Performance assessment of high capacity trucks : Understanding truck selection and deployment economics

High capacity trucks (HCT) present an interesting opportunity to improve transportation efficiency and reduce emissions. This study focuses on implementation in Finland where legislation allows a maximum weight of 76 tonnes, 34.5 m length and 4.4 m height, which would be a 20% and 4.5% increase in weight and height compared to the current European modular system. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the economic performance (cost and revenue) of such high capacity transportation vehicles compared to traditional smaller trucks. Data has been collected from real transport logistics service providers. A performance evaluation model called COREPE was designed to present quantitative evaluation of one year of operating data: this model evaluates the economic performance of HCT and traditional trucks on three different long hauls using telemetry data and monthly truck operating data. The results show that HCT has overall higher cost compared to traditional. The size advantage HCT has over traditional translated into moderately higher revenue and profitability based on the available data. Factors such as seasonal variability, driver attitude and truck utilisation had a noticeable impact on cost.