How much can a standard Articulated lorry carry?

[Squiggs]

I would think the most expensive load would be chemicals of some sort. Whether that be pharmaceutical or industrial - or solid or liquid form I wouldn't like to guess.

[Justin Cyder]

The worst I've felt this week is discovering one of my vehicles with a load of chocolate coins on board, worth about 2k per pallet had been loaded with gaps between the pallets meaning as soon as the driver braked, off they went, like dominoes.

This kind of thing has obviously never happened before in the entire history of haulage. Thicky warehouseman.

[Hugo a Gogo]

Tuvra said:

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?

thinking about it, a pallet of €500 notes would of course be 500 million euros

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8678979.stm

apparently there are €291,403,438,500 worth of €500 notes in existance, so you could have 582 pallets full

[Life Saab Itch]

Tuvra said:

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

nope.

It's not my stuff.

If anyone can get me to pull over, they're welcome to the stuff.

[Upatdawn]

Whilst working for a wholesalers we had a 7.5tonner leave the yard and the security noticed a car move off behind it out on the road, so he rang the office, who rang the truck driver, and they then rang the cops, the truckie circled the town and headed back to base and he, the car and the cops all met at one location and the cops pounced and found knives an a gun in the car

Having said that, given 4 Gillete fusion blades are £9 what would a 44ft trailer hold....

and when working for Fruehauf a firm rang up cos an artic was broken down waiting for a £5 part and the firms boss was going ape "a £5 part is holding up a £50k unit, a £60K reefer and £250k worth of yoghurts"

[Justin Cyder]

A mate of mine had Microsoft & was involved in the Xbox primary distribution. One of his was stopped, the driver bashed over the head & the truck driven off. It was found a few miles away minus a couple of million quids worth of consoles.

He told me that a couple of weeks later, he was offered a few hundred Xboxes at knock down prices by a guy he'd been at school with & who was known locally as the worst kind of head the ball gangster nutter. So he was in the worst of all positions where he'd discovered who had done it but felt he couldn't tell the police as he feared the reprisals against his family.

It goes on constantly. Most of it is slashed curtains on parked up trucks with opportunistic thieves after whatever they can find, but the more organised side of it is always there. We did an awful lot of booze for a while & had inside jobs where crims were given our trucks to follow, diversion fraud where people in uniform try to send the truck to another location, claiming the warehouse is full & all sorts of other petty stuff.

[Chrisgr31]

Many years ago when I was at South Bank Poly on Wandsworth Road, one of the Brinks Mat armoured trucks broke down outside. After a while a second truck arrived and reversed up to the rear doors and they transferred what ever was being carried from one truck to the other. The process was watched by a number of students but also a very large number of police and the police helicopter!

[bigwheel]

A while back, I had 6 similar items in the trailer worth £3 million the lot.

They were small turbo-prop engines for the twin engine Jetstream.

[G600]

Jet engines, only one per lorry but 5 to 10 million each (at least).

[Rumple]

I used to collect containers of wine for Tesco, they were valued at 2 million each, I used to deliver 7 a week, on my last job before I came off the road we could get 28 tonnes legally on our cutainsiders, ten years ago I could get 29 tonnes on a good tipper trailer, also legally, 24 tonne net is very poor in my opinion, for all you non truckers out there, you need six axles for 44 tonnes.

[Justin Cyder]

There's trials going on now with longer trailers.

[grumpy52]

Some things are mega value some are insane.
Rock sampler/spectrum analyser for the oil industry (about the size of double filing cabinet) £3/4 million, flight case of accessories to go with it £240, 000.
Custom made parts for oil rigs ?
Vintage wine ?
Microchips ?
18 pallets of casino chips ?
Check your insurance !

[grumpy52]

Some things are mega value some are insane.
Rock sampler/spectrum analyser for the oil industry (about the size of double filing cabinet) £3/4 million, flight case of accessories to go with it £240, 000.
Custom made parts for oil rigs ?
Vintage wine ?
Microchips ?
18 pallets of casino chips ?
Check your insurance !

[ZR1cliff]

I had 26 pallets of coke on board today

[reckless st]

i used to carry a load of chemicals i think was called palladium an ultra pure form of presious metal in liquid form in 25 ltr drums but only a third full in case of it being damaged 6 drums per pallet two pallets per load ,millions per load non stop uk to belge ,double manned with escort

[All that jazz]

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.

Bog standard fuel tanker over here will be 5 or 6 pots and carry 36200 litres. That's what ours were when I was on for Total.

[e600]

A company I worked for supplied specialist trucks for the art auction houses. They carried expensive works of art. I suspect the Mona Lisa must have been moved in a vehicle at some point.

Edited by e600 on Saturday 28th September 09:43

[All that jazz]

Company I was on for many years ago was involved in the distribution of the second Harry Potter book prior to its release. I didn't personally do any of the loads but the security and bullst involved to get them from the printers to the RDCs to the shops made arms and bullion transport security look small time. I imagine the same kind of thing will apply to game releases as well. Stuff they can shift very quickly and for serious amounts of cash is what attracts the professional/organised gangs.

[spike50]

just before the euro came in , I went to a warehouse in Basildon and loaded 24 pallets of what I was told was tokens for the machines in casinos , I took them to 3 casinos , 1 in Geneva ,and 2 in south of france , via a weekend stop at macon , on the last drop one of the pallets fell and a couple of the boxes broke , as we were picking up these tokens , one of the bodyguards who was unloading me showed me the new euro coins
I had been carrying a full load of euros and no-one told me , good job really, id of crapped myself ,
just to add I had no visible guards or escorts

[Rumple]

All that jazz said:

Company I was on for many years ago was involved in the distribution of the second Harry Potter book prior to its release. I didn't personally do any of the loads but the security and bullst involved to get them from the printers to the RDCs to the shops made arms and bullion transport security look small time. I imagine the same kind of thing will apply to game releases as well. Stuff they can shift very quickly and for serious amounts of cash is what attracts the professional/organised gangs.

I think the most security bullst I've encountered involved delivering mobile phones in bulk, this was before the smartphone revolution as well.