪
Scania Volvo Power 💪
Also most of the American brands of trucks are owned by those two companies, so don't think there's much difference, apart from the cab
@@pegamini7582 Ironically, Volvo and Scania were forbidden to merger as EU considered the result "too dominant", but had no problems with VW buying MAN and Scania...
@@BPo75 because Volvo already has at least one merger a "few years" back... with Renault trucks...
I guess they evaluated the size of Volvo being to big to get Scania in addition while the VW - MAN - Scania was probably considered more manageable on a anti trust regard...
@@d.p.2680 There is some big differences though. European trucks often have 700+ horsepower, sometimes up to 800, while the us trucks have 400-600 horsepower, and a lot more torque on the European trucks. Turning radius is also a lot better because of the straight front. The difference in length between european and american scania/volvo trucks are also quite different. In most European countries the trucks are not allowed more length than metioned in the video. But in places like Sweden the trucks can be up to 113 feet, where as the american trucks have a limit to 65 feet. And the US trucks in general can have a max weight of 80 000 pounds, while the swedish scania/volvo its legal to have up to 148 000 pounds.
13:25 That situation is called in Germany an "elephant's race". It's now forbidden in most places.
To point out, every European truck in this video has a sleeper cab. And furthermore, although truckers in Europe aren't generally owner operators, the long haulers still live in their trucks for weeks or months at a time. The distances from the Mediterranean, let's say, to the north of Finland or Norway are vast and there are tons of truckers who work on these routes. It also takes a different skill set to work on an international trucking route in Europe compared to the US, for example you would have to speak multiple foreign languages more or less fluently.
Yes. With cabotage, European drivers can be on the road for weeks. He seems to think drivers in Europe stay in their own country. They often cover thousands of kilometres at one time.
I have been a freight forwarder in Germany for 20 years and can say. A driver only needs his native language, it works. Truck drivers speaking several languages fluently is an exception.
Trucks actually are allowed in all lanes (if there is no sign explicitly baning them), but no vehicle is allowed in an other lane than the most right lane, if it does not takeover an other vehikle. And as 40-ton-trucks (maximum weight in Germany for trucks that have no special permition) have a general speed limit on Autobahns of 80kmh (50mph), they are generally the slowest participants in trafic and therefore usually in the most right lane
In Hungary it's illegal for trucks over 7.5 t to overtake on two lane highways between 06:00 and 22:00
@@mihalygyori4280 We have the same here in Belgium.
We have 3 lane and 2 lane highways and the 2 lane highways have the same ruling.
On the 3 way ones they can take over but that will always leave the most left lane open. It can still slow down traffic a bit though.
czcams.com/video/td7JUfBAL1Q/video.html
That is wrong. According to paragraph 7, section 3 of the StVO ( traffic law) in Germany, the left lane on three- or more lane highways mustn't be used by trucks with a maximum permissible mass of more than 3.5 tons, as well as by all motor vehicles with trailers. Exceptions are only made for accidents or other things that block the use of the other lanes. Adding to that there is a rule about passing - Since 2008 the max time for one truck to pass another vehicle is 45 seconds. If it takes longer the fine is 80€. No more drag races of trucks over miles or it gets expensive for them.
@@mihalygyori4280We in the UK are only allowed to use lanes 1 and 2. If a lane 3 is available we are strictly prohibited from using that at all times.
On some roads near built up areas or climbing hills, during peak times or day times we are prohibited from using lane 2.
A crawler lane may be provided on some motorways, before either on or next to lane 1 for abnormal load transport.
At least some European lorries have a sleeping cabin. I once came across a British lorry driver who regularly travelled over to mainland Europe for his job and the only thing he got really animated about was his lorry and all its wonderful features.
Yeah, it is not all that uncommon, 2 bunks in some of them even, they can also have small fridge/coolers (usually coupled to the aircon cooling duct) and microwaves. Also more modern ones have flat floor. They are still more cramped overall, but the cab area tends to be more spacious in the European truck with pull out tables and the seats moving for dining use if traveling with a partner. A lot of the other comfort complaints of cabovers are out of date too, modern European trucks float the cab on pneumatic suspension dampaning engine vibration and noise, meanwhile the seats have their own are pneumatic suspension. There is a lot of other tech in an EU truck that hasn't come to the US yet or is only just starting too. Full LCD display dashboards able to change to show different things as the driver wishes. Cameras for side mirrors giving larger field of views, less blind spots and not affected by rain making them wet in the same way (this is a controversial one, people like them but say they can be unrealiable from what I've heard).
most do yes
Having driven trucks in the UK and the US, I feel that I have an understanding of the factors governing both places. If I were to go into all the factors that are currently in my head I would still be writing this next week!
As you rightly said, the size of the roads is a defining factor when it comes to design. Pretty much every tractor unit I have ever driven in the UK has a drivers bunk in it, some even have a top bunk too. The wheel layout is very different as well. You will notice that with the US trailers the wheels are all the way at the back where as on a European trailer the front wheels are almost half way up. This aids manouverability when used with a European standard tractor unit. The turning circle of a European tractor unit is very much tighter than a US unit. You can drive a European unit forwards into a jackknife. Also the visibility is such that the driver can put their head out of the window and see down the side of the trailer rather than having smoke stacks obscuring the direct view this also means that the cab is wider where the driver sits.
The wheel positioning on the US tricks is to distribute the weight over as much road as possible. I discovered when I was delivering cement to road building projects in Texas and Louisiana how shallow the roads are there. This leaves them very liable to subsidence and they would not stand up to European trucks very well. I haveany other things I could point out but I have a life to live!🤣
Hi I've driven trucks reallife in Europe a long time ago but have no clue about the US. But nowadays I'm playing truck games (wohooo) and I always wondered why US trailers have the axles all the way back. You mentioned it - but do you know why they do it that way? It's soooo inconvenient and I find no logic behind or what would work better.
