Trucking in your country

[davidmkelly]

I have tried searching for weighstations and can't find any relevant threads on the topic. I am interested in weighstations around the world and wondered if anyone has any photos of them in their country. Weighstations are used to check trucks to see if they are overloaded. Weighstations can be static using a platform for measurement or dynamic using weigh in motion sensors or sometimes a combination of the two with dynamic sensors on the main carriageway to pre-select overloaded trucks to be pulled off for more accurate weighing and enforcement using a static weighing system.

Cheers

Dave

[Timon91]

In the Netherlands, there are some weighstations on highways, especially in the areas around harbours (Rotterdam). As you already said, this is done automaticly. Sometimes there are policecars waiting app. 1 km further to stop an overloaded truck. I don't have any pics, but I don't live near harbours, there aren't a lot in my area.

[ChrisZwolle]

The United States has a lot of weigh stations.

[PLH]

In Poland, where the problem of overweighted trucks(esp. RUS/UA) is very common, many weight stations by main roads appeared in last few years. To weight trucks we have Inspekcja Transportu Drogowego (Road Transport Inspection service):





I know that in Wrocław there are auomatic weighting sistem when entering the city using main roads. I have now idea if there is sth like that in other cities

[mgk920]

Originally Posted by Chriszwolle

The United States has a lot of weigh stations.

A lot of USA states also use portable scales and weigh-in-motion scales are also in use in some places.

Mike

[davidmkelly]

Thanks for the replies so far.

PLH - thanks for the Polish photos - do you know what type of sensors are used for weighing the trucks ? Do the inspectors carry round portable scales in their van ? The location where you took the photos looks like it is on the main carriageway which seems dangerous - or is it a lay by or pull off area somewhere ?

If anyone has any photos of the US weighing stations that would be great - I understand some of them are quite significant installations - maybe at border crossings between states ?

Edit - actually this site http://www.coopsareopen.com/ has lots of photos of weighstations in each US state.

Cheers, Dave

[PLH]

Actually the 2nd pics was taken during truck accident, so the controls are not on the road shoulders. We have special station for that, but I don't have pics of them
The scales are either portable or fixed in the road

[PLH]

Originally Posted by davidmkelly

The location where you took the photos looks like it is on the main carriageway which seems dangerous - or is it a lay by or pull off area somewhere ?

I've found one picture:


It was taken by smar on former road 2 near Poznań, now minor road 92

[x-type]

in Croatia the first should be buit soon near Karlovac at A1

[ChrisZwolle]

This thread is not meant to show off the biggest or nicest trucks driving in your country

Trucking. A vital part of our modern society, but trucks are very unpopular among automobile drivers, they're slow, big and especially like to bully you by overtaking with 2 mph difference. Or not?

Show how the trucking is in your country.

Let's start with the Netherlands.

I said in another topic:

The Netherlands is like the least truck-friendly country in Europe. You hardly can park them anywhere except on rest areas along motorways and on the company terrain. But if you're a single truck business (like most US truck businesses are), you cannot park your truck near your home for instance, it's nearly everywhere forbidden within city limits. They don't make separate parking areas near city limits for that purpose either.

Besides that, the number of steep speed bumps, extremely tight roundabouts and tight curves are uncountable. Not to mention the current renewing of road layout, where the lanes are only 2,75m wide, while a truck is 2,55m wide and barely fits within the road markings, not to mention the mirrors that make a truck even wider. If trucks pass eachother on provincial roads, they usually only have one or two decimaters to spare.

My dad drives on a truck for hobby on saturdays, distributing food for the biggest supermarket chain in the Netherlands.

As pictured below, getting to supermarkets is usually a nightmare for those who are not used to drive like this. Only with centimeters or inches to spare, they manage to drive through narrow streets, with cyclists circling around them, poles everywhere close to the roadway and no room to maneuver.




It's not better on the highways. Typical non-motorway lane width is 2,75 meters in the Netherlands. A truck is 2,55 meters wide, over 2,85m including mirrors. They don't have much more than a few inches to spare.


This is the N278 in the southern Netherlands, a major road! Look how much space they have left between the edges of the road and the truck itself.


Parking areas along motorway sometimes have insufficient space:


Also, the Germans like to close their borders on holidays for trucks, creating miles and miles of parked trucks on the shoulder waiting to enter Germany.

[PLH]

I can't belive your major roads are so narrow.

