Low water: Trade association wants more long trucks for less traffic congestion

Berlin. In view of the low water levels on numerous rivers in Germany, the retail sector is warning of impending bottlenecks. "The retail sector relies on a functioning logistics system across the entire country," said Stefan Genth, the chief executive of the industry association HDE, to the news agency Reuters on Sunday. Although very few goods destined for the retail sector are transported by ship, bottlenecks could arise if ships switch to trucks and trains, "which would then also affect the retail sector."

Due to the lack of precipitation and high temperatures, water levels, for example on the Rhine, have fallen to record-low values, which is why cargo ships can only transport a fraction of their possible load. The Handelsverband Deutschland (HDE) is therefore calling for all possibilities to be exhausted. It is now high time for the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs to permanently permit so-called long trucks and for the permissible traffic network to be expanded, Genth demanded.

Two longer units of the so-called long truck can replace up to three conventional truck units and thus reduce both energy and personnel usage as well as CO2 emissions by up to 25 percent.