Thanks
@@DGF042, we call it the "bridge law", and it is to distribute weight more evenly over the length of the truck, with individual axle weights being up to 20,000 pounds without permit. For a typical truck, grossing 80,000 pounds, the weight is set at 12,000 pounds on the steer axle, 17,000 pounds on each of the two axles in the drive pair, and 17,000 pounds on each of the two axles on the trailer pair. Our roads are built much lower quality with minimal ability to handle weights outside of that, and it is limiting the ability for advancement and the ability of the USA to match the efficiency of the rest of the world
There is one more big difference not mentioned in the video. In Europe, if the truck delivers goods from, let's say, Portugal to Finland, most likely several ferries will be used on the route where the driver will eat, sleep and relax and the total driving distance will be significantly reduced. Northern Spain - UK, UK - Scandinavia, Northern Germany - Baltics etc. That's not the case for the U.S where they just drive it all.
Good point!
Bingo
And like someone said in the comments, probably they would ship the goods from cargo train , just using the trucks from the train station to the destination
To my knowledge the only time you need to take a ferry is when you go to UK or Norway, or Sweden. Sorry to say that many drivers are from former east Europe countries and have been taken many times tiered by the police in Sweden. They drive for too many hours at a time so they can deliver on time. The time in Europe is shorter than a week in driving time, comparing to US.
@@Sorcerer86pt That is not often the case. A lot of cargo is transported on trucks only. Using the fairy is also very rare. The fairy is only used if you go to places like Finland swede, norway, or UK. And going to Sweden and norway also gets more and more rare by Fairy since they are building a new tunnel between germany and denmark.
Your maximum weight in the US is 80,000lbs, 36,288kgs, in Europe max weight is 40,000kgs,88,200lbs and in the UK max weight is 44,000kgs which is 97,000lbs and in Scandinavia in winter I believe the timber trucks can go up to 100 tonnes. The curtain sider or continental tilt is used due its lightweight and versatility ie groupage loads or fold up the curtains and roof and you can carry excavators or steel etc on the same trailer.
Nate, ohhh mate you haven't seen a BIG truck until you've seen an Australian road train! They can be as long as 53.5 metres which is over 175 feet long! Our truck road rules sound very similar to Europe's have a nice day!
Cattle Trains?
A big Train Truck in Australia is an eye catcher, but its nothing for the small roads or Autobahn in Germany or Europe Citys.
@@drwho1188 That's why they are only in Australia! The road trains don't drive in cities or on motorways, they drive only in the outback!
@@GumnutLaneJewellery yea there are a lot of road regulations for trucks between 5-10 trailers,
When they enter suburban and city areas they have to drop their trailers and enter with 1-2 trailers, here in WA the regulations are slightly different as through some cities/towns we see 3-5 trailers at most, and further inland we see 5-10 trailers…
But yea our trucks are huge, my stepdad has 3 trucks
A kenworth (Day cab) Kenworth K100-200 on of those and another Kenworth something the nickname is (Big brute) it’s a huge truck, it couldn’t fit into his shed it was that tall (exhausts)
Also he should check out the Centipede.
@@GumnutLaneJewellery Wrong. Two trailer config is able to travel on most roads. Two trailer = 2x12m trailers with a conecting dolly.
Advance Driving Instructor here, we have the same problem with trucks in 2 lane dual carriageways/motorways trying to overtake one another causing huge queues behind them, our highway code states that in this situation the slower truck being overtaken must consider slowing down to help the truck overtaking pass you, not law, but it is a highway rule, and for those that adhere to it, it does help. Great post. 👏🏻👏🏻
advanced driving instructor, is that the same as an L driver in europe hahaha
"Lease their trucks from a company"? Never heard of that business model, but that would still count as an owner-operator, I'd think. In Europe, however, the vast majority of truckers are _employees._ The trucks are owned by the company. And while there are still long-distance truckers that spend some time sleeping in their cabs, the typical length I've heard of is one week - they're usually back home on the weekend. So they don't need quite as much comfort in their temporary quarters, and they're not the ones paying for the truck, anyway.
Yeah, I meant that the company owns the truck and the driver just uses it. Not necessarily "leasing" the truck from the company. This seems to be the case most of the time, but there a lot of drivers that own their truck as well. Sorry about the confusion!
I drove for a small company here in DK. We had 6 trucks, they were all leased. Many trucks are leased. If you see a bright white truck without markings/labels, there is a good chance it is leased. A huge amount of trailers are leased too.
There are a couple of companies that lease their trucks to the driver and dispatch for them. I think Schneider might be one of them (It's been a couple of years since the truck company recruiting presentations in CDL class).
We have soft sides (Plane und Spriegel) and hard sides (Koffer) esp. all coolers will be hard-sided. We have the model where the trailer (Auflieger) is over the back part of the actual truck (Zugmaschine) like what you normally see in the US and we have the truck and trailer (a separate trailer behind the actual truck = Hängerzug). The latter one is very practical in narrow environments as you can leave it outside e.g. on a wide street in an industrial area and just drive with the shorter truck alone into the city center or historical old town.
In Germany, trucks have a speed limit of 60 km/h on overland roads and 80 km/h on the Autobahn (and all other roads with similar features = min of two lanes in every direction with a physical separation between directions).
In Germany, all vehicles (including trucks) have to go 20 km/h faster than the vehicle they want to overtake. Nonetheless, we often have situations where trucks try to overtake each other with a speed difference of less than 20 km/h and we call that "Elefantenrennen" (elephants' race).
