WEIGHT increases for tractors and trailers announced by the Department of Transport are a “step in the right direction”, according to the NFU, but they “need to go further in the next phase to realise the maximum improvement in farm transport efficiency”.

NFU vice-president Guy Smith said: “We have been campaigning for tractor and trailer weights to be increased for a number of years and I’m sure many people who’ve found themselves caught in a queue of traffic behind a tractor will have sympathy with our calls to reduce the number of tractors on the road by increasing their effective payload.

“While an increase in speed limit to 25mph is welcome news, the benefits will not be as great as a meaningful increase in the effective payload.

“While an increase to 31t is a step in the right direction, keeping the specific limit of 18.29t on the trailer will continue to restrict many trailers from being used at anywhere near their safe engineered design capacity.

“The proposed changes remove the £62m cost to the industry of having to comply with limits set in 1986.

“Because the overall weight limit for tractors and trailers has remained static, the tonnage that can be carried in trailers has actually decreased as tractors have become bigger and safer.

“To achieve a change which fully reflects improvements in technology, it is essential that weight limits are increased further.

“If weights had been increased to 33t this wheat harvest, journeys could have been reduced by roughly 46 per cent.”