Dutch Roadtrains

dated April 25th, 2009

Check out this miniature road train delivering goods in and around the narrow streets of Utrecht in Holland. Unfortunately the story does not include details on power plant, GVM, horsepower etc.

It does beg the question of whether such a combination would meet the standards set down in the Performance Based Standards we have to comply with to get a special vehicle up. It would fail on just about every measure including tracking, rollover threshold and all the other myriad rules.

The general public are happy to allow a dangerous beast like this in their shopping centres. In fact, our local mall has a kiddies’ train to the same design and people trust their two year olds to these monsters. At the same time, they will not allow B-triples, meeting the 19 PBS standards easily, to travel on major highways built to take them, citing safety issues.

Read the original story here

Dutch Roadtrains – The Tacho Blog

Bert Roozendaal

May 8th, 2009 at 1:34 am

Hello Etruck,

Thank you to publish about our Cargohopper. However, either we get your message wrong, either you are just comparing our Cargohopper to the much bigger real roadtrains. We would not like a B-train in our city either. We can assure you, Cargohopper is by no means a ‘dangerous beast’ and it does not roll on highways either. As you can read on the english version on http://www.cargohopper.nl, specially admitted for the international press, you can learn that Cargohopper is mend to ride in the innercity only. Cargohopper is a complete system. The goods are deliverd in the special containers by means of a regulary truck that can reach the transfer station at the brink of the innercity. From there the containers go on the CH. The tractor unit is electrically driven by a 28hp 48 Volts little motor, The braking energy is fed back to the batteries. Cargohopper can run about 75 kilometers on one battery pack. The max speed is apprx. 20 km/h. Of course in the pedestrian aeras it it travelling much, much slower. Besides that, most of the work is done in the morning when the streets are not crowded with people. Further on it complies to every Dutch traffic rules there are and before it was launched, the city authorities also took a long hard look at it, before giving permission to let it roll in their streets. So we consider it a safe clean machine.
Cargohopper is able to tow three tonnes in a strait line. However, the separate cargounits never carry more than appr. 400 kilo’s each as Cargohopper does not deliver palleted goods but single packages only.

The advantage of Cargohopper is huge. It is only 1.25 meters wide, so other traffic in narrow streets can pass. Is has zero emission. One Cargohopper can do the work of 5 to 8 regulary vans, mainly due to its very efficient way of working. When empty, it collects paper, carton and clean emballage from shops for a recycling company thus enhancing its efficiency even more. We hope this enhanced your day.

Best Regards

Cargohopper Utrecht

Bert Roozendaal
Pr manager