Recommendation for you: take a look at Volvo and Scania and their development in getting trucks to brake and come to a full stop on a dime (figure of speech). Really amazing to see how effective their braking systems are
I have seen demonstrations of automatic braking systems in Germany, on a Mercedes semi flat bed truck loaded with 40 t of steel beams, back in 2003. The way the truck handled itself, without the driver touching the brake pedal or the steering wheel, was spectacular, but what impressed me the most was the guy in the Mercedes Class B car who stopped his car on the track for the demonstration, waiting for the truck behind to come along !
You got yourself a fan. I love the way you thinking. And specially counting that you American. Thoughtful American is so rare... I glad that USA still have people like you. 👍
In North America tandem axles on a semi is the norm. In Europe single axles are used far more often than tandems. This is because Europe allows more weight per axle that North America does. Soft side trailers are normally used for multi deliveries and pickups because the load can be placed anywhere along the trailer and loaded or unloaded with a forklift. Soft sides are actually gaining popularity in North America for this very reason and the fact that the trailers tend to be lighter so more freight can be loaded.
One of the reasons for sleepers that was not mentioned is security. Thieves are far less likely to try and break into a trailer when a truck has a sleeper simply because there is normally a driver in the truck. There are wireless alarms available that are triggered by the trailer doors being opened and these alarms transmit to a monitor in the cab. If the monitor sounds a trucker can call the law on a cellphone. In the US, the driver might also be armed and confront the thieves with it.
B-trains (two trailers) are fairly common in North America and can run up to 90 feet in length with a maximum cargo load of 62.3 tons on 7 axles. In Europe a B-train can run up to 82.9 feet in length with a maximum cargo load of 60 tons based on 6 axles. Different axle combinations can increase or decrease the total gross weight.
The advent and use of "driverless" trucks is being tested in North America so companies can eliminate the cost of a driver(s). I personally think that these units will still be required to have a driver despite what others might say. My reasoning is simple. The possibility of a malfunction could leave 40 tons of truck and trailer careening down the road with no one able to stop it. The tests that have been run in California proves my point. There have been two fatalities to date. The problem is that the trucks can recognize a car stopped in front of them and act accordingly. They do not however recognize motorcycles or bicycles.
Thanks for the added information. Very informative!
@@NateLawsonLorry is also used in Ireland
Considering some of the proposals include a convoy of driverless trucks, they just made a less efficient version of a train. And yes, despite having the most controlled environment and theoretically easier to automate, trains still have drivers for the reasons you stated (just square your weight figure) plus more:
• regulate throttle during wheel slips and apply sand if needed.
• coupling and decoupling cars.
• being able to monitor the payload (difficult on freight, easy on passengers).
• precisely position the train between signal blocks, especially if a signal must be deliberately passed on danger (to couple another train set).
So far, only the passenger light electric multiple units are fully autonomous (Docklands Light Railway).
@@dbclass4075 An Irish transport engineer proposed replacing rail freight with that bar the lack of driver. I doubt your man took into consideration the time to stop.
@@dbclass4075 In Denmark we have a "driver less" Metro, below Copenhagen and after some initial problems they now functions efficiently, with a very short time between the trains. Also the more ordinary trains in town are to loose the driver during some years (We also have an area with a driver less buss). We have also started using extra long trucks, named Modular, between a limited number of Hubs, for unloading to smaller units at those. Finn. Denmark
Being a trucker myself, I like the looks of the US trucks better. But, Europeans are spending as much time in their trucks as Americans do, cause we drive all across Europe. At lest a vast majority of truck drivers do. It's actually a problem, because if you need to find a place to park for the night, most of the time, you will search for hours. Because parking lots for trucks "Rastplätze" are overpopulated. Those truck track races actually happen that often in Europe, that we do have a name for it in Germany. They called "Elefantenrennen (elephant races)" and it's the same damn thing. So, regardless the rules, it happens everywhere. most of the time on hills, where trucks with heavy loads slow down. But there is another truck behind it, that goes 2 km/h faster and feels the need to pass. I am guilty of that myself from time to time. But there actually is a reason for that. Because of the weight, it would take ages to get to a acceptable amount of speed once you hit the break. So it FEELS like, it would make much more sense to get passed that slower truck. In the end, it might not make more sense, to be honest. But you know... humans :D
Elefantenrennen. I’ll have to use that term here!
If the truck thats being overstaken by a other truck takes a bit of speed back. So that the overtaking truck can pass faster you don't have these problems. If a other truck overtakes me i drop my speed a bit so that he can faster overtake me. And if he is pass me a resume my normal speed. So you don't get traffic jams.
Not mentioned is the fact that allowed total mass in Europe is in general more than in the US, which seems a bit strange in respect with the limited length.
It differs depending on country, but Germany and Switzerland are the same as the US (40 metric tons=88.000lbs), but many countries have a 50 metric tonnes limit, which is 110.000lbs
Some countries like the Norway, Sweden, Finland and the Netherlands allow longer and heavier trucks where an additional trailer can be coupled to a semi trailer or an articulated semi trailer is used.
These can go up to 25,25m or 83ft and 60 metric tonnes or 132.000lbs.
We have beds, TV and small fridges in our long haul cabover. I have driven long haul here in Europe for a few decades and slept well in my rig. The beds are located right behind the seats and above each other. I will say this, we could always wish for better comfort as in living goes. But it's fine for a week or two. Also I drove a Scania 143 nose truck for a year in city traffic doing road work. The difference between nose and cab over in city driving are huge. I have a lot more to say about driving in lanes but I'll keep it short. We can drive in every lane unless otherwise stated, however we do tend to stick in the right lane as our trucks are speed limited. Now back in the days where cruise control and automatic transmission wasn't as common as it is today we would just keep our pedal pegged. But small differences in the limited speed made it more comfortable to pass as you could rest your leg in that way. Also different loads, engines and skill makes a huge difference in hilly terrain, not being able to pass a substantial slower truck would cost you a lot of time and diesel as you lose all your momentum. Now if only all drivers would learn how to keep and maintain turbo pressure..
