[TusharK]

The transport ministry has issued a notification that will pave the way for larger buses and trucks. The government has increased the maximum permissible length and height of several categories of commercial vehicles.



As per the notification, the length of normal buses can be up to 13.5 meters, instead of 12 meters. This is said to increase the seating capacity by 10-15%.

The overall height of heavy-duty trucks with a closed load body or an ISO series 1 freight container can be up to 4.52 meters. For other heavy-duty trucks, the height has been increased from 3.8 meters to 4 meters. The maximum permissible height of vehicles carrying construction equipment, motor vehicles, livestock and white goods has been set at 4.75 meters.

Earlier, the government had increased the axle load of goods vehicles by 25%, which enabled trucks to carry more load.

Source

Link to Team-BHP News

[Reinhard]

Personally I'm not too liking this decision. The number of current accidents involving trucks & buses already shows that they are longer/larger than what our imperfect road infrastructure can safely support. The buses with their custom mods, overcrowding/roof stowage etc cause a lot of toppling accidents and additional length & associated capacity will only push up the number of casualties in these accidents IMO.

Considering the makers will only increase the dimensions and mostly the engines will stay unchanged - mileage, efficiency will go down, maintenance and pollution will go up.

[YD14]

Originally Posted by TusharK

As per the notification, the length of normal buses can be up to 13.5 meters, instead of 12 meters. This is said to increase the seating capacity by 10-15%.

Are multiaxle buses exempted from this law? The multiaxle buses of volvo and scania are upto 15m long. If so, is their length limit also increased?

[kamilharis]

Already on our narrow 2 way roads it is difficult at times to overtake these long trucks and buses. Not sure how long it will take to overtake them with ALTOs and KWIDs.

[anjan_c2007]

I am sure that with quality of those Babus sitting there and the masters at the helm, no prior R&D was done by any concerned department, nor the many publications on this topic of change in dynamics due overloading and increases in dimensions of trucks and buses were perused. Excerpts from two publications here below show the dangers of overloading. Overloading that was illegal earlier, is now to a limit legalised but without any scientific back-up. Also dimensions enumerated in the existing Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 and Central Motor Vehicles Rules 1989, for commercial vehicles are now altered. There are innumerable publications availiable on this topic, which point to the dangers of such overloading.

(1) "Improving truck safety: Potential of weigh-in-motion technology" by Bernard Jacob et al in Elsevier (2010)

The abstract says:-

" Trucks exceeding the legal mass limits increase the risk of traffic accidents and damage to the infrastructure. They also result in unfair competition between transport modes and companies. It is therefore important to ensure truck compliance to weight regulation. "

(2) Overloading truck traffic study and strategy to minimise it by Chan, Ying, Bunker, Jonathan, & Kumar, Arun (2006), Queensland Institute of Technology, Brisbane.

Abstract

" Overloaded truck traffic is a significant problem on highways around the world. Developing countries in particular, overloaded truck traffic causes large amounts of
unexpected expenditure in terms of road maintenance because of premature pavement damage. Overloaded truck traffic is a common phenomenon in developing countries,
because of inefficient road management and monitoring systems. According to the available literature, many developing countries are facing the same problem, which is
economic loss caused by the existence of overloaded trucks in the traffic stream. This paper summarizes the available literature, news reports, journal articles and traffic
research regarding overloaded traffic. It examines the issue of overloading and the strategies and legislation used in developed countries."

Moreover, the roads used by such overloaded vehicles wear away prematurely and given our poor records in maintenance of existing roads, the situation may become worse.

The trucks being used are from the same makes and models, having the same engines, same chassis and same suspensions designed with a designated kerb weight to carry a specified load (laden weight). Nothing has changed. But the Babus have changed the loading capacities, passenger carrying capacities and dimensions of the very same trucks and buses, respectively overnight, with no proper research back-up.

[Radiator]

Originally Posted by anjan_c2007

.

The trucks being used are from the same makes and models, having the same engines, same chassis and same suspensions designed with a designated kerb weight to carry a specified load (laden weight). Nothing has changed. But the Babus have changed the loading capacities, passenger carrying capacities and dimensions of the very same trucks and buses, respectively overnight, with no proper research back-up.

I beg to differ here sir. Indian trucks are built keeping heavy overloading in mind. The avg. Ladder frame thickness for a Semi truck in the USA is around 5mm vs 9mm in India.
The OEM load bodies have 20-30% overloading tolerances. Third-party body builders make special 'overload' bodies that can carry 200-300% more than the rated payload.
AFAIK, we are the only country in the world to get 16-wheeled, 6-axled rigid trucks having rated payload more than the 22-wheeled behemoths of the west.
The only thing that currently keeps overloading in long-distance trucks in check is their sub-par power figures, atleast in Tata and AL. In the BS6 transition, both these brands increased the power output of their entire lineup by 10-15%.
Overloading is mostly rampant in truck on short inter-city trips and dump-trucks. Long haulers generally don't overload.
The increase in body dimensions is only for closed container trucks, which generally run under-load because of the high-volume,low density nature of the shipments inside. This move would increase their efficiency.

