Bad condition of Czech roads troubles truck drivers

This year's winter will according to the authorities go up in price. This is indicated by higher consumption of spreadings and also by the necessity for fast reparations of road holes caused by the weather. Only the reparation of damaged roads and highways was estimated for 3.2bn CZK, said the Road and Motorway Directorate of the Czech Republic.

Almost every driver has experienced driving into road holes. Drivers of trucks are of no difference, on the contrary – keeping off the road holes with a truck is almost impossible. „Imagine you have a trailer of many tonnes behind your vehicle. The whole truck is much wider and longer than personal cars, so it is often much safer to drive into the hole and hope nothing happens,“ described an experienced driver from Šmídl company, Štěpánek.

If the tire is torn or the rim deformed, truck drivers are much more disadvantaged compared to the drivers of personal vehicles. Only changing the defected tire is, due its size and weight, much more difficult. In some cases, the driver needs to call service engineers. All this makes the transportation more costly and delayed. Bad condition of roads may also have bad influence on the transported goods. Driver must more frequently check the freight to prevent its shifting when driving on damaged road.

Bad condition of Czech roads hence affects also truck drivers who are then often blamed for causing the road holes. Transport companies try hard to use their service to capacity as effectively as possible. If the trucks were half-loaded, the transported goods would be more expensive and more trucks would be on roads exhausting more emissions. „It is true the trucks burden the roads more, but it is not possible to say into which extent are the damages on roads caused by trucks. The law expressively limits the weight of a vehicle on road. The roads should be adapted to these limits,“ said Martina Šmídlová from Šmídl transportation and logistics company.

Police inspections are, especially abroad, quite frequent, so breaching the law would be very expensive. This does not concern only fines. If police finds overloaded truck, they put it aside until its weight is according to the regulations. This practically means unloading the truck on spot. „Our trucks always fulfill the weight limits. We got only one fine last year for exceeding the weight limit out of almost 13 000 realized shipments,“ added Martina Šmídlová.

The threat from defect can be minimized by thorough service of tyres and by the choice of suitable routes. Finding a road without holes is, however, after the winter almost impossible.