The Safety and Operating Characteristics of Big Trucks 710632

The “real world” of highway truck operation sometimes differs from the technical world of simulation models, laboratory and proving ground tests and mathematical equations. At this time this is a matter of real concern. Federal standards now being proposed and effected appear to be based on the maximum performance-or greater-that can be built into a vehicle fresh off the production line. Generally speaking, when the truck or trailer comes off the production line it is, or should be, at the peak of its lifetime performance. Therefore, it is disturbing to see a trend, at state and federal levels, to impose new truck standards or standards even more severe on vehicles in actual operation, especially combinations of vehicles whose individual units, even though adequate when tested alone, cannot, when combined, attain such individual unit standards-that is, without exorbitant costs which will eliminate them entirely from the highways.