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Why Truck Crashes Differ: Mass, Braking, Articulation
Why a loaded tractor-trailer moves unlike a car. Speed and stopping, brake lag and heat, center of gravity, rearward amplification and jackknife.
The Truck Project
Independent reporting and research on commercial trucks, freight, highways and road safety.
Explainers and reference work, each one listing the sources it was built from. Explore the vehicles, the roads they use, and the systems that keep freight moving.
How Far Does a Truck Need to Stop?
Stopping distance for an air-braked truck has four parts, not one, and weight does not affect it the way most people assume. What the CDL training figures say, and what they do not.
Featured research
Longer pieces, each assembled from its primary sources.
Commercial trucks
What the machines are, and what the words mean.
How Commercial Truck Braking Systems Work
How air-braked commercial vehicles use compressors, tanks, foundation brakes and spring brakes. Other commercial vehicles may use hydraulic systems.
Road safety
Why a crash involving a heavy truck is a different problem.
Rear Impact Guard Requirements: 393.86, FMVSS 223, 224
What federal rules require of the bar under a trailer's rear. Height, width and setback under FMVSS 224, strength and energy tests under FMVSS 223, and 393.86.
Freight & infrastructure
The network underneath the traffic.
How Heavy Trucks Use Interstate Highways
The Interstate system is the designated core of a national freight network, the road where federal truck weight limits bite hardest, and a place that sets its own demands on how a heavy vehicle is driven.
Truck history & culture
The truck as a machine, and as a place.
Trucks as Mobile Spaces
The practical constraints of using a truck body as a mobile space, from vehicle layout and cargo securement to weight, balance and height.