Hint: EVEN CARS are REQUIRED to "stay in the right lane if there is no traffic" in Germany [I got pulled over by the cops on an empty 3-lane Autobahn in the middle of the night, just a little "finger waggling" though]. The reason is simple: there might be a MUCH FASTER car coming behind you, but it also leaves a lane for overtaking.
every european country teach this in driving school , Rght lane always, only left to overtaking
Same in Belgium, no driving in the middle lane when the right lane is free.
Yes, that's general rule all over Europe. Although to many tend to forget. it. Annoying like hell!
Check out some nordic trucks! Like Scania and Volvo, they are very asceticly pleasing! To customize trucks is very popular here in Sweden.
I'll check it out!
Soft side trailers are also lighter so they can load heavier cargo to those. They have hard side trailers too in Germany at least for those goods that require controlled temperatures like food etc.
Like the video said, the measurements of the trucks vary in Europe. Here in Finland we have the longest and tallest trucks purely because of the long distances. The max length is 34,5 meters (113,2 ft ?) and max height is 4,4 meters (14,4 ft ?). Max weight of these beasts with the cargo is 76 tonnes. Still the cabin is small like shown on the video but then again, why would you need more space than that? I have a bed, two seats, a fridge, a microwave oven, coffee maker, a PlayStation, laptop and plenty of storage space in here. I live 7 days straight every other week in the truck. There are sufficient amount of truck stops along the main roads that have showers and saunas meant for truckers.
You can see max lengths and weights and much more track rules in Finland in this site
www.volvotrucks.fi/content/dam/volvo-trucks/markets/finland/trucks/VETOAUTO_juliste_2019.pdf
In Australia, we basically have every truck brand and model available to us, so we have cab over trucks and bonneted trucks, we get trucks from Europe, Asia America and we make some ourselves and we run rigid trucks all the way up to road trains of 3 to 4 trailers long, we are lucky here
The fabric that you mentioned its called a tarp... and a tarp trailer is indeed more versatille.... you can slide both sides and loading and unloading can be done sideways as well... in fact most tarp trailers even have the roof detachable... yep... you can slide the roof all the way to the front of the trailer and you cam also load and unload from the roof...
This means that tarp trailers can carry special cargo that is usually impossible to load from the rear...
The downsides of driving with a tarp trailer are a few...
-mentenance for once... it is harder... the driver has to secure the tarp... place the customs cable on both sides... and tie up the tarp in a decent manor so that the tarp doest shake at high speeds...
- another con is the durability of the tarp... its waaay more fragile then a box trailer... and there have been cases of unsecured cargo going straight through the tarp and spilling on the road...
- the final con is influenced by the durability again.. and that is safety of cargo... tarp trailers are by faaar every thieff's main objective... its verry easy to access it... you can straight up cut it with a box knife... and that is how most thieves operate... they cut a small hole in the tarp to see what kind of cargo there is inside... and if its something that he can carry off he will then make a larger hole for him to get in and out with whatever goods he can get his hands on... it only takes them less then a minute to do this and they act at night when the driver is a sleep...
In Germany side by side trucks on the Autobahn called „Elefantenrennen“ (elephant-race)
In Europe there’s Volvos and Fords with long nose a friend of my father that owned a construction materials supplier company use to have them back in the 90s!
In the UK we tend to use HGV (heavy goods vehicle) for all trucks and "artic" to refer to articulated tractor-trailer (semi) units.
The overview thing is probably less of a thing in the US as there are much less pedestrians and cyclists.
In Europe, intermodal actually works. In US, you put a shipping container on a train, it dissapears for a month.
We do have solid sided trailers but these tend to be for certain types of goods such as refrigerated items and possible un-palleted goods (and yes I have unloaded them working for the Argos, which is a British Catalogue retailer, in the 1980's)
Longnose trucks are also available in Germany and throughout Europe.The Scania brand in particular stands out for its numerous such models. But they are also available from Mercedes, Volvo, DAF, and some other manufacturers.
Volvo was the last European manufacturer who had build these US-Style Trucks for the European market and stopped production for Europe roughly 10 years ago. They now produce these kinds of Trucks only for the North-American market in North-America. The last Mercedes Long-Nose was build in the 1970's......as far as I remember. So, they are not readily available in Europe in some Truck shops.....
Finally someone that uses Common Sense!
In Sweden there's a passing ban for trucks on the highway certain times of the day when traffic is heavy mornings and afternoons.
In Europe we also have the problem of trucks overtaking trucks and blocking the highway. It drives me crazy when I come across that
In Sweden we have truck with trailer combined to 25m (82feet) with a dolly and trailer
I'm a Swedish Truck driver.
Swedish run semi-trucks are very uncommon.
Basically all semi trucks come from former eastern european countries with low or no salaries.
We hate them and call them cockroaches because they do our jobs for basically no pay.
In Sweden the most common combination is a 24 metre (79foot) boxbody solution.
A truck with a boxbody and a trailer or a truck with a boxbody + dolly and a trailer reaching up to about 81 foot.
Our maximum allowed, total combination weight in Sweden, is 74 tonnes. (163 000lbs)
Unfortunately our length regulations are very strict.
The guy in your video has probably never driven a truck in Europe and seems to have no idea about what he is talking about, sorry.
Lorry are what was basically a trolley pulled by horses back in the day
Cab over is the norm in New Zealand
Ranting about trucks on the left lane made me chuckle. Trucks do change after they overtook another truck in europe. But that can take a while. That maneuver is called "Elephant's race" (Elefantenrennen) in German and people complain about it all the time here, too.
General speed limit for trucks in Europe is 80kph/50mph.
