American retail giant Wal-Mart has been ruffled feathers in the Canadian trucking industry with the introduction of a new high-cube truck and trailer combination.
The combination, which uses a long wheel base cab-over prime
mover, has a cargo van body mounted behind the truck cab.
The freight body can be rolled backwards to the front of a
specially designed high cube trailer to allow access for loading
and unloading.
The 23m long, single truck and trailer combination is part of a
12 month pilot program being run by the Ontario Ministry of
Transport (MTO) using two truck and trailer combinations.
However, the trial has raised serious concerns from the Ontario
Trucking Association (OTA) regarding safety and driver working
conditions as well as issues regarding permit ownership.
The truck and trailer design is a brainchild of Wal-Mart and has
been designed by a local trailer manufacturer, Innovative Trailer
Designs (ITD), but the combination is owned and run by a private
transport company, Interstate Freight Systems (IFS).
The OTA are concerned that a shipper − Wal-Mart − has been given
permission to build the vehicle, hold the permits and run the trial
rather than the transport company.
The OTA is also concerned that the vehicle’s sleeper cab has
been replaced with a cargo carrying area raising issues about
driver safety.
“Our members are very uncomfortable with this proposal as it
currently stands,” OTA President David Bradley says.
“The proposed issuance of special permits to a shipper is a
major game-changer for the industry; it completely turns the whole
approach to monitoring and managing truck safety on its head. This
must be changed.”
The new combination is reported to give Wal-Mart a gain in
productivity of 30 percent by using the over-length (18.4m)
high cube trailer in conjunction with the custom chassis day cab
Freightliner Argosy prime mover.
The new truck allows two store deliveries to be done in one
load.
From an environmental perspective, both Freightliner prime
movers were purchased by IFS as “glider kits”, with no engine or
transmission, and have been installed with older EPA02, pre Exhaust
Gas Recirculation (EGR) engines.
This has led some within the Canadian transport industry to
accuse Wal-Mart of putting productivity before the environment.