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Another reason is that longer trucks are harder to overtake on motorways, the longer the truck the higher the risks for accidents. Europe has smaller highways a
by jsdwarf 5y ago
Another reason is that longer trucks are harder to overtake on motorways, the longer the truck the higher the risks for accidents. Europe has smaller highways and country roads.
Furthermore truck logistics in the USA is mainly based on FTL (full truck load), which means the truck just drives from A to B. In Europe LTL (less than truck load) is more common, which means pickup and delivery on multiple stops. This requires a better maneuverability, hence shorter trucks.
- tgtweak 5y agoLTL also makes more sense with shorter trailers, since you can unload and reload the trailer quickly without having to play Jenga at the dock. It also encourages depot-to-depot runs vs supplier-to-client, which leads to the average trip length being shorter. Another factor unmentioned is the amount of independent truckers in the US who own their trucks and who primarily do longhaul sorties spanning a week or more. Can't find any data on this but it is a very commonplace thing in the US for truckers to live in their trucks more than their homes and I'm not sure that is the case in the EU.
- holoduke 5y agoTruckers having their own trucks is history in the EU. Well almost. Nowadays the whole truck busines is in East Europe. with a wide variety of big companies. Mostly if not all international EU transport is driven by trucks from those low wage countries Poland, Bulgaria, Romania. You see them everywhere. From Ireland to Portugal to The Netherlands etc. Most highway parking stops are filled trucks from those countries. They live in their trucks for weeks if not months. It used to be quite dirty environment on those stops. With many eating next to their trucks. It's getting better now.