DRIVER REPORT
R
oger Henriksson is simply longing for the light. For four months of the year, he spends his working days in the shadows between dusk and dawn. As a driver in Överkalix, a few kilometres south of the northern Polar Circle, darkness, snowy roads and temperatures as low as minus 40 degrees Celsius are the norm. The reward for this harsh winter arrives in June. “It’s almost impossible to describe what it’s like here in the summer when it’s light 24 hours a day and the midnight sun is shining. Everything is much easier when your alarm rings at 1.50 am in June and the sun is shining compared with the same thing when it’s pitch black and minus 35 degrees Celsius!” says Roger Henriksson.
Even if the climate is harsh and shiftwork
starting at 3 am every other week really takes its toll, he would not wish to change his job as a driver in the north. “I’m the person I am because I have always lived here. I’m nearly 50 and I’ve been abroad just once in my life. It was OK, two days before I came home I became homesick! I’m the kind of person who couldn’t live in a large city.” Every time he works, Roger drives between his home town of Överkalix and the sawmill in Munksund, twice there and back with a cargo of timber. The truck he drives is 30 metres long and
when it is fully laden it weighs 90 tonnes! “It goes without saying that it was a bit scary to begin with when I looked in the rearview mirror and saw that the truck appeared to be endless! However, I quickly got used to it and I have to admit that I feel I’ve got ‘the power’, says Roger with a smile. For the past year, he has been driving this
vehicle combination, which is part of the ETT – En Trave Till (One Pile More) – research project. Driving with a 50% larger load increases efficiency and cuts carbon emissions by 20% compared with a traditional timber vehicle combination. As the weight is distributed over more axles, the vehicle combination also causes less wear and tear to the road surface. He has been given a dispensation to drive this truck, which weighs 30 tonnes more than Swedish legislation permits, on public roads. Volvo Trucks is one of a number of partners participating in this research project and it is hoped that the project will help to bring about a change in the legislation, so that the total maximum permitted weight for heavy-duty transport will be increased from 60 to 74 tonnes. The long term goal is also to get 90 tonne trucks approved. Roger sits in his cab and swears. The belowzero temperatures that usually hold Överkalix in a stranglehold have slowly risen to near zero, which will result in black ice and slush.
Driver Roger Henriksson is checking the load of timber before driving off. This is a special day. It is the first time he will drive the new Volvo FH16 - specially designed for heavy-duty tasks. 10
UP TIME #2/2014
VTM_2_14_MY_en.indb 10
2014-05-08 13:09