THE 6 X 2 CONCEPT

THE VARIETY of loads which are conveyed by road in South Africa these days surely signals a message to Transport Operators today to search more deeply for the most economical vehicle to do a particular operation. In cases where the volume of goods justifies, the best concept of vehicle will result in the most economical operation.

It must be remembered that an operator is engaged in the conveyance of only two commodities by concept i.e. mass or volume.

For vehicles conveying goods of which a relatively heavy mass is involved, higher powered, robust and high mass capacity vehicles are needed with a volume capacity only sufficient to accommodate the maximum desired legal payload in terms of mass. Minimum unladen mass of the vehicle is also a major consideration.

On the contrary, the Operator conveying goods, of which the volumetric factor is the major consideration; for the volume carrier a vehicle which provides the largest volumetric capacity is required with little or no consideration of mass capacity.

Unladen mass is not a major consideration but an adequate number of  axles must be provided to accommodate the load, high engine power is not needed and in most cases only one driving axle is required on truck-tractors or trucks drawing artics or vehicle combinations. In such cases the 6 x 2 prime mover is the ideal vehicle.

It must be emphasised that in the case of vehicles which have more than one rear axle which involves driving and non-driving rear axles, the driving axle(s) must always have the axle mass checked separately from non-driving axles in order to check for compliance with Regulation 239(3) which prescribes that the total mass of a vehicle, or a combination of vehicles, must not exceed five times the mass on the driving wheels … laden or unladen.

Vehicles which have driving and non-driving axles are categorised internationally for ease of identification as follows: