Longer semi-trailer trial revisions come up short

The industry has welcomed the longer semi-trailer trial reboot announced last week, but warned that plans to accelerate the trial by slashing the time allocations are valid but are overly ambitious.

With just 500 longer semis on the road to date, from a total allocation of 1,814, the Department for Transport (DfT) conceded last week that “it is highly unlikely that the [total] figure will be reached by December”.

It has since launched a consultation that proposes applications will be opened up and made on a first come, first served basis, likely within the next few months, to get the trial up to speed.

However, operators and manufacturers alike have warned that DfT proposals to grant individual trailer allocations valid for a period of just two to three months, are not long enough to get units built and on the road.

Both Syed Ziaullah, chief executive of APC Overnight (one of the company's 15.65m longer semi-trailers pictured) and Nick Hay, MD of Fowler Welch, expressed concern to CM about trailer manufacturers’ ability to meet such a short deadline.

It is a view echoed by Andy Mair, head of engineering at the Freight Transport Association (FTA), who said members were indicating that a six-month period of validity would make more sense.

He said: “The FTA welcomes the revisions as they remain key to making the trial a success, but the timeframe for new allocations needs to be more realistic.”

Trailer manufactuerers' response:

Andy Dodge, sales director at manufacturer Lawrence David, said: “You could turn a longer semi-trailer around in two to three months. To engineer it from new, you’re looking at more like three to five months. There are 180 operators with allocations [as it stands], and even among individual operators they often want differing trailer designs.”

Richard Owens, group marketing manager at Don Bur, said: “While three months is standard for a normal trailer, as soon as you are talking about something more complicated, you’re looking at longer than this.”

A Montracon spokesman said: “Four months would be the very minimum, with up to six months or more for high-volume orders.”

Mark Cuskeran, MD of SDC, said: “[We build] 25 trailers a day and can meet a three-month deadline if required by the DfT’s new licence arrangement. We welcome the proposed changes as they should open up the longer trailer market to more operators.”

Darren Holland, group sales director at  Cartwright Group, suggested the issue could be avoided altogether if the DfT instead issued new allocations once “evidence of securing a contract/operation to support the equipment was supplied by the operator”.