Direct consequences of major road conservation with a view to fuel consumption, average speed and tires wear

Abstract

Brazil has a huge territorial extension and 60% of the transportation of its cargo flows through federal, state and municipal highways. Thus, freight transportation is a billion dollar business in the whole country capable of promoting development. However, to the same extent of the importance of this modality of transport is the neglect of the ruling class of the country with the construction and maintenance of the Brazilian roads. This has promoted an increase in transport costs and, consequently, in the productive chain of several products, directly impacting their prices. There are few studies on the direct impact of poor road maintenance on the economy, and much of what is done by the National Confederation of Transport-CNT. This lack of data on the sector is due to the difficulty in controlling the variables, or the complexity of the subject. The objective of the present study was to analyze three fundamental parameters: fuel consumption (Km / L), average speed (km / h) and tire wear. For this, the data were collected in 21 trips, in two known routes, namely: Patos de Minas-MG to Fortaleza-CE and Patos de Minas-MG to Santa Maria-RS. The first one has worse traffic conditions in more than 60% of the stretch, such as irregular track and with holes, bad signaling, lack of roadway, among others. The results show statistical differences between the routes for the three studied parameters, being that the most negative ones were found in the stretches where there are worse conservation conditions.