The Double-Ended Commercial Transport Truck
Gotta feel for the guys who drive these things. Sure, on the open highway there is no issue, but maneuvering in commercial/residential areas, and backing up to loading bays, seems like more trouble than it really has to be.
So I designed this ‘double-ended’ truck, which splits the cab into two and mounts them on each end of the truck. This allows the driver to pull up directly to a loading bay (instead of backing-in), and pull away from the loading bay by simply jumping in the outward-facing cab.
Each end of the truck still has a door to get at the goods. Because the cab is smaller, it is still accessible. The driver can even step out of the cab and open the door directly to the cargo hold, as there is a platform on each end of the truck too.
And if you really need full access to all the pallets/crates of goods, the cabs can swing out to the side of the truck. This is made possible by making the steering ‘fly-by-wire’, which is sending commands to the steering column electronically, rather than a connected steering column directly to the driver.
With the cab split in half, this isn’t adding any more weight to the vehicle. And with less time turning trucks around and moving them into place, there is fuel and time savings.
I would recommend this for local transport trucks. Those long-haul trucks need a few more amenities to help drivers, like an area to sleep.
Posted on August 28, 2010, in Cars, Environment, Transportation and tagged Environment, Technology, Transportation. Bookmark the permalink. 2 Comments.
This is the first idea I’ve seen on here that I haven’t liked even a part of it. The whole point of a semi truck is to be able to drive the cab into a shipping dock and pick up any trailer to haul. There aren’t cabs to go with every trailer or even most trailers. This keeps costs way down. A driver will come back after lunch and drop off a full trailer of pickups and leave immediately with a full trailer of deliveries. Yes it does suck to learn to drive a semi well, and I applaud your attempt to solve that problem. However it is worth it and with 60+ hour work weeks these guys get better with a semi than most people are with their cars.
I’ve loved so many of your other ideas on here, keep em coming.
Maybe for smaller scale deliveries? I don’t see this being used for long hauls (such tiny cabs), but for all those hops within the city. Like grocery stores and department stores and the like.
Appreciate the feedback, and thanks for liking the other stuff. While the homeruns are nice, I’m not afraid to bunt when it comes to content! This was a bunt, but happy to get it out there all the same.