[sen2009]

The Volvo Pullers (FH 520) carrying Windmill parts, large electrical transformers, metro coaches and other ODC items are of comparable size. Movement of these vehicles are an extremely complex operation and needs a months planning before starting the journey. They have multiple pilot cars ahead and behind. The vehicles are operated by a team of 20 or more people.




Please check two images below for some real life context.

1. This vehicle has been moved from Baroda to Makrana (RJ) in about 11 days.






2. This image shows the average speed between Ahmedabad and Mehsana, Gj.

[chaudh2s]

Relax guys! Like always people have started throwing garbage without even trying to understand. The length limit is 25m (only). The photo in the starting post is misleading. That train looks like more than 40m. In India, the tractor trailer type automotive logistic trucks are 18m long already. Another 7 m will not turn the world upside down and would certainly help to bring down logistics costs.

[bordeaux]

No matter how much pain they inflict on us car drivers, it will be such a pleasure to see them go through these.

[gururajrv]

Imagine these road trains trying to take a U turn for policy diverting it to a different route so that to avoid city traffic god save commuters considering the fact we have seen few heavy vehicles getting stuck for 10-15 mins before completing a successful U turn

Or it should be limited to just travel only on highways & not enter any ring roads to cause congestion. But this is indeed a complicated decision which Govt has come up with. They’re complicating almost all the areas.

[desideep]

Road-trains in India would be a sight to see. Even here in Australia, it is not easy to overtake a road train. They are doing a speed of constant 100 and going past such a long vehicle is a challenge in itself with such a controlled traffic situation.

[fhdowntheline]

Originally Posted by 2000rpm

Whats happened to common sense in India? I think the weed sale in Delhi is at an all time high.

These are absolutely unusable in India, with our infrastructure, imagine two of these travelling at 31 and 32 kms respectively even on a good highway.

They are looking at technology like a wide-eyed child visiting a toy shop. Right from Aadhar to data privacy to emission norms, Crash safety norms to EV/ hybrid flip flops and now this.
If they really have to haul up the road transport infrastructure, they need to get rid of all vehicles above a certain age and mandate performance norms , including maintenance . In Pune, ever so often, we have trucks that are unable to negotiate the gentle gradient on the Bypass from Baner to Pashan for goodness sake!

[narayans80]

Originally Posted by sen2009

Please check two images below for some real life context.

Fantastic insight! Am curious to know, how such a freight is secured in our 2-lane highways. Some 4-lane highways have long enough laybys for such trucks, even those are few and far inbetween.

[sen2009]

Originally Posted by narayans80

Fantastic insight! Am curious to know, how such a freight is secured in our 2-lane highways. Some 4-lane highways have long enough laybys for such trucks, even those are few and far inbetween.

Ample amount of money flows in all directions rather fast while the vehicles move quite slow.
Freight charges for these movements can be Rs. 10,000 per kilometer, even higher. With that kind of money one can even grease the entire road and slide the load all the way.

Generally, the operators need to take prior permissions from all police stations on the route. The police issues movement timetable, parking spots etc.

The police is supposed to allocate time slots for movements and also be present with pilot vehicles at the time to solve traffic chaos. Generally, this does not happen. The operators send large scouting teams with means ahead to clear a path.

As such these vehicles are not supposed to move during rush hours. But given the nature of unpredictability of everything, they rarely manage to reach any place at the allocated time. Also in many cases, parking them cause more trouble than moving them. So, one may see a vehicle larger than a village passing through the village on market day.

Thankfully, at any given point in time, there will be less than a hundred such movements occurring throughout the country.

[polopm]

First lets get our great trucks and two wheelers to follow the highway code and stick to their respective lanes/part of the road. Later we can think of road trains and what not .

[wheelspinner]

If you put into equation the incompetency and lack of ethics among truckers, who hardly care about traffic rules, this plan is set to be a disaster.

Once proper infrastructure is put in place and if only exclusively vetted drivers are allowed to operate them, then only are there chances of consideration.

Cheers!

[wheelguy]

Originally Posted by wheelspinner

If you put into equation the incompetency and lack of ethics among truckers, who hardly care about traffic rules, this plan is set to be a disaster.

Once proper infrastructure is put in place and if only exclusively vetted drivers are allowed to operate them, then only are there chances of consideration.

Cheers!

I found truckers to be the most patient and disciplined drivers on the highways, whereas two wheelers, four wheelers, and other small vehicle drivers make it difficult for them on highways. Among the big vehicle drivers, found Volvo(and other such buses) drivers to be the most rash drivers on highways.

[wheelspinner]

Originally Posted by wheelguy

I found truckers to be the most patient and disciplined drivers on the highways

Sir, I would beg to differ on that. My own dad has been an accident victim, because of rash driving of a truck on the NH-2 and he's alive today by sheer luck. At least here in West Bengal, I have seen vast majority of trucks not adhering to Traffic rules, often resulting in casualties.

[vharihar]

We don't have the road rules nor etiquette/discipline nor a good driver-license-issuing scheme nor any worthwhile on-road patrolling/enforcement, nor any good process for random-checks-to-enforce-timely-maintenance, to have safe high speed driving.

While it is good to see the flurry of expwy activity in India, this aspect worries me.

On top of that, some of our exits and merges are badly designed, even on the newly built expwys.

And on the same lines therefore, I wouldn't touch road trains (which I've seen aplenty in the developed world) in India, despite they making a lot of economic/logistics sense.

See https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/18-d...batore-2182836 , which is an accident that no amount of good roads or good driving can prevent. Its just probably a badly maintained truck that had bad tyres or was driven badly, or God knows what else.

Such accidents will become more common if we allow road trains in India, I feel.