Trucks

Trucks are considered to be one of the major lifelines of a country. They transport from almost anything to everything from anywhere to almost everywhere.

The above statement holds good not just with Australia but I believe with every country in the world.

These monster machines on the roads are not only fascinating, but when looked into, have got a lot of technicalities behind them. 

On the whole, one can say trucks are all about payload (weight of the goods they can carry). So lighter is a truck and its body, more is the payload, i.e. more is its transportation ability, i.e. more financial savings.

Today every truck manufacturer in the world is working on producing lighter trucks without compromising on their overall strength and so is every truck body builder staying within the guidelines given by the transportation authority of the country.

Skipping over the design of the trucks as that's not my area of expertise, lets look into the truck body designs/types in Australia.

In Australia, the truck bodies are built in compliance with ADR (Australian Design Rules) laid by the Department of Infrastructure and Regional Development; which I understand are an adoption of the equivalent European rules. Apart from the ADR's the other regulation that the bodies needs to comply with are the Vehicle Standards Bulletins (VSB's) which are only referred to as a guide and can be overruled in a rare case of contradiction with the ADR's.

Now before getting onto the designs, let's first look into their classification. In Australia, they are broadly classified into two types:




 
 

Rigid Truck Bodies

Semi Trailers