ANITA welcomes the free movement of articulated vehicles up to 18 metres in length

"It is - commented the president of the Association National Automotive Transport Companies, Thomas Baumgartner - of a possibility that ANITA has been asking for years with great firmness and that opens a new era in the national transport of goods. The experience of Project 18, launched in 2009 by the Ministry of Sustainable Infrastructure and Mobility and by ANFIA, with the full support of ANITA, had demonstrated its effectiveness and potential, given the excellent results in terms of safety and optimization of loads and finally the MIMS has recognized the value of this innovation in the sector and above all the benefits in terms of environmental sustainability'

ANITA has shown that the increase in the maximum length allowed, with the same permissible weight, improves capacity loading of the articulated truck which can thus transport 37 pallets, which is four more than the configuration current standard, ensuring greater efficiency in transport on rubber and a downward trend in the number of vehicles in circulation and of polluting emissions.

"It is fundamental - continued Baumgartner - focus more and more on technological innovation to respond to the demand for sustainable mobility and center therefore the ambitious national and European targets and for completing Italy's alignment with the rest of Europe still goes started the experimentation of 25.50-meter vehicles, the so-called EMS or Ecocombi, which are already authorised in eight EU countries in national circulation and which would make it possible to optimise further the supply chain, with a saving of drivers who, as known, they are increasingly unobtainable in Italy and abroad. Obviously these vehicles should be able to circulate only on a identified and suitable road and motorway network connecting centres production and logistics, interports, railway terminals and ports, without ever entering the urban territories".

For its part, Trasportounito expressed perplexity for the government's measure liberalising long semi-trailers more than 15 meters. The road haulage association has Raised some questions: 'the new measures of the semi-trailers - noted Maurizio Longo, secretary general of United transport - do not solve, and indeed complicate, the problem uniformity of weights and dimensions in the field Community; users have not been informed in advance of the road on the spread of new semi-trailers, that is, unique pieces, not articulated, extremely long because beyond 15 meters, whose total footprint, with 1.6 meters more, is equal to a total of 18 meters with the coupling of the tractor; It's not a projection of the costs that will fall has been made on road transport, forced to invest in new vehicles for remain competitive, at a time when the entire industry is on the verge of collapse, not to mention the asset devaluation of the current semi-trailers'.

Moreover, for United Transport, "it is not clear which will be the advantages of this measure, apart from the benefits for the manufacturers, as we see an increase in the number of trips to empty and above all the decrease in the percentage index average of each load'.

"Without consulting the category - complained Longo - the Minister unilaterally decided to liberalise a type of vehicle intended to produce difficulties on the market of transport services further complicating road safety on our provincial and municipal roads, as well as in the the vast majority of loading and unloading areas where dimensions of the means are incompatible. The repercussions on the transport services market - concluded the secretary general of Trasportounito - will be the same as what happened in the past (when it went from 12.50 to 13.60 meters), which produced zero tariff increases, additional indebtedness for the purchase of new vehicles and the devaluation or scrapping of old semi-trailers, but at the time the economic conditions were less pressing and the professionalism of the drivers was unexceptionable'.