Only few countries do have a slightly higher speed limit for domestic trucking.
All trucks are fitted with a speed limiter usually set at 85kph - some up to 89kph.
Here in Germany (and most of Europe) all vehicles are required to stay in the right lane no matter whether truck or car.
Left lane is for passing only.
On most 2-lane Autobahns trucks are prohibited from passing. Usually only on 3 or more lane Autobahns trucks are allowed to pass.
Cabover semi's are standard here because of the total length limits we have.
Operators try to sqeeze out as much load volume/length as possible.
Btw. we do have a lot of owner/drivers here ...
P.S. I am a truck driver in Germany.
I drive a MAN TGX 18.440.
My employer has both solid wall and curtain slider trailers
...
Truckdriver from Sweden here, we have a total tonnage on our trucks at 64 tons depending on the qualification on the road, total width of our trucks are 2.60 meter (8.6 feet) and longest haul can be 25,25 meter (82 feet), however we can have higher width and tonnage as well as length, but then we need special permits. And you are correct about why the trucks are cab on and nose trucks, we have a lot of smaller and curvy roads here, specially in northern Sweden, and we usually drive with 3 - 4 axles cause 2 axle trucks are not suitable for our snowy climate up north. About the comfort, mostly our trucks are having full air suspensions both back and front, also the cabin is on air including the chairs, so basically feels like we are sitting on clouds ;) but to be fair...I do love the look of your American trucks as well, but I do love a pimped out cab over as well :D
I hope my next truck is a v8 scania.
In the UK and Europe, a lot of vehicle traffic rules or laws are based on a vulnerability principle scale. The bigger the vehicle, the higher the duty of care to smaller vehicles, including pedestrians in built-up areas, which of course brings in tighter regulations.
As with heavy plant or factories and storage & distribution logistics centres (warehouses), there's a tiered structure of responsibility according to the vulnerability principle.
Finally someone that uses Common Sense!😊
Cool to hear 'Lorry' in that accent. Good times.
He forgot LKW
The side curtain is more versatile because you can open the roof and load from the top,
A couple of weird things are that despite the fact that Euro trucks are speed limited, they are also more powerful than US trucks. The Volvos and SCANIA V8s have bigger, more powerful, and torquey engines than US trucks. This is to cope with some of the very steep hills in Europe.
That would depend on application, it’s not uncommon for an American truck to be 650+ horsepower when the job demands it. I’ve driven many trucks with more than 550 horsepower and around 2,000 ftlbs of torque. But for most long haul dry box freight (the most common use for trucks in America) that would be unnecessary, 350-400 horse trucks can do that job easily because they’re rarely very heavy.
Standard Scania V8 770s gives 3700 Nm , nothing can keep up with me on a big hill . Never Late in a V8
@@SuperDriver379 - In this case we're talking about horsepower standing north of 750! ;-)
I really liked your reaction. You’re well spoken and actually give very constructive feedback on how you feel about certain things. Interesting fact: here in Poland they just banned overtaking for trucks on high speed roads. Have a good one 🤘
Yeah Nate! The speed limits for trucks in the US is crazy!! Damn!! intresting content as usual brother!
Agreed. In Australia, they are speed limited to 100km/hr (although rumour has it many trucks have these limiters disabled).
We call it elephant race in Poland. Now it is not allowed on highways but some truckers still do it on occasion
Road size is one of the biggest reasons.. my uncle knows many places where even our european trucks some loading/unloading docks are in such tight spaces its like you only have centimeters of manouvering space and someone from the store comes out to help communicatie with the driver about the space. If the trucks are any bigger you just wont be able to fit around those corners.
Here in Australia we have both long nose and what we call snub nose semis, we also have the fabric side and the solid metal side, most of the semi trucks here are 22 wheelers.
We have trucks we call road trains that tow several tailers at a time, because this country's population is mainly around the cost, in the outback areas there are not a lot of main highways or railways so the trucks have to be longer.
I'm not sure but I think we have the world's longest straight stretch of road.
Great video, Cheers.
Nev from South Australia.
The most dangerous part is the fact that overtaking is allowed left ànd right, rightly heavily fined in Europe
I really dont care about trucks whatsoever but you are really easy to listen to on a not do great day
Thank you! And I hope your day gets better!
Heavy Goods Vehicle (HGV) was in my day referred to as a juggernaut
One of the main problems with overtaking is that the driver in the right lane suddenly speeds up when you've pulled up beside him and seems determined to neither let you pass him/her, nor to let you slow down a bit and merge behind him/her. I've had this happen on several occasions when driving a vehicle that just hadn't much overspeed on the highway. It's really annoying and it causes a lot of angry drivers behind you and it's all just because some a**hole decides to play a game.
About Lanes. Here in Sweden we have normally 2 lane sometimes 3 if it’s a hill. Right lane here is drive lane. And left lane are an overtake lane. If you don’t go to right After an overtake and just drive in left lane for no reason it’s a ticket from the police. Some time on the clock we have rule for trucks not passes other trucks just to not block the traffic when it hi traffic loads for an example from 7-9 on morning and 3-5 on the afternoon. Because trucks have speed limits to 90km/h on hiways there are 110-120km/h
Greetings from Sweden! My hubby is a trucker and drives a Scania R660 Streamline. We often talk about his day and there is always reactions on how people behave on the roads; trucks as well as cars and cyclists. I think we have a pretty good regulation when it comes to truckdriving;tacograph card and regulations for resting time and pauses (with penalty fees between 50-2000 dollars depending on what you have done). The speed limit for trucks in Sweden is 80-90 km/h (about 50-59 miles/h) depending on what sort of road you are driving on and if you drive with or without a trailer. We have overtaking files/fast files and you only uses them to get by. Stopping the traffic by driving side by side is only allowed in the ordinary files, like in the city except from the bus/taxi file where only emergency vehicles is allowed to drive if there is a traffic jam.
