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Jul 18, 2015

DOT's 6-axle truck DATA FLAWED * USA: The Coalition for Transportation Productivity says

* DC - Some of the crash data used by the U.S. Department of Transportation in its truck size and weight study was flawed

-- The Coalition for Transportation Productivity (CTP), a group of nearly 200 of the nation’s top manufacturers, shippers, carriers and allied associations, Tuesday delivered testimony urging the federal Transportation Research Board to examine truck weight safety data contained in the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Comprehensive Truck Size & Weight Limits Study. In his testimony, CTP Executive Director John Runyan highlighted what he said were several flaws associated with state-level data suggesting a higher crash rate for six-axle trucks — a conclusion referenced by DOT in its cover letter to Congress recommending against truck weight changes... Runyan said CTP supported carefully crafted truck weight reform giving each state the option to set higher interstate weight limits only for trucks equipped with six axles rather than the typical five. Because one-quarter of U.S. truck shipments meet the current interstate weight limit with space left in the trailer, this proposal would allow companies to meet demand with fewer vehicles and make the U.S. transportation network more efficient, especially as gross domestic product and population continue to grow... 
 Washington, DC, USA - The Trucker News - 15 July 2015

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Jun 9, 2015

THE BIGGEST & HEAVIEST TRUCKS OF THE WORLD * USA & Japan: Assembling one & Driving another

* Illinois - This is how they assemble one of those massive dump trucks

(Video from Cat® Products - Published Oct 29, 2014: This video shows a Cat® 797 Mining Truck being partly assembled at a Caterpillar manufacturing facility in Decatur, Illinois, and then the final assembly at a customer jobsite...) 

-- Everything about the Caterpillar 797 mining truck is huge. It's got 4,000 horsepower. The engine displacement is nearly 6,500 cubic inches. It weighs more than a million pounds and has a payload capacity of 400 tons. "Big" barely does it justice... What does it take to build such a monster? Caterpillar shows us in the Cat 797 assembly video. It starts at the plant in Decatur, ILL, but the pieces aren't assembled into a mammoth machine until they get out to the job site... A like this one can carry 400 tons in the back, or the equivalent of a little over 266 Honda Civics...


... And this it's the engine: The Caterpillar C175-20 ACERT. 20 cylinders, 105.8 liters, 4000 HP... 
Decatur, ILL, USA - Popular Mechanics, by Andrew Moseman - 5 June 2015


* Japan - You can park this building-sized Dump Truck like it's your mom's Nissan

(Video from Nissan Newsroom Published on Dec 15, 2014: Nissan is licensing two Autonomous Drive technologies to Hitachi Construction Machinery, bringing the visibility of cars to super-sized mining vehicles. The Around View Monitor and Moving Object Detection technologies are building blocks of Nissan's AD vehicles, and drivers will use AVM and MOD) 

 -- Hitachi has just licensed Nissan's 360º camera technology (called Around View Monitor, or AVM) to be retrofitted into their massive mining trucks. The cameras supplement the six mirrors already in place to keep drivers from running over workers, small cars, or other things you wouldn't feel under 12' tires... The setup puts downward facing cameras all around the vehicle. The views are "stitched together" on a little screen it looks like you're looking down on the vehicle from a third-person view... Seems like this kind of technology would be invaluable in a vehicle as cumbersome as a 2,500 horsepower dump truck designed to carry more than 251 tons... "The most dangerous times [operating a mining truck] are starting, stopping, and parking," said Tomohiko Yasuda, General Manager of Hitachi's Mining & Heavy Equipment Division who looked pretty thrilled to have a better vantage point behind the wheel of his behemoth... 
Yokohama-shi, Kanagawa, Japan- Truck Yeah!/Jalopnik, by Andrew P Collins - Dec 16, 2014

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Nov 25, 2014

OS/OW TRUCKS * USA: Exemption requested

* DC  - SC&RA seeks 30-minute break exemption for OS/OW loads

(Photo - There are between 50,000 and 75,000 oversized/overweight load permits issued in the United States each week)
Washington,DC,USA -The Trucker News Services -21 Nov 2014: -- The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has received an application from the Specialized Carriers and Rigging Association (SC & RA) for an exemption from the 30-minute rest break provision of the agency’s Hours of Service regulations for all permitted loads... The requested exemption would apply to specialized carriers and drivers responsible for the transportation of loads that exceed normal weight and dimensional limits — oversize/overweight (OS/OW) loads — and require a permit issued by a government authority... Because of the nature of the operation of OS/OW loads, the SC & RA said in its request that the association believes compliance with the 30-minute rest break rule is extremely difficult, primarily because of the limited (usually daylight) hours in which an OS/OW load can be transported as restricted by state permit requirements. There are thousands of OS/OW loads moving on the nation’s highways every day, data show... Steven Todd, SC&RA vice president, called the 30-minute rest break requirement a serious problem for the association’s members...

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Feb 4, 2012

HEAVY TRUCKS * USA

* DC - House Panel Votes to Delay Expansion of 97,000-Pound Trucks

(Image)
Washington,DC,USA -Bloomberg Businessweek, by Carol Wolf/Andrea Snyder/Bernard Kohn -February 2, 2012: -- A House panel voted to stop a measure written by its own chairman to allow 97,000-pound trucks on U.S. interstate highways and expand use of double- and triple- trailers in states that now allow them... The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee today voted 33-22 to delay any expansion in use of trucks weighing more than 80,000 pounds for three years, so the U.S. Transportation Department can study the potential effect on highway safety, roads and bridges... Bigger rigs may need the length of two football fields to stop, Tom Bracken, a lieutenant with the Delaware State Police, said yesterday at a news conference in Washington...

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