[haldar_siliguri]

This new rules are surely as a result of some babus with vested interests (owning transport companies etc). Just another realm of utterly senseless automotive rules of India.

[landcruiser123]

I'm not a big fan of this move. Reason = larger blindspots. Truck drivers and other road users are mostly not disciplined and larger trucks can results in more accidents.
Also, can roads & bridges also handle the additional weight?

Originally Posted by Radiator

I beg to differ here sir. Indian trucks are built keeping heavy overloading in mind. The avg. Ladder frame thickness for a Semi truck in the USA is around 5mm vs 9mm in India.
The OEM load bodies have 20-30% overloading tolerances.

As a mechanical engineer, I'll tell you that every machine is designed with a factor of safety. In simple terms = any machine is designed to be stronger than the specifications.

In this case, a truck with a specified load limit of 10 tons is actually designed to carry 12-14 tons. This is done for emergency cases and not for regular overloading.

[alikidwhy]

Nope, not liking this move. The roads are already unsafe for pedestrians and small vehicles, the heavy vehicles will ruin the roads sooner and we won’t live to see them fixed.

This is another stupid decision like banning window tints pan India, even lighter tints at 75% percent visibility.

[Rahul Rao]

Nothing innovative here, the rest of the world moved from 10 ton rear axles and 6 ton front axles to 11.5 ton rear axles and 7.5 ton front axles and we followed after 9 years later. They also moved from 12M to 13.5 M length for single rear axle and from 15M to 18 M length for twin rear axle, and we are following 11 years later, though there is no mention for multi axle buses as yet, but their permissible tonnage increase from 22 ton to 28 tons (air suspension) or 25.5 Ton (leaf spring suspension) means their length will change too.
We currently limit rear overhang to 3.5M or 60% of wheelbase, SLF city buses are exempted from 3.5M but have to follow the 60% limit.
Current maximum wheel base is 6.2M in two axle buses and 7.2M in 3 axle ones, front overhang is also limited to 2.5M in two axle buses due to weight distribution restrictions.
This means that new 7M chassis will need to be introduced, longer wheel base means lot more unseen changes like prop shaft length, gear ratio spacing etc.

Rahul

[OSH]

The increase in length for buses can be understood but there was no need to do it for trucks. Most of the trucks are anyways overloaded and now they will go a step further and load even more.

Just have a look at this claimed to be 100 ton loader body on a Tata 3718 chassis.

Tata 3718

[Tassem]

With you on this.

I hope they mandate (like airbags these days) a speed governor in all goods and public transportation vehicles. That one move will likely curb a large % of these incidents. Not just govt buses, but the pvt ones too.

Originally Posted by Reinhard

Personally I'm not too liking this decision. The number of current accidents involving trucks & buses already shows that they are longer/larger than what our imperfect road infrastructure can safely support. The buses with their custom mods, overcrowding/roof stowage etc cause a lot of toppling accidents and additional length & associated capacity will only push up the number of casualties in these accidents IMO.

Considering the makers will only increase the dimensions and mostly the engines will stay unchanged - mileage, efficiency will go down, maintenance and pollution will go up.

[procrastinator]

Dear Govt,

Do you mind increasing length of cars having 4m to 4.5m and engine to 1.8l under same excise duty?

Let’s give the auto sector a boost(pun intended)

Thanks.

[Rhik94]

This is an extremely strange and ill-thought decision taken by the Ministry.
Not only has there been any R&D done to come to this decision regarding pedestrian and traffic safety but also no consideration has been taken into account for all the underpasses and bridges which have a specific load limit and height restrictions.
Are they gonna rebuild all the bridges to increase the height of underpasses? Or will this be used as a justification to provide new contracts? In the end, if infrastructural changes aren't made then the vehicles will need to take detours to reach their destination, raking up the cost that has to be borne by the end customer.

[Rahul Rao]

Originally Posted by OSH

Most of the trucks are anyways overloaded and now they will go a step further and load even more.
100 ton loader body on a Tata 3718 chassis.

These days overloading is rare, and occurs only in interior of the country with no toll booths. Hill states also overload upto 32 tons with 2 axle trucks. The operators there purchase higher rated power trains, ie Tata 1918 which is a 19 ton gross have the same power train of the 42.5 ton gross 3718(Now 4318 in BS6 format)
Have you realized that toll booth also weigh your vehicle, the weight sometimes flashes before your toll rate on their screen, and is.
The operator I hire from has 3718 with 42.5 ton gross passing, but he often keeps gross load below 31 tons (as lift axle comes down after that) with newer trucks, he loads upto 35 tons, with logic that after a graded start on spots like Amrutanjan, engine pulls upto 12 kph in 2nd gear (red line with 9 speed transmission) which is enough momentum to shift to 3rd and still stay above 1100 Rpm (Torque band starts there) otherwise truck stays in 1st till next short flat section.

Rahul