European trucks, and especially their cabins, look like huge ‘bricks’ with ‘flat noses’ and flat shapes. But this was not always the case. Not too long ago, ‘long nose’ trucks drove on European roads, as they do, for example, on US roads. However, it looks like the European Union is considering the comeback of a more aerodynamic cabin to improve its safety and efficiency.
The EU is working on the regulation so that new cabins, safer, more aerodynamic and efficient can arrive at European markets starting on September 1, 2020. This way, the modification of maximum length and weight of the vehicles will allow that the cabins of rigid trucks and tractors increase their dimensions using the new space created on the front to improve consumption and safety, not to increase the cargo capacity of the vehicle.
These modifications will allow, on one hand, that makers increase the active and passive safety systems of the vehicles, which will help save between 300 and 500 lives per year amongst professional drivers. And, on the other hand, new and optimized designs could be incorporated that will contribute to a 10% reduction in the consumption of gas and, therefore, in the levels of polluting emissions of the trucks.
Though they only represent 3% of the total number of vehicles, trucks are responsible for 25% of road transportation emissions in the EU and each year around 500 million barrels are needed to ‘feed’ European trucks, which costs around 60.000 million euros. According to the European Environment Agency, the total health cost linked to pollution caused by trucks is estimated at 45.000 million euros, and the costs related to traffic jams and noise add another 130.000 million euros. Last, but not least, 4.200 people (15% of road fatalities) were killed in crashes involving trucks in 2011.
Another aspect in favor of this measure is the increased safety for pedestrians and cyclists in urban environments. With the new cabins, it is expected that the vision range of the drivers will improve, reducing blind spots. In the same way, injuries due to an accident will also be less serious.
Why does Europe not have ‘long nose’ trucks?
This story begins in Germany in the 50s. After losing their quasi-monopoly, the Bundesbahn, the German government-run railway company, had serious trouble. The truck boom critically affected its profits and this was bad news fort the German budget. Then Konrad Adenauer, the German chancellor, asked his Transportation ministry, Hans Seebohm, to solve the problem. Amongst different measures, Seebohm introduced a key element: reducing the maximum length of trucks from 20 to 14 meters, a drastic reduction in their cargo capacity that tried to restore the railways’ competitiveness and, at the same time, improve road safety.
When, years later, the European Transportation ministries tried to unify the size of trucks, they used the German model as a base; the maximum length increased to 16,5m, but that maximum total length was for the entire vehicle. Then, to accommodate the regulations to the clients’ demand for more cargo space, truck makers created the ultracompact cabin design that we currently know, with its brick aspect. This is why Europe does not have ‘flat nose’ trucks.