Government to tackle emissions and congestion by making larger trucks (LSTs) a permanent fixture on UK roads
The UK government continues to source new methods to significantly reduce emissions, whilst coincidentally managing to reduce congestion. It was recently announced by The Department for Transport (DfT) that there would be a government consultation on longer semi-trailers (LSTs). The theory being that through increased productivity, haulier emission levels will be considerably reduced.
What are LSTs?
Slightly longer than your conventional Heavy Goods Vehicle (HGV) trailers, LSTs enable trucks to carry far more goods than HGVs. For example, a supermarket would be able to carry an additional three rows of supermarket goods cages for each of their journeys.
A common misconception is that this would also dramatically increase the weight of the trailer, but according to DfT this is untrue. In fact, longer trailers are dubbed to be no heavier than their predecessors.
How do we know it will work?
Over the duration of the last 7 years, the government has been busy testing out just how much more effective LSTs really are. In this time, LSTs have managed to save their designated driver a traveling distance of 33.5 million miles, as DfT claims this has also cut emissions from trucks by 48,000 tonnes. So, lots of numbers – but what do they really mean? Well, 48,000 tonnes is equivalent to the emissions of 20,000 cars!
How can Driving Talent help?
This news is very exciting for the team here at Driving Talent, the training and recruitment divisions are eagerly awaiting the results from the government consultations in which we’re perfectly positioned to support the logistics industry in both sourcing and training excellent professional LST drivers.
