As Koch emphasised in his opening address, the intention was to reduce CO2 and to develop the logistics infrastructure in order to create a more environmentally friendly transport system. It would only concern 44-ton HGVs in any case; the impact on road surfaces could be better reduced by increasing the number of HGV axles. This would massively reduce fuel consumption. According to Koch, Germany would soon permit pilot projects on certain routes for “Eco liners” resp. “Eco monsters” as they have been christened by the MEP. Koch does not regard them as competition to rail transport.

The MEP was supported – unsurprisingly – by NEA, a business friendly consulting company. The NEA study, sponsored by the postal service providers UPS and TNT, finds a number of advantages in using the “Eco monsters”. 30 percent less road capacity would be required compared to normal HGVs, the larger HGVs were not more dangerous than the 40-ton HGVs and competition with rail transport would only exist in case of distances of up to 100 kilometres, which in accordance to information he provided would be equivalent to about 10 percent of the total volume.

NEA also prepared a corridor study, with an UPS “Eco monster” driving between the German cities Herne and Cologne. This had resulted in a saving of 70,000 km, 21,700 litres Diesel and 57,2 tons of CO2. They failed, however, to disclose how they arrived at this wondrous result. Using these new HGVs in Austria, would save over 700 journeys and reduce CO2 emission by 552 tons.

More support came from IKEA, Flora Holland and Rockwool, who could use many tons of CO2 using these monster trucks. The MEPs Meißner of the Liberals, Eppik of the European Conservatives and Koch of the European People’s Party agreed with the advantages of the “Eco monster”.

The publicity event was only interrupted by a few, who despite of the “independent” NEA study, voiced concerns on admitting the “Monster trucks”. The Green MEP Cramer criticised that in contract to the statements of the speakers, these HGVs would result in a shift of 50 percent of the transport volume from rail to road. Apart from that, there would be no infrastructure for such monster trucks: even now, Germany was 20,000 parking spaces short, which, however, would be necessary for the rest periods of HGV drivers.

AK EUROPA, as well as the trade union vida, the Austrian Federal Ministry for Transport, Innovation and Technology and the Austrian Federal Government have clearly come out against the Europe-wide admission of HGVs with a length of up to 25.25 metres and a weight of up to 60 tons: this expected shift of good transport from rail to road would even increase CO2 emissions; infrastructure costs would be immense because of the required adjustment measures. It is not quite clear why there would be fewer journeys with the monster trucks: statistics show that only a minority of 40-ton HGV are used to full capacity. The transport barometer of Deutsche Verkehrszeitung states the capacity utilisation rate for cross-border journeys as just 41 percent, regarding transports within Germany the figure stands at 44 percent. According to the magazine “Verkehr”, capacity utilisation rate in Austria is only 27 percent.