The car industry is flourishing in the country with more brands and models. Obviously, this results in extensive transport of these new cars from one point to another on car haulers. Every year we come across news in which a trailer overturned and resulting in brand new cars getting damaged. Just last week a car carrier overturned, and it was all over the media and got too much attention. Usually, these vehicles have transit insurance and are fully covered by insurance companies, but this does not solve it.
Issue of Car Haulers:
First we need to understand what is the issue. Current car transporters are basically container transporters with modifications. Lower and upper beds are improvised on top of regular conventional trailers. Not only that, these trailers have unspecified length. Although this provides the two levels of flatbeds for multiple vehicle transport, but these are extremely dangerous as far as safety and truck maneuverability.
We can’t go in all the physics and all the dynamics involved in this because it will make this article very complicated. In simple terms, any vehicle stability greatly depends on the vehicle’s centre of gravity / COG from the ground surface. The centre of gravity is where the vehicle’s entire weights can be balanced, when the load on the car increases, the centre of gravity shifts.
Do you know that same vehicle, make, and model, with the same engine and all other components, have a different centre of gravity when a panoramic roof is added. In other words, the COG of the vehicle with or without sunroof/panoramic roof is different. Obviously, car companies incorporate this factor when they design the vehicle to keep the cars as stable as possible. They do that by adjusting the stability control systems, updates to suspensions, track width and other things.
Vehicle Static Stability:
There is a basic term known as Vehicle Static Stability Factor/ SSF, to calculate a vehicle’s stability. SSF = T/2H . Where “T” is the track width, means the distance between the tires’ centre along the axle. “H “means the height of COG from the ground surface. There is a complete mathematical procedure for calculating the COG, and it needs a lot of measurement and weight for a certain vehicle when the value of SSF increases, the vehicle is more stable and vice versa.
The value of SSF is lower in case of SUV’s because the COG is higher. If you put a load on top of your vehicle, the SSF changes. Government agencies use SSF to grant a safety rating to a certain car against its risk of rollover.
As we know that higher the center of gravity from ground surface, increases the risk of the vehicle for roll over and its applicable to the commercial transport as well. In case of trucks , it’s extremely important because the main function of trucks is to carry a load. Trucks also greatly affected by the cross wind loads.
Truck maneuverability, stability , safety are of prime importance. Trucks are designed and especially trailers for carrying certain load types , maximum weight capacity, maximum height , truck width, length and many other factors are taken care off. Transporters also need to meet certain basic mandated safety features in the trucks and trailers . Not only that , they need to meet specification of loading on the truck from front to back as well as side to side and there are very strict tow ratings. There are also government regulations which need to be followed in this regard and regular safety inspections are made to make sure that a vehicle is meeting the required specifications.
As we know, higher the centre of gravity from ground surface increases the risk of the vehicle for rollover. Further, it applies to commercial transport as well. In trucks’ case, it’s essential because trucks’ main function is to carry a load. Trucks also greatly affected by the crosswind loads.
Truck manoeuvrability, stability, safety are of prime importance. Trucks are designed, especially trailers for carrying certain load types, maximum weight capacity, maximum height, truck width, length, and many other factors. Transporters also need to meet certain basic mandated safety features in the trucks and trailers. Not only that, they need to meet the specification of loading on the truck from front to back as well as side to side, and there are very strict tow ratings. There are also government regulations that need to be followed in this regard, and regular safety inspections are made to ensure that a vehicle meets the required specifications.
Principal for Car Haulers:
In case of car haulers, the same principle applies. Keep in mind that car haulers are a little complicated as the weight of the transported vehicles also has a point load via its tires on the trailer bed. So if a trailer is taking 8 cars, there are 32 point loads on the trailer bed. These loads are at the trailer bed’s various location, and as the transported vehicles are not 100% rigid with the bed, these loads can shift during hauling.
Because of complexities and safe transport of the car vehicles, a specially designed ad fabricated trailers are used for the car hauling. One of the main basic principles is to keep the centre of gravity low to the ground surface as much as possible. The multi-bed trailers also have certain restrictions with the maximum height. All this is done to keep the truck trailer as balanced and dynamically stable as possible during motion. These trailers have hydraulic systems, which can raise or lower the bed for loading and unloading. The trailer can also be raised from the ground surface to clear any obstacles.
Unsafe Car Haulers in Pakistan:
If we compare these actual specific trailers with the one we see on our roads, this is a big problem. These unsafe trailers have no basic engineering used during its design and fabrication. There are no government regulation in this regard and the goods transport people are just converting a regular trailer into these cars haulers. We see toppled/ rollover trailers every year, resulting in huge losses. We / government is just waiting for a huge human loss to happen and only then we might think about regulating these trailers. Just imagine, these trailers with vehicles rollover in any urban area or on the highway on any vehicle or pedestrians? Time is NOT far, and this can happen anytime.
Beside unsafe hauling, the vehicles are also not adequately secured to the trailer beds. Technically. Cars should be strapped using tie-down tension straps and overall 4 wheels of every vehicle. I have currently seen that vehicles are tie-down from the vehicle suspensions parts, like stabilizer/ sway bars, control arms, or whatever parts get access to the transporters. This is extremely unprofessional because it can damage these parts and disturb them because they are not designed for tie-down points.
We are celebrating growing auto sector, but it’s time that these trailers start following certain regulations as well. The government should start working on implementing some new rules and working towards a road map for real car transport trailers. It’s extremely important that insurance companies also step in and simply decline coverage/ claims if a transporter is not meeting the set regulations. In the end it’s the loss to the insurance companies if these trailers have transit insurance. I don’t know why they are also sleeping and not thinking about this important subject. They are also part of this process and should work with the government and transporters to sketch plans for better transporting mechanisms.
Role of Car Companies:
As of car companies, they should also be involved in this process of new regulations because in the end, they also pay premiums to the insurance companies and their customers are also affected. And the most important, any damaged vehicles should not reach the dealerships because we have heard stories of how these damaged vehicles are sometimes repaired/ salvaged and then sold as new.
The chassis/ engine numbers of all these brand new damaged vehicles must be publicly released and not only that these numbers must be shared with excise departments and the registration books must shows “SALVAGE” title on it. This is how it’s done in other countries.
People can buy damaged, insurance write off vehicles from junkyards and they can be fixed and can get registered after safety inspections. But these vehicles always comes with the word “SALVAGE” in the registration documents. I hope in the recent case of MG motors, which got a lot of media limelight; the company also publicly shares the chassis number. I have a fear that these will be fixed and sold as brand new by someone out there.
I hope all involved must step in this regard and we as a consumer should also demand that these car transporters are also regulated as per international rules and regulations. Safety standards and regulations will not be able to eliminate the accidents completely but will definitely reduce the number of unfortunate incidents. With no regulations, we will just keep on multiplying the consequences.
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