I feel like they re-invented the train. :-)
Roads are like rails that are already paved everywhere (with the significant addition to climate-impacting gas emissions).
Rails are easier in Europe because less of the land is owned by private interests making eminent domain easier.
The question, I suppose, is how much harder they are on the roads relative to their fuel efficiency.
> road damage increases with the mass
https://streets.mn/2016/07/07/chart-of-the-day-vehicle-weigh...
The gas tax hasn't been increased since 1993 and accounts for less than half of road funding.
There is a societal benefit to efficient means of transportation. You, along with most other people, are reaping the benefits of truckers using roads to deliver cargo.
I don't know why (in Germany) a long-distance bus is much cheaper than a train (from/to the same city), but it is. We shouldn't be trying to shift traffic to rail unless there's a good reason beyond "it feels good" for it. If it is better for the environment, I'd like to see a "citation" (not in the form of research, but in the form of well-justified taxes/tolls/... that transform this into a matter of cost).
An 80,000 pound truck has 8X the axle weigh of a 2000 pound car, so should be paying 4096 times more road taxes than the car.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gross_axle_weight_rating#Impor...
It would be interesting to look at the costs and savings of 6 or 8 axles in the back. There's plenty of room to fit, and you could drop wear by a factor of 10.
Let's also not forget that the truck probably has over a hundred times as much payload as an average car.
[1] http://www.nvfnorden.org/lisalib/getfile.aspx?itemid=601