The B.C. Ministry of Transportation has launched a July to October pilot project to test whether long-combination tractor trailers can increase the efficiency of goods movement between B.C.'s Interior and the Lower Mainland.
The truck tractors have two semi-trailers that can haul roughly 40% more freight than regular trucks.
As part of the pilot project, as many as eight long-combination trucks will run daily between Burnaby and Kamloops on Highway 5 and the Trans-Canada Highway.
The vehicles will have a number of operating restrictions, including a requirement that they have anti-lock brakes, meet the ministry's weight and dimension conditions and have onboard recording computers to measure speed and time and act as an electronic log book recorder.
The ministry's initiative comes after it completed an initial test run of long-combination vehicles along the same route last fall. The trial was done with the support of the BCAA and the RCMP.