Truck Operating Characteristics

TRB's National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Synthesis 241: Truck Operating Characteristics will be of interest to engineers and administrators responsible for the design, construction, and maintenance of highways and bridges, as well as to engineering design consultants. It will also provide useful information to the trucking industry, especially to designers, as they consider the highway interface with regard to the design and operation of heavy trucks. It provides information on the influence of the design and operating characteristics of heavy trucks on highway design, maintenance, and operational performance. Designers of heavy trucks and of the highway infrastructure that is needed to support them, are faced with changing requirements for both systems to operate effectively and safely. Because truck designs tend to evolve more rapidly than highways can be rebuilt or redesigned, inefficiencies can result. This report of the Transportation Research Board describes heavy truck design factors and operating characteristics and their influence on highway planning, design, and performance. The key truck operating characteristics, such as weights and sizes, mechanical properties, turning requirements, accelerating and braking, crash avoidance, pavement and bridge loadings, and the effects on traffic flow are discussed. To more clearly illustrate the subject, matrices of truck and roadway characteristics that are associated with each of these elements are presented.