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Late on the third day at SED, Mike Pritchard, an owner-driver running an 8x4 Foden on aggregates, brandished CM at yours truly and asked why the author of Mystery Shopper (CM 18 May 2006) hadn't gone further into running costs. He too was looking at moving up in weight to 44 tonnes, but wasn't sure of how the vehicle would reduce road time yet pay more handsomely. The latter is difficult to prove, but deep in the CM archives was some testing we had previously done with, of all people, Foden. So  this month's Product Focus looks at artics vs rigid tippers.
On the surface, putting an 8x4 up against six axles is no contest. The latter hauls more, is probably slower and less dexterous, and uses more fuel. Right on all accounts, on a like-for-like trip. But the longer the trip, the more cost-effective 44 tonnes will be.

Downtime and delays
The artic's GVW is 12 tonnes more than the 8x4's - giving about 9 tonnes of extra payload. The VED rate for both is band E, but there are other issues such as increasing the driver's pay (unless you are the driver) to C+E, and looking after two bits of kit rather than one. The potential extra downtime this may cause, plus delays in loading and unloading due to the bigger load space, are additional expenses.

Moving up from an 8x4 rigid to a six-axle artic tipper isn't for everyone. There are delivery situations that an artic would not be able to access, and it would be unable to move freely on a tight building site with an  undulating surface. But with bigger projects it seems like common sense to use larger vehicles to move aggregates more quickly. Confirmation of the test was that the 8x4 needed 10 trips to match seven by the artic.
First, the expected results: the 8x4 had better fuel economy - in fact, mpg was improved by some 34.5% - but payload was 8,735kg higher on six axles at 44 tonnes. It took the 8x4 a further three trips to match the tractor in delivered payload, which meant 4.5 more hours and an extra 18.2 litres. Productivity is improved by 8.8% per delivery at 44 tonnes. Average speed between the two is pretty close; although there were a few hold-ups with the rigid test trip, delays were marginal.