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The government said more than 300 companies in the UK took part in the long lorry trial and almost 3,000 vehicles are already on the road.
Businesses that will be rolling out the use of longer semi-trailers (as long lorries are officially known) include Greggs, Morrisons, Stobart, Royal Mailand Argos.
Gavin Kirk, supply chain director at Greggs, said: We welcome the introduction of LSTs into general use. Since 2013, Greggs has been operating LSTs from our National Distribution Centre in Newcastle. We were early adopters of the trial as we saw significant efficiency benefits from the additional 15% capacity that they afforded us.
We have converted 20% of our trailer fleet to LSTs, which was the maximum allowable under the trial, and these complement our fleet of double-deck trailers. Our drivers undertook additional training to use these trailers and we have monitored accidents, finding that they are as safe as our standard fleet.
Due to the increased capacity, we have reduced our annual kilometer travel by 540,000 km, and saved 410 tonnes of carbon per year from LSTs. This supports our wider ESG agenda, the Greggs Pledge.
However, road safety campaigners are not convinced that longer lorries are safe(r).
The Campaign for Better Transport tweeted: We did a lot of work exposing the dangers and misinformation around longer lorries, so we’re disappointed @transportgovuk is taking this retrograde step.