Here in Poland it's like that:

[x-type]

i work in trucking firm with large fleet. i agree that nobody likes trucks: car drivers because of slowing the traffic, railfans because of concurence, ecologists (no need to explain)... however, if most of those people would try to drive a truck, they would see how difficult it actually is. loading ramps are often at the most impossible places (Chriss has shown it allready), dead angles or reverse driving are the worst nightmares (not because of complexity, but because of danger not to hit somebody)

[ChrisZwolle]

Especially back in 2006, there was a major issue of Polexploitation.

Dutch trucking companies set up "offices" (usually just a post box) in Poland to "borrow" Polish drivers for trucking companies. This way, they've fired Dutch truckers, and put a Polish driver in the truck, saving a lot on wage costs. Quite some Dutch truckers lost their jobs this way. Ofcourse, it's a maze within the law, and illegaly, because they should pay Polish truckers according to Dutch wages, but they didn't. Hence, Polish truckers earned more, but had to drive very long shifts, like driving 4 weeks straight and then have a week off in Poland. This is why Dutch truckers where not very keen on Polish truckers (understatement) back then, though this attitude seems to change somewhat, and they accept Polish drivers. Ofcourse, wages increased a lot in Poland since their accession to the European Union, so it became less attractive to Dutch truck employers to hire Polish drivers.

Besides that, there are many rumours about how Polish drivers got their commercial license, it's said they didn't had a proper education, which exacerbates the public opinion, everytime a truck accident involved a Polish truck.

[Verso]

Our major roads aren't that narrow, but there's a big problem with parking spaces. Idk what more to say.

[RawLee]

Trucks are banned from central Budapest,and can traverse only a few roads actually in the city,1 or 2 cross routes,and the Hungária ring. Outside,roads are usually "wide". Trucks are required to have vignettes not only for motorways and expressways,but for some main roads too! I guess this was implemented to deter truckers from using ordinary roads instead of motorways.


(http://index.hu)

Roundabouts are still rare,but mostly only the old ones are narrow.

[ChrisZwolle]

Apparantly, some Renault Magnums can reach 140 km/h in the Netherlands

[wonwiin]

In Germany there were to interesting developements for truckers in recent history:

Toll for the Autobahn:
Every truck has to pay toll to use the Autobahn for some years now. A lot of trucks avoid this by using normal roads instead of the Autobahn and therefore worsen the traffic situation on these roads.

More breaks for truckers:
The law for taking breaks has been changed this or last year. Truckers have to take more breaks and therefore parking space on rest places is not sufficient anymore.

[WalkTheWorld]

Where do we start? Trucks rule here. I can see the problems in the Netherlands but they are not the only extremely crowded country with limited living space in Europe of course. And if you add mountains and hills to the picture it's a real bngo.

On some holly areas there's not even neough sace for bg rest areas so a few trucks will clutter the whole place.

Have no pictures available, maybe some fellow forumers can help. All I can say is that in the least metro crowded areas of the northern plain we have real large parking lots in the industrial areas (while trucks are banned from the inner city. Nt tow hosts a large interchange hub (road+rail+canal) which involves the presence of some large logistics hub. if you want to supply inner city businesses you MUST have light trucks.

[ChrisZwolle]

Originally Posted by wonwiin

In Germany there were to interesting developements for truckers in recent history:

Toll for the Autobahn:
Every truck has to pay toll to use the Autobahn for some years now. A lot of trucks avoid this by using normal roads instead of the Autobahn and therefore worsen the traffic situation on these roads.

Yes, and quite expensive. A trip of say, 500 - 600 kilometers through Germany costs about € 150,- Ofcourse, it's us at the counter who pay the price. Though I hope the funds will be used to widen certain Autobahnen which faces heavy truck traffic.

More breaks for truckers:
The law for taking breaks has been changed this or last year. Truckers have to take more breaks and therefore parking space on rest places is not sufficient anymore.

I heard about that. Especially on weekends, a lot of Raststättes are overcrowded with trucks. The rest areas with full services are spaced quite some distance apart. I think the regular small rest areas without services are insufficient for trucks. You can't order meals or take a shower there, usually only go to the bathroom. Besides that, they have very little parking space, especially the older ones.

But Germany, has one great feature many other countries don't have; the Autohof. Very extensive services, but can also be overcrowded. They're not situated right on the Autobahn, but usually near an exit, kind of the US style.

[Timon91]

Trucks are a big problem in Abcoude. There are a few shops in the city centre that are provided with their goods in the morning. I gave some further explanation about this in the Weird and Wonderful road signs thread.