How much can a standard Articulated lorry carry?
Discussion
P-Jay said:
My first thought was Petrol Tanker, but it seems the largest 'only' holds 44,000 litres, at £1.40 a litre that's £60k ish, no not as much at the Primark lorry it seems.
Rather blows the plot of Fast n Furious 3, or maybe 7 I can't remember them all when they try to steal a tanker worth $x millions.
I wouldn't have thought it was that much, I used to load/unload road tankers and given the maximum gross road weight a vehicle can be is 44,000kg the biggest loads I saw were 28,000kg of Vinyl Acetate. The SG of petrol may be lower but still doubt you would get 44,000 litres (plus ullage) on a road barrel, depends on the weight of the rig+barrel I suppose?Rather blows the plot of Fast n Furious 3, or maybe 7 I can't remember them all when they try to steal a tanker worth $x millions.
I'm in the business of carting Artic loads of freight around the place. Pallet for pallet, the most valuable consignments on the roads are medical supplies. Although it doesn't go in full load quantities, Boots and others move medical variants of Cocaine about & that we once worked out came to about £4m per pallet sold & we couldn't think of anything in civilian transport worth more.
Fags are an obvious one & you would be surprised at the lengths gone to to protect them on the move. Other things that may not be obvious are things like batteries - very small, lots on a pallet & lots of pallets. Booze is fairly middle of the road in value terms depending on what it is but even a trailer full of Jack Daniels (which I used to shift in large quantities) is only insured for around £60-100k a throw.
Fags are an obvious one & you would be surprised at the lengths gone to to protect them on the move. Other things that may not be obvious are things like batteries - very small, lots on a pallet & lots of pallets. Booze is fairly middle of the road in value terms depending on what it is but even a trailer full of Jack Daniels (which I used to shift in large quantities) is only insured for around £60-100k a throw.
When I was working in retail, we had an artic load of laptops delivered the week prior to the Boxing Day sales. Pallets upon pallets of the things.
I remember the lorry driver remarking that he was hired to haul nearly £1M worth of the things across hundreds of miles but he had an extra 70 miles on his return journey because they didn't trust him enough to give him a fuel card.
I remember the lorry driver remarking that he was hired to haul nearly £1M worth of the things across hundreds of miles but he had an extra 70 miles on his return journey because they didn't trust him enough to give him a fuel card.
Eski1991 said:
Would have to agree with that sentiment. Needs to be high £ per lb to garner the most value if there is a weight constraint. Hypothetical 38 tonner full of charlie anyone? 20-30 grand a kilo?
Even a pick-up truck stuffed with coke must be worth a bob or two. Heck, how much would a trailer full be worth?
Fishtigua said:
Even a pick-up truck stuffed with coke must be worth a bob or two. Heck, how much would a trailer full be worth?
At 20 quid a gram wholesale that's 20 million a tonne. So still not worth as much per lb as 500 euro notes but I think you'd get close to half a billion in a good sized artic.Hugo a Gogo said:
100 million euros in €100 notes fits on a pallet, weighs about one tonne
Back when I worked for Securicor (before it merged with Group 4 and it all went downhill) we used to trunk cash between cash centres in 18t rigids that were insured for £15m, I expect it has increased now, but they were on the smallest chassis you could get for a four wheeler. The six wheelers had no armour to speak of, because they carried coin. That is still the case. Back to the four wheelers, the payload was pitifully small because of all the armour and bullet proof glass. Can't remember exactly, but to give you and idea, our 3.5t transits had a payload of 300kg!!Brinks do indeed use artics, but only for coin transport. Notes (bullion) isn't transported by artic as it is deemed too much of a security risk.
Meanwhile, back on topic, the most valuable load must be legitimate drugs or cigarettes (still drugs).
Some of the Production Trucks for live outside broadcast are so full with fibre optics, electronics, monitors etc, that they could be close to several millions in equipment.
A top end HD lens alone is close to 20K each.
and now with 3D format it could be even more.
Few years back I was seeing a girl who was freelance camerawomen for European Golf Tournaments TV crew around Europe and I was fortunate enough to travel with her more than a few times to tournament. All the lorries are very sophisticated piece of equipment.
A top end HD lens alone is close to 20K each.
and now with 3D format it could be even more.Few years back I was seeing a girl who was freelance camerawomen for European Golf Tournaments TV crew around Europe and I was fortunate enough to travel with her more than a few times to tournament. All the lorries are very sophisticated piece of equipment.
Big Fat Fatty said:
Doesn't it depend on how many axles a trailer has and where they are nowadays?
Yup standard max is 24t, extra axle puts it up to 26t. We usually load to 24t unless we have written confirmation from haulier that they can carry 26t.
eta: Just calculated for us a full load of clutches for an OEM comes in at around £70k.
Which doesn't seem much really.
Edited by Dan_1981 on Friday 27th September 13:04
tedmus said:
P-Jay said:
My first thought was Petrol Tanker, but it seems the largest 'only' holds 44,000 litres, at £1.40 a litre that's £60k ish, no not as much at the Primark lorry it seems.
Rather blows the plot of Fast n Furious 3, or maybe 7 I can't remember them all when they try to steal a tanker worth $x millions.
I wouldn't have thought it was that much, I used to load/unload road tankers and given the maximum gross road weight a vehicle can be is 44,000kg the biggest loads I saw were 28,000kg of Vinyl Acetate. The SG of petrol may be lower but still doubt you would get 44,000 litres (plus ullage) on a road barrel, depends on the weight of the rig+barrel I suppose?Rather blows the plot of Fast n Furious 3, or maybe 7 I can't remember them all when they try to steal a tanker worth $x millions.
Hugo a Gogo said:
100 million euros in €100 notes fits on a pallet, weighs about one tonne
I think that's the legal winner so far. Eye watering! May I ask how you would know such a random (but cool) fact?
I'm fascinated reading this thread. As a lot of you guys are obviously truckers, does the load on the back make you feel any different about the job? i.e. more nervous carrying £4m worth of Iphones compared to a load of laminate flooring for example
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