The biggest issue my hubby has is in fact cyklists when driving in the city but some car drivers also should not get into the traffic with a car. As he and I see it, being on the road is a teamwork between all the road users. If everybody help each other the traffic will go smooth and less accidents will happen. One has to think when driving! My hubby mostly drive gravel to contructions sites, heavy loads, and coming downwards a slope towards a junction/roundabout can be risky in wintertime even with special tires for winter and taking it slow. Many car drivers pay attention and let him go first but some just slides in before him just because it is their right to do so because of the traffic rules. Yes, rules is to be followed but you also have to have som safety thinking. There is a lot of regulations and I do not know them all, but I think regulations is a good way to go. During the last 10 yrs only 66 truck drivers have died and I guess that not all of them died in traffic but also in loading/unloading their trucks. That is not much in 10 yrs...well, zero had been better but...
In Germany, everyone is obligated to use the rightmost lane available to them, not just trucks. Car drivers just ignore that rule for the most part because the rightmost lane is usually filled up with trucks already anyway
As most drivers in Europe aren't owner drivers, the best way to improve road safety would be that owner/operator got prosecuted too for all offenses.
10:00 I have to correct the video here. 18.75 m or 61" length are only for trucks with a trailer. Semis are limited to 16.5 m or 55" of length. Thus, with a 40" container, or 45" for a Maersk container, you have a limit of 15" or just 10" for the cab. And then you have to subtract the room the turning container needs behind the cab, and you are left with 7" to 12" for the cab.
In Europe there are new laws that affect the design of the truck. Having near zero blind spots is one of the safety requirements of new truck designs and older designs must be outfitted with extra mirrors to eliminate any blind spots. Yes the roads are narrower with sharper corners in Europe. The soft side trailers are popular throughout Europe since warehouse space is not setup like ours in the USA. Soft sides and lift sides ( similar to the folding aircraft hanger doors ) allow for the loading and unloading of the trailers without having to back up into dedicated warehouses. They just open the sides up and load and unload with forklifts. This is very convenient for deliveries within the cities where there might only be a small storage facility with no room for conventional docks. Forklift removes pallets of goods and lowers them down to "street level" and rolls into the storehouse.
There are long haul trucks in Europe especially those transporting fruits and vegetables from the breadbasket regions to less productive regions. Spain is known for citrus and other vegetables production which it ships to the rest of Europe. The same applies to grains which are grown in the central to northern regions of Europe which must be transferred to Southern Europe. The same applies to shipping to the U.K. where produce and goods from Europe are exported to the U.K..
If it wasn’t for the corrupt president Lynden Baines Johnson, the rail industry would be booming today shipping cargo between major hubs and allowing trucking to handle local distribution. This would have been a major fuel saver and a reduction of emissions as well as eliminating the congestion of trucker traffic on the interstate system. BTW, the interstate system was designed by the federal government with first priority going to the military to transport military equipment from one region to another. So if you ever are driving in the left lane and you happen to notice a convoy of military vehicles pull up behind you, get over to the right lane ASAP!
I remember an incident on one of the Southern Commonwealth State where a local sheriff tried stopping a convoy of military vehicles where the lead and the tail vehicular had a blue beacon turned on. Least to say he thought he was going to get the whole lot for speeding 8mph above the limit, instead he received a free trip to the base of destination of the convoy and was held liable for delaying the convoy and I believe from what I read years ago charges were on a federal level.
Cabovers sre popular in Australia because of their length. Australian trucks are measured by total length so cab overs can keep overall length legally.
Thanks... you showed me which clip to watch.
the speed limit to 80 KPH was made for 2 reasons at the beginning first was the brakeway you need to stop your truck in emergency the other is fuelconsumption
In Germany, when trucks overtake each other, we call it an elephant race.
In Sweden trucks can be up to 25,25meters (82feet) on all roads and up to 34.5 meters (112feet) on some roads.
Trucks in Europe are 8ft 6" wide (2,6m), so about the same as in the USA.
In Finland the HCT vehicles (high capacity transport) are 34,5 meters (113ft)
The aerodynamic argument is spurious. For a long vehicle like a tractor trailer rig , the drag is equal to the frontal area , at the speeds trucks travel at. A smooth pointed nose makes virtually no difference. A pointed nose with turbulence generators like fenders etc. sticking out is worse than a flat front with rounded corners.
He didn't mention the torque of the trucks where European trucks have a higher torque for climbing up steep hills and mountains...
I am enjoying this Video. It is a topic that “normal” people never really get to see unless they type it in. Instead we are bombarded by adds of how to get rich without doing one little bit. Those adds (great-here we go again 🙄 )… well, is this my fate or will I be stuck watching teenagers who want me to believe that nothing else matters… instead of money? Channels like this are offering a new way to think about a lot and really are eye openers. The range of topics is not solely about “How to test half a million lipsticks”. If we can understand the infrastructure from a different perspective and understand those who are driving, we can be of help and make it easier for everybody. Thank you!
Living in the UK, lorry’s are permitted to use the outside lane! But only to overtake, the rule applies to all vehicles. Then you are sir posed to return to the slow lane, a car cannot dive at 40 mph on a 60 mph road in the fast lane, while other road users are using the fast lane. You can’t Hogg the fast lane, because you are only allowed to overtake a vehicle on the driver side.
We do have American style trucks in the UK but they can only be used at certain times like through the night when there's less people and traffic
In general, trucks in Europe do not make very long journeys, although there are international transports that cross Europe. Some trains cross all of Europe carrying goods. The reason is simple. Geography has provided us with a coast accessible to almost all countries with many important ports, so goods arrive by ship and are then loaded by train or trucks for the final journey.
