It was good to see Roger King, chief executive of the RHA, promptly replying today to a letter in yesterday’s Times from the Freight on Rail Group which attacked the idea of longer heavier trucks. I commented on this letter yesterday in my blog and also sent my own letter to The Times on the topic.

Roger gave a very thorough and detailed reply and his letter is in today’s Times, although he did not mention the absurdity of strongly criticising longer, heavier trucks before the Government commissioned report on the subject. It just shows how prejudiced this group is.

Once the report is published, our industry should press for a road trial of these vehicles, as has been done in the Netherlands.

The Freight On Rail Group’s letter states that there would be nothing to stop longer heavier vehicles using unsuitable roads, because it would be impossible to restrict them. This is nonsense as it would be easy to fit these vehicles with vehicle tracking systems that would transmit an alert if one deviated from the designated roads.