Now it is ready for longer trucks on our Swedish roads

A week ago, on December 1, the first roads in Sweden opened for trucks up to 34.5 meters. Initially, it is about a total of 5900 kilometers of the Swedish road network that will be opened up for the longer vehicle trains. An opportunity that even we at Tempcon will naturally take advantage of for routes and goods where it is useful to optimize our flows and reduce our impact on the environment.

The advantages of longer and heavier transports are many. One of these is that more goods can be transported over longer distances with fewer vehicle units. Something that reduces emissions. Calculations made by the Swedish Transport Administration say that emissions from heavy truck traffic can be reduced by between 4 and 6 percent with longer crews.

Tomas Eneroth (s), then infrastructure minister, promised during his opening speech at Elmia Lastbil 2022 that trucks up to 34.5 meters in length would be allowed in Sweden. From the beginning, it was supposed that the new rules would come into force from August 2023, but then there were signals that it would be delayed until 2024. But now the time has come – from last Friday, it will be allowed to drive truck combinations on up to 34.5 meters on selected roads in Sweden.

The road network consists of 4500 kilometers of state roads and 1400 kilometers of state connecting roads that have been identified in consultation with the 160 municipalities that are in some way affected by the designated road network. In addition to this, there are also a number of municipal roads connected to the state road network. In total, it is about 5900 kilometers of state roads that have been opened on 1 December 2023.

All roads, regardless of road owner, will from December 2023 be found as a separate layer in the National Road Data Base, NVDB.

The vehicle combinations that are now approved are two. As far as we know, further combinations will be approved later. The two combinations that are now approved are a so-called A-double and AB-double. A-double is a vehicle combination consisting of a truck connected to a trailer and a dolly with an attached trailer. An AB double is a vehicle combination consisting of a truck connected to a dolly with an attached link which in turn is connected to a trailer.