UK We have Volvo long nose tractors or unit, lorries are usually rigids you call semi's we call them artics, articulated
I agree about the asthetics of American lorries versus European ones. Pre aero-dynamic Peterbilts are gorgeous. I'm not a fan of them since they had all the aero-dynamic edges. The Peterbilt 379 is art.
In Europe most guys are using the company's trucks. They are just the workers as if they are working in the factory.
Hi, we call them curtainsiders in Europe, they basically can pull them aside and expose the whole side of the truck. If done correctly, you can unload both sides at the same time.
As for trucks overtaking, we do have issues with mr 55mph and mr 56mph, A34 in UK has restricted lane use at certain hours of the day. As you can guess am English, willing to help with Uk driving laws and regulations.
Short european flatnose trucks because regulation of length is overall length, not just the loading space. Longnose used to be more common but aren't really built anymore, with a few exceptions. Most have integrated sleeper cabs but it's a bed behind the driver's seat, not much more.
The main thing is the road network in Europe, some roads off the motorway network are very tight, especially here in Ireland. Some of the roads are tiny.
That speed of 80mph seems wreckless in a truck.
Scania had a bull nose truck which they no longer produce, it had a longline version, extra deep sleep/ living compartment which are enthusiasts collecter custom show trucks. some Scandinavian countries which have double semi trailers of 36 meters truck and 2 trailers
The drivers who spend a week+ in there trucks are called tramps, check out some Eddie Stobbart videos, documentary TV series on a large transport company and the deliveries and problems they face daily. They have a big fan club.
Guys, you need to listen to this guy 😎
Rome. Try to drive a small car in Rome and you will understand why practicality is necessary on European roads.
Yes you are right in Europe we are restricted by whole vehicle length where as in the USA only trailer length is restricted. In Europe we would find it very hard to at times to back up into loading bays with lengthy tractor units. Curtain sided trailers are lighter than box vans giving a higher payload. Reefers are solid box for strength. Trailers are generally 8 ft wide and of course take containers. (17.19)
The United States, my home and country, is absolutely allergic to regulation. Mavericks who a lot of the time break the rules, that's us. I ride a motorcycle and live in Los Angeles where people go through red lights all the time. Most industries were deregulated during the Reagan years and I think it was a huge mistake. God bless the USA but we need to make some important changes to how we do things. There...my rant is now over. Thanks, Nate, for the interesting video on how semi trucks are different in the US as compared to Europe.
God bless the usa? Thas not working is it?
Except if it is about regulating sex or female bodies, then some of you really want government to control every decision you are allowed to make.
I can only comment about UK road networks as I've never drove outside the UK, but the video briefly mentioned about road safety issues that's the reason for the lower max speed of the artic/trailer lorries (semi's).
Here in the UK most of our motorway network safety barriers that divide the two different flows of traffic are only strong enough to protects from HGV impact and crossing the divide as a side-swipe motion, head on collisions with the dividing barrier won't stop the HGV travelling across the divide and causing terrible chaos (I have witness death by HGV), one way is to help prevent this is to reduce the speed to of all HGV's over a certain weight 3.5 tonnes gross weight to a max speed of 60mph, and on motorways with more than two lanes all HGV's over 7.5 tonnes are restricted to the first two lanes (slow and middle lane) to reduce the chance of death by HGV.
The new course of road safety action here in the UK to try and curve incidents with HGV's going through the centre divide, is to make the centre dividing barrier from reinforced concrete slabs. Great you might think, but the MOT has vast amounts of data that this type of barrier kills more than it saves.
A Truck in the UK is anything that carries goods delivery. The Big Trucks that you mention are called 'ARTICS' here, shorthand for Articulated Trucks.
Articulated simply means 'hinged'
Bruce Wilson sure like his Scania in the usa :D
It’s mainly the size and manoeuvrability,
I worked as a roadie being the truck driver for touring bands
We was based in the UK but would your with bands all over Europe, as far as Morocco, Russia, Iceland etc so yes we would spend months in the cabs.
They are perfectly liveable inside,
As for the manoeuvrability, these trucks with the flat nose and a lot being 4 wheelers they can get into medieval built towns, major cities etc
There is a video of Chris Eubank struggling to make a turn in London in his private American truck without a trailer.
As a note, European trucks tend to be a bit more modern with more features and more engine power as loads up to and over 60 tons are not unheard of especially in Northern Europe.
Hello from Switzerland, to the cabins; Very few (central) European trucks are on the road for weeks, so you can certainly do without a certain luxury for a few days. Another point related to this is that you can't just go to a country, pick up a load and drive to any country, there are certain regulations to protect the local trucking industry. Only truck drivers from the Eastern European part are on the road longer, for wages where McDonalds probably pays more, the technical condition of these vehicles, which often cause serious accidents, is correspondingly poor.
To the construction; At the latest, if you have to drive to a mountain village somewhere in Switzerland or Austria or have to drive over a mountain pass, you want a truck with a good turning circle (small turning circle), because otherwise you will quickly be hopelessly lost. However, this can also happen to you on the side streets of a city.
I consider the size (and thus also the total weight, i.e. including the load) of the US trucks, combined with the high speed, to be very risky, apart from the fact that load securing is at best a recommendation that nobody cares about (this will checked particularly carefully in Germany, Austria and Switzerland and possibly also subject to high fines).
2 trucks on the freeway trying to overtake each other, we call it an elephant race. Years ago, a provision was made here that you must have overtaken the other truck within a certain (relatively short) distance, otherwise this can also result in a fine be occupied.
"Cheap labor" is one of the reasons for the current "pew pew kerfuffle" in eastern europe, because the EU wants the cheap labor (I looked it up years ago, so it might be different now) of ukrainians, where the AVERAGE WAGE is just €180 ... yes ... there is no zero missing. That's why nowadays about a third of trucking through Germany is from the "yellow-blue country".
