Several delivery runs made by one of a fleet of articulated heavy goods vehicles of up to 15 m length and 32.52 tonnes GTW belonging to a supermarket company were monitored to provide information about its use - particularly about the delays it experienced and those which it caused to other road users. Of the 3000 km of travel investigated, 96 per cent was on motorways and class a roads; about 40 per cent on dual carriageways. The power-to-weight ratio of the vehicle (7 kW/t or 10 bhp/ton) and its performance were relatively high for a vehicle of maximum permitted length and train weight. It experienced delay during about one quarter of its total travel time and it caused delay for about one third of the time. However, only rarely (7 per cent of total travel time) were there more than three vehicles queued behind it and even more rarely did the queue include another heavy vehicle. Not surprisingly, it delayed few vehicles when it was travelling on dual carriageway roads and motorways. Delays to all vehicles on the remaining roads averaged about 0.2 vehicle minutes/km. Further studies of this sort are required to cover a representative range of vehicles and types of distributive operations. (Author/publisher)
Abstract