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Transportation

Elon Musk Slows Tesla Deliveries On 'Dangerous' Trucks (electrek.co) 129

An anonymous reader quotes Electrek: Tesla is always very busy in Norway, its biggest market per capita, but it has recently been difficult for the automaker to deliver its vehicles as its shipments keep being taken off the road for using transporters with "dangerous" trucks that do not conform to the rules. The California-based automaker generally ships its vehicles to Norway through the port of Drammen, but it is experiencing capacity issues so they are instead going through Gothenburg port and having to use more trucks to move the cars to its stores and service centers.

According to several media reports in Norway, over half a dozen of those trucks have been stopped by the authorities for a variety of safety reasons during inspections and one of the trucks that wasn't stopped ended up in an accident. Two Model S vehicles were crushed on the trailer involved in the accident. Tesla says that it is having difficulties finding competent transporters that comply to Norway's road requirements. On top of the safety issues, Tesla is also using transporters operating Euro 3 class trucks, which are more polluting.

Elon Musk tweeted in response to the article that "I have just asked our team to slow down deliveries.

"It is clear that we are exceeding the local logistics capacity due to batch build and delivery. Customer happiness & safety matter more than a few extra cars this quarter."
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Elon Musk Slows Tesla Deliveries On 'Dangerous' Trucks

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  • Well, Norway's got Slow TV, so don't worry, be happy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
  • by CptJeanLuc ( 1889586 ) on Sunday March 25, 2018 @01:50AM (#56321781)

    Norwegian here. This is just how the transportation market seems to be overall these days, and a follow-on effect of the European open market. It has nothing to do with Tesla specifically. It is not their trucks, and it happens for all other kinds of transportation of goods and services. This really should not be a story that so strongly features Tesla.

    The pattern is pretty much this, that we keep reading about trucks that were stopped or investigated following an accident, that seem to 95% of the time come from Eastern Europe (the Baltic countries, Poland, and Rumania are typically the points of origin), due to non-functional brakes, tires that are wore down, cargo that is not secured, or whatever. Plus zombie drivers who have skipped the mandatory sleep.

    This is particularly prominent in Winter, when we get typical Norwegian weather and some idiot truck driver halts all traffic on a clogged main road due to losing traction on a main road and somehow ending up blocking every lane. And afterwards you read that "the truck had summer tires".

    A problem that really needs fixing. These drivers and truck companies ought to start getting something more than a little slap on the wrist for these issues. Super heavy fines and some jail time ought to be a good motivation to follow European safety standards. I see zero reason to cut those crooks any slack.

    • by Rei ( 128717 )

      I almost wonder if some clever engineering could keep them off the road. For example, having the entrances to mountain roads involve having to climb a deliberately steep ramp with a deliberately poor traction surface. If they can't get up the ramp, they can't get on the road. One would need to design the ramp such that a person attempting to get on with poor tires wouldn't get in danger or block up traffic, of course, but I'd think it doable.

    • I think it does have something to do with Tesla: NRK (Norwegian State broadcaster, for those joining us from outside the Nordic countries) reports on this: https://www.nrk.no/ostfold/tes... [www.nrk.no] Google Translate works OK if you don't read Norwegian.

      It says that the vehicles were mostly Lithuanian and apart from the overloading and bad tyre maintenance, they were also EURO III standard vehicles, so at least 13 years old (EURO III was superceded in 2005). That's quite old for a commercial vehicle. I'm sure there a

      • by Rei ( 128717 )

        That's quite old for a commercial vehicle. I'm sure there are companies with newer vehicles that could have been contracted to do this job, and I'm sure this company was cheap.

        So your argument is that Tesla would prefer to miss quarterly delivery targets by cutting back on deliveries, and have its stock tank, than pay more for these "quality contractors" that you insist, without evidence, have ample capacity available for them to use?

        A curious argument to say the least.

        • That's quite old for a commercial vehicle. I'm sure there are companies with newer vehicles that could have been contracted to do this job, and I'm sure this company was cheap.

          So your argument is that Tesla would prefer to miss quarterly delivery targets by cutting back on deliveries, and have its stock tank, than pay more for these "quality contractors" that you insist, without evidence, have ample capacity available for them to use?

          A curious argument to say the least.

          Someone has the job of buying these contracts and probably gets bonused based on how efficiently he/she can do it. So it is the sort of thing that happens in any large company. They are not a single entity with a single will.

  • by ruddk ( 5153113 ) on Sunday March 25, 2018 @04:46AM (#56322099)

    It all over Scandinavia, and it is part of the curse that the EU has become.
    Truck drivers have been replaced with cheap labour from eastern Europe with the blessing of the EU.
    - None of them cares about, or have time to cover their load. I see trucks every day that breaks the law and peppers the freeway with debris. On my way to work, I now avoid the main corridors where they drive and no longer do I need to have my windshield replaced every other year. The police of course are quite understaffed to take on all the problems the EU are bringing with it, so they can pretty much to as they please and these truck drivers don't give a fuck about all the damage they cause.

    -To keep the price town they live in their trucks, often parked between jobs in places not equipped to handle overnight guests. One place across the street from my office comes to mind, where the shrubbery between roads have become a toilet filled with human feces.
    - There are some laws put in place to limit foreign drivers basically living in the trucks and doing only work inside the country but it has not effect it seems.
    - Also rest stops along the freeways are having problems with the massive amount of foreign trucks parked/camping. Some drive just south to germany only to return again across the border. And the rest stop down there have had problems with truckers camping, drinking, fighting.

    I suppose it's a shitty life, enabled and approved by the EU.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by cmseagle ( 1195671 )

      I suppose it's a shitty life, enabled and approved by the EU.

      Sounds like it's more of a failure by Scandinavian authorities to enforce labor laws, safe transportation practices, and basic sanitation requirements. What do you want the EU to do - send in the non-existent international police to stop people shitting in the bushes?

      And who's hiring these truckers anyways? The EU, or Scandinavian businesses that don't want to pay eye-watering Scandinavian wages to have their goods shipped around?

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