The other reason is that our "friends from across the pond" never really stopped playing that Cold War game ... and still want to take stuff from "the big evil country" (which was completely broke in '89 ... but hey, propaganda can make people ignore that) and especially wanted the naval harbor on Crimea.
"Another point related to this is that you can't just go to a country, pick up a load and drive to any country". He speaks for Switzerland, not part of the european union. In countries that are part of the eu, you can do that. That's the main reason the eu was founded back then. That's the reason why you see so many polish trucks all over europe, especially in germany.
@@mowax74 yeah, he absolutely doesn't know what he is talking about...
Yes, you can just pick up a load and go to any other country. It’s called cabotage and many drivers spend weeks on the road at one time.
The Tarp side is exactly for that reason, opening the sides yes. 😄
there are truckers in Europe that spend 3 months in the truck, sleeping cooking and everything, but after these 3 months they are allowed to stay home the other 3 i belive
There is a general rule in all of Europe. Wherever you find two lanes, either roads or highways etc... you must drive ALWAYS on the right and the left is ONLY to overtake another vehicle. Before starting manoeuvring, You have to turn on the flashing light on the corresponding side to warn you that you are going to change lane. You can get a strong fine if you don't respect that rule.
Shout Out Buckeye, from Phoenix. Yes the i10 right there is a mess.
However, the problem is also known here.Often truck drivers try to overtake the demand, because they are 2 km / h faster, but then notice when overtaking that they were only faster because they drove in the slipstream. 😊 But of course, the trucks with a one-man long muzzle simply look better, but hardly any European truck driver would swap, because as described in the Vidio, driving in cities would be much too difficult and you would have to be much more careful. There is no better or worse, I think the technology of the truck manufacturers is quite mature with all of them.
Do they have an automatic speed limiter? I think that would be good for safety.
@@nevrynkinori3627 The speed limiter on ALL European trucks at 89 km/h. This includes All trucks and lorries from 7,5 tons GW and over (some countries although, include trucks from 3,5 tons and beyond..)
@@SV2LLJ 7500kg is a crazy low number. There are a ton of daily driver vehicles with a GWM/GVWR of 6350kg/14000 lbs in the US and Canada. Any DRW pickup is going to have a 14000lb rating.
@@rich7447 Well..That's the EU laws my friend.. We have more differences to discuss for, if you want.. For example the EURO Norms for the emmitions etc etc..I see you do not have them there in America. Another example... We see here in youtube some people renovating older trucks (ok...It is their money...) and work with them(??).. Here this would be impossible due to the EU emition Norms .. A truck older than EURO5 is ,at least, uneconimical to operate due to heavy tolls..(The older it is, the heavier tolls you pay for the roads) Of course there are many older trucks but most of them are for the shows only with special permits.. They are NOT working everyday.. Anyway...There are many differences and not only about the cabs...Have a nice day
@@SV2LLJ We have less strict emissions regulations for gas/petrol, but much more strict for diesel. The heavy tolling of older vehicles due to the emissions does not make sense. The emissions released to build a vehicle to replace one that is still in perfect working order offsets the slightly lower operating emissions of the new vehicle.
The reason why trucks can only be 18 m is that in the 1960s and -70s, most roads only had one lane in each direction. It made it difficult to overtake if there were a lot of meetings and difficult to know how long the truck to overtake was. To limit the dangers of very long vehicles, the length was limited to 18 m. in total. It would have been of no use if the trail was 18 m and then the tow truck could be a further 10 m, or 15 m. That limitation of 18 m was a huge improvement in the ability to overtake.
The left lane is only for overtaking. When you have overtaken, you must return to the right lane. This applies to all vehicles. You can't drive parallel to other vehicles either, because then you don't overtake a slower vehicle, but have to get into the right lane again. Overtaking in the right-hand lane is a big NO NO, if the road's maximum permitted speed is greater than 70 km/h. It allows you to follow the lane speed in the city if your lane starts moving faster than the left lane but doesn't work outside the cities.
The vast majority of deadly accidents here on the German Autobahn is when a truck hits the end of a traffic jam because the driver didn't pay attention or is fatigued. Speed limit for trucks here is even just 80kmh/50mph. I can't imagine how many cars a fully loaded truck will fold up when it's hitting the end of a traffic jam with 85mph. That's just insane.
I sometime ago caught a report about an accident in which a stationary Dump Truck, yeah it was a Traffic Jam, was propelled to upwards of 75 kp/h by the truck that hit it at near full speed.
Luckily it was a Dump Truck with break systems upgrade for heavy duty as that saved the cars in front of the truck that was hit
Yes its different rules/laws about trucking in europe, that probably dont fit in for USA?
In anyway im a swedish guy and we only alowe 24 meter total lenght, (78,7 feet?) and 64 tons (Kg) total weight (128 K pounds?)
And there is altso a limit for axel weight!
And there is a speed limit to 90 Km/h (55.9 miles/h?) for trucks, how do you know, there is a restriction to the engin.. if one driving faster, the engin cuts out! Soo its more pleasant to drive at 89 Km/H!
In anyway, we alowe longer and heavyer trucks in sweden then rest of Europe, its only the Finns that chalange us, on special purposed build roads! With that sayd, we build our roads/bridges to manage those weights, with a high marginal!
Another thing, in Europe truckdrivers isnt allowed to drive more then 8-9 hours a day, then they become security risks!
How do we then do long hauling, its easy, one swap drivers and the first one have a night sleep befor he take another truck home!
Whit that sayd, moste truck drivers are employees.. and if they need to sleep outside there own home they get extra payment for a cheap Motel at a truckstop!