Truck overloading raises societal concerns by affecting transportation safety and environmental sustainability, yet the implications of truck payload management (TPM), such as maximum loading enforcement and empty-running optimization, remain underexplored. This study combines real-world truck weighing data and on-board monitoring (OBM) data to analyze the effects of payload on fuel consumption, and to evaluate the co-benefits of TPM on profitability and sustainability. The regression model includes factors such as payload, average speed, driving behavior, meteorological conditions, and vehicle configurations. Results indicate that fuel consumption rises by 1.9–7.0% per additional tonne of payload, depending on truck class. The uneven loading factors (23.71–178.54%) lead to distinct fleet-specific impacts. TPM achieves net decarbonization benefits (2.60–9.03 gCO2/tkm), whereas net economic gains (−3.91–1.69 CNY/tkm) are limited to fleets other than light-duty goods trucks. Our study highlights the importance of developing intelligent freight systems, enforcing targeted overloading regulations, and adopting “penalty-and-incentive” policies in road safety management.
Li et al. (Mon,) studied this question.