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ePaper created 2012-06-20, 16:34:21 | version 1.23.6
30 Issue One 2012 broken and the figures on the chessboard changed around: The blue tractor unit is needed, and still stands motionless at the edge, the driv- er is probably sleeping and will load later. The green figures have merged into a single unit, a heavy transport with impressive dimen- sions: 27.42 metres long, 3.60 metres wide, 4.10 metres high, 101 tonnes overall weight. The white Mercedes van as the escort vehicle (BF 3) is an integral part of the heavy transport. Markus Büngener has also shed his overalls, set up the signalling system on the roof of the BF 3 high and is ready to roll next to the twelve-axle combination. Now the pair are only waiting for the shipping documents which will soon be brought to them by a Senne-bogen employee. Hans Krallinger is obvi- ously a PR professional, and has arranged it this way for a photoshoot. Later he reports that the drivers usually pick up the papers from a simple portacabin. Despite the weight and the wide load, this is a routine job for the expe- rienced driver. Loads of this size are nothing unusual for his company. Schwandner specialises in the transport of large work machines, but also transports other oversized loads such as transformers or parts of wind power systems. Two years ago, the trucker worked for months in Romania, where it was again a matter of wind turbines and achieved a personal record, which he will probably never beat in Germany: “Here the limit is 131 tonnes overall weight. In Romania, I carried a compo- nent which weighed 104 tonne with my vehicle.” So almost double the weight of the excavator which Krallinger will quickly be finished with this Friday: He only has to drive the 31 kilometres route to the yard of his company, and his long “working week” will be at an end; he has spent the past two weeks on the road so to speak. Mercedes escort van The Sennebogen machine is not a load for whichtrafficsignsortrafficlightshavetobedismantledorroadsclosed. On the way to the motorway junction 33 Schwandorf-Mitte/Wack- ersdorf, the Gigaliner must negotiate two roundabouts, which would constitute an insurmountable obstacle for a normal truck-trailer com- bination with comparable dimensions. But since all the trailer axles are steerable, Hans Krallinger manoeuvres the vehicle around the rounda- bout without any problem. Problems only arise when other trucks ap- proach on the narrow district roads. They have to give way onto the hard shoulder in order to leave enough room for this meeting between 40 and 100-tonners. Krallinger makes the turn-off from the district road SAD 18 onto the four-lane trunk road 85 on the oncoming lane, while his escort in the Mercedes van stops oncoming vehicles in good time. During the journey, the two are in radio contact almost constantly, and if this breaks down, they communicate by mobile phone. On the Autobahn, The truck driver and his escort in the BF 3 must be an experienced team to get the transport smoothly to its destination. Hans Krallinger casually steers his Volvo along the narrow highways. He knows his way well in the area around the Sennebogen works.