Innholdsfortegnelse for Issue 377 i Australasian Transport News (ATN)

AUSTRALIAN FLEET MANAGERS are concerned about the safety of their drivers on the road, a new study indicates. Fleet and mobile asset management systems provider Mix Telematics conducted a nationwide survey where it asked 200 fleet operators about the challenges they expect to face this year. More than a quarter (26 per cent) of respondents indicated they do not have confidence that their drivers are safe behind the wheel, with 33 per cent highlighting fatigue as their biggest challenge to ensuring driver safety on the road. “This is significant, as a study conducted by Macquarie University last year found 80 per cent of truck drivers worked more than 50 hours a week, while 10 per cent did more than 80 hours each week,” Mix Telematics states. “This alarming statistic, coupled…

THE AUSTRALIAN TRUCKING ASSOCIATION (ATA) will not support the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator’s draft standards for voluntary electronic work diaries (EWDs) until their fatigue regulations become more realistic, a spokeswoman says. ATA safety and skills adviser Melissa Weller says the NHVR’s draft policy framework and standards for the EWDs, developed to monitor driver movements, were more focused on enforcement than achieving safety outcomes. In its submission to the NHVR, the ATA said any rollout of voluntary EWDs should not proceed until fatigue regulations had been amended to allow for realistic tolerances, such as human error or minor truck movements. “The current NHVR draft policy and standards offer insufficient tolerances and no flexibility, leaving drivers exposed to prosecution for inconsequential technical breaches that will have no impact on safety,” Weller says.…

VIDEO: UD 460HP QUON REVIEW Heading into the hard-baked backblocks to see how UD’s new 460hp Quon copes with life off the blacktop, it didn’t take long to confirm that Australia’s best Japanese heavy-duty truck is now even better. Heaps better! VIDEO: IVECO EUROCARGO ML150, DAILY 4X4 ROAD TEST No place for the faint hearted, the Simpson Desert is an iconic trip that features highly on many a bucket list. Matt Wood tackles the journey armed with a couple of well-equipped Iveco trucks and a fleet of dirt-biking lunatics. VIDEO: CUMMINS X12 ENGINE FULL REVIEW AND VIDEO Small in stature, the Cummins X12 is an engine punching well above its weight. Literally! Yet despite an extensive test program and growing demand, it’s a pocket performer still looking for a truck…

Whichever truck-related fatality statistics are used, the trucking industry should be on strong ground to argue its case in the road safety debate. This is so much more a motoring issue than a trucking issue. That it lacks cut-through may have several causes but the lack of properly researched, consistent data on truck safety leaves the industry open to ignorant commentary and uninformed policy formation and decision making. The industry is prone to lacking certainty on the numbers too, with the percentage of fatal truck-related crashes caused by motorists put variously at between 80 per cent and 93 per cent. It’s a situation that mirrors, to some extent, the fragmented and uneven nature of state and federal data on the issue and on truck use in general. In pushing the…

It’s mid-morning on a brick-hard stretch of dirt an hour or so out of Charleville. Already, the air is a furnace. That heavy, sapping heat, sucking moisture from every pore. In the mirrors, bleached dust blooms into cauldron clouds and all around it seems nature has once again decreed a scorched earth summer for much of south-west Queensland. Christmas is less than a fortnight away and, for many farming families in this part of the world, life remains fiercely tough. Few probably have greater understanding of just how tough than Brian Egan. Co-founder of the Aussie Helpers Charity based in Charleville, Brian and wife Nerida have, for the past 15 years or so, dedicated themselves to alleviating at least some of the stress of a drought-stricken existence. Or, more simply…

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“It monitors your eyes the whole time – even if you’re wearing sunglasses” There’s this young truck driver on the road, nine hours into a 12-hour shift. His eyelids are heavy, drooping regularly over bloodshot eyes. His concentration is waning noticeably. And then his truck veers off the road – safely, of course – courtesy of a prompt from an artificial intelligence (AI) computer system that’s been watching his eyes for signs of fatigue the entire shift. “This is a revolutionary technology,” Zurich Australia head of motor underwriting Nick Dendrinos says. “It monitors your eyes the whole time – their shape, your pupils, where you’re focusing – even if you’re wearing sunglasses. “And when it detects you’re fatigued, it buzzes the chair or sends out a beep saying ‘slow down,…

Goondiwindi-based Carpendale Commodities & Transport, an 18,000-acre grain farm with commodities and transport arms, took on the MyTrucking software in July 2017 and now swears by it. ATN caught up with two of the company’s drivers, who rolled up in two of Carpendale’s double road train Mack Super-Liners, during the recent grain harvest. Ashley Wade and Dave Grey were both pretty stoked about the MyTrucking app simplifying their job, which means more time behind the wheel and less time messing around with a pen and paper. “We get receipt printouts at jobs; we used to have to then re-write half of them but now we just take a photo with the app and it’s sorted,” Wade says. Back at the Carpendale office, logistics coordinator Nathan Jorgensen reckons MyTrucking has halved…

MaxiTRANS was approached by the OnTrack Foundation asking for assistance to paint a much needed second ‘Soup Bus’, after requirements from its original bus reached capacity. The Soup Bus, run by the OnTrack Foundation, is an after dark meal service providing meals to the homeless and less fortunate in the Ballarat region five nights a week, 52 weeks a year. MaxiTRANS agreed to supply the resources to paint the bus using the same modern, high quality paint booth that it uses to produce its leading semitrailer brands, with paint supplied by PPG. The second Soup Bus will be on the road in time for Christmas. Speaking at the announcement, Dean Jenkins said, “The Soup Bus is such a great cause. There are so many homeless and less fortunate people in…

Yes, it was the ghost of cowboys past. There was New South Wales Police assistant commish Michael Corboy and Roads and Maritime Services compliance boss Roger Weeks on the force’s Facebook video telling the world they’ll bring down recalcitrant drivers and dishonest trucking companies. But what drives up behind them but a Viking Transport-livery heavy rigid! It is unclear if the owner was spoken to. Having failed to alter the paintwork five years after the failure of that unlamented operation might lead to suspicions other things may have been unattended to. We wonder what’s going through Weeks’s mind when he realised what was driving by? SARTA’s Facebook page replies to the unloved Operation Rolling Thunder – or Rolling PR Blunder, as the industry body’s Steve Shearer would have it –…

THE BUREAU OF INFRASTRUCTURE, TRANSPORT AND REGIONAL ECONOMICS (BITRE) has questioned the veracity of road infrastructure planning for 12 projects worth more than $1 billion and cast doubt on the systems used for billions of dollars more. With eye-watering amounts of cash focused on new roads nationally, not least on trucking’s fuel tax, the report, Ex-post Economic Evaluation of National Road Investment Projects, takes governments to task over the state of cost-benefit analysis approaches used to justify them. “Cost-benefit analysis (CBA) has long been the preferred way to assess transport infrastructure investment projects in Australia,” BITRE states in its executive summary. “However, CBA, as applied in practice, is prone to errors. “Available evidence suggests that there is much room for improvement in the quality of practical Australian road CBAs if…

Something approaching a revolt has exercised minds this year amongst elements of Australia’s trucking fraternity in relation to New South Wales policing, regulation and on-road operations. There is a sense that traditional methods of publicity and enforcement used by the NSW Police and Roads and Maritime Services (RMS), accepted as par for the course for years, may not pass without scrutiny and questioning any more. The catalyst for the this pushback built a proper head of steam through the lean news month of January, starting with publicity over a spike in truck-related fatalities last year and generating more intense heat due to multiple deaths mid-month. An industry that had witnessed the annual national Operation Austrans morph into a double-header for the first time last year was already engaged in the…

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“DAF’s move to a local assembly operation is a major coup that arguably holds the greatest opportunities for growth within the Paccar fold” It wasn’t quite as big as the all-time record of 2007, but it wasn’t far off either, with 36,825 new trucks and heavy vans hitting the Australian market in 2017. Strongest of all was the heavy-duty sector with a touch over 12,000 deliveries, followed by light-duty with 11,628 units, and a comparatively lacklustre medium-duty category notching 7312. But when the numbers are dissected, who was able to make the most of a big year for business and who wasn’t? Starting at the top, no one will be knocked off their chair by the fact that Isuzu was once again the overall market leader, delivering 8898 trucks across…

For Triple Eight Race Engineering, the team behind Red Bull Holden Racing Team, being the fastest to the finish line isn’t the only concern. 2018 marks the eight-time Supercars Championship winner’s departure from traditional supercars to the Next-Generation Holden Commodore model. To ensure it can tear up the track the team needs to make sure the vehicles can get to their racing events on time and safely. Triple Eight’s prime movers may not be the stars of the show, but these beasts are essential for getting equipment and crew race ready and set for action from the moment they arrive. Which is why the team invested in GPS fleet tracking technology for their trucks. FROM START TO FINISH A missing truck packed with all the vehicles, tools & equipment on…

Windorah bakes under the November sun as I roll into town. At this time of year, no tourists ply the streets of this little Western Queensland hamlet, which, at last count, was home to just 116 people. As I roll down the deserted street, I can hear the buzzing of flies and the thump of dog tails on verandahs, shooing them away as they pant in the heat. The chirp of a siren is startling, shattering the silence. I look in the rear-vision mirror. The local cop wants a chat. BLOW IN THE BAG He climbs out of the Landcruiser, looks at my vehicle, and then looks at me. “Where’re you off to?” he asks. “Heading to Boulia today, mate,” I reply. His eyes narrow, looking back at my ride.…

The most recent delivery was a Freighter HPMV Tautliner B-train. High Productivity Motor Vehicles (HPMV) are truck and trailer combinations that are designed outside of standard 20m length vehicle dimensions to maximise productivity and safety for heavy vehicle operators, following similar guidelines to the PBS scheme used on the Australian road network. Since working with TIL Logistics, MaxiTRANS has delivered a number of HPMV designed trailers for the Company, from Tautliners to Rigid and Dog combinations. Each solution has been designed to suit TIL Logistics’ specific freight task, utilising the road network and trailer dimensions to deliver maximum productivity for its business. In addition, a number of Maxi-CUBE Meat Hangers, Freighter quad flat top semi and Freighter skeletal trailers have been added to the fleet. TIL Logistics offers local and…

Australian Federal Treasury officials requested to visit MaxiTRANS’ manufacturing facility recently, as part of a scheduled visit to Ballarat. The group used the visit as an opportunity to engage with the local economy and learn about the challenges and opportunities for the region, its businesses and its people. The tour of MaxiTRANS enabled delegates to learn about the Company’s history, as well as identifying challenges and opportunities for the Treasury Department and MaxiTRANS to work together on for future growth for the region, the transport industry and Australian manufacturing. In addition to MaxiTRANS, the group met Sovereign Hill, the City of Melton, local property developers, the Catch Group, Ballarat Technology Park and the Committee for Ballarat.…

QUEENSLAND’S FOLLOWMONT TRANSPORT has acquired New South Wales-based Towers Transport, with a view to increase services on the east coast. The move sees an extensive network expansion for both providers, benefiting customers with a personalised inter-and intrastate service offer throughout Queensland and New South Wales, Followmont says. While Towers Transport will continue to run as a separate operation in the short term, the companies have joined forces to improve current offerings until the final merger, the value of which was undisclosed. The pair will focus on upholding their outstanding delivered in full, on time (DIFOT) statistics and personal customer relationships. Followmont says its decision to venture further into the NSW market forms part of its strategic goal to increase network reach and provide a better experience for customers. Followmont MD…

Gulf Western Oil, Australia’s largest 100% locally owned lubricants manufacturer is no stranger to the transport industry, delivering solid and reliable products for 30 years now. Back in 2013, managing directors Ben and Andrew Vicary took this already impressive service to a whole new level, starting with a clean slate and building a brand new state of the art manufacturing plant. Fully computerised and stainless hardware equipped, the level of sophistication, technology, storage capability and the team’s global experience housed within this huge facility is a sight to behold for anyone lucky enough to secure a factory tour. All Gulf Western products are designed and manufactured for Australian and Pacific rim conditions. Covering transport, mining, industrial, construction, marine, agriculture, motorsport, your everyday vehicle and much more. Extensive product research and…

“The government should lean in on safety and mandate stability control for all new trucks and trailers” MANDATING ELECTRONIC STABILITY CONTROL (ESC) for heavy trucks would be a life-saver, the Australian Trucking Association (ATA) has told the federal government. Such a move should save 148 lives in the coming years, ATA chair Geoff Crouch says on releasing the ATA’s response to the Infrastructure Department’s regulatory impact statement (RIS) on mandating stability control for heavy vehicles. The RIS proposes that stability control should be required for new prime movers weighing more than 12 tonnes and new trailers weighing more than 10 tonnes. The technology would not need to be fitted to new rigid trucks. The ATA submission recommends that the government should go much further than its original proposals. “The government…

CENTURION has appointed Tom Hannaford as the new GM Operations East. Hannaford, left, has more than 25 years’ experience across transport, logistics, supply and procurement, including managing and executing contracts within the mining, utilities and retail sectors. His previous role was managing the transport and logistics network for Coles Australia’s supermarket outlets across Queensland and Northern NSW. Centurion chief executive Justin Cardaci says Hannaford is an “integral” part of its east coast expansion plans following the company’s successful move into Queensland and South Australia last year. “Tom has considerable experience in the regions and industries in which we operate and this will be critical to the business as we look to consolidate on a great first year of operations in the east,” Cardaci says.…

It’s entrenched as the second most popular brand of truck on the Australian market but, even so, for the first time in a long time, Hino appears to be on a roll. That’s not to suggest Hino will soon be biting at Isuzu’s heels for overall market leadership. Not at all. Right now, and probably for many years to come, that’s a mountain still way too high for a viable assault. Nonetheless, from the outside looking in, there’s a level of excitement and confidence within the Hino camp these days directly at odds with the somewhat sombre demeanour of the past decade or so. And the reason for this newfound and increasingly obvious optimism is a batch of new models entirely capable of taking the fight