Abstract
This report presents the results of an investigation of the proportion of pavement damage by heavy goods vehicles which could have been avoided if the payload had been distributed on each vehicle in such a way as to have minimized pavement damage within legal constraints. The results are based on the analysis of data collected at two motorway sites from a random sample of over two thousand 2-axle rigid and 4-axle articulated heavy goods vehicles. The results show that by controlling the distribution of payload on each vehicle to minimize pavement damage a reduction of between 8 and 9 per cent could be achieved in the pavement damage attributable to heavy goods vehicles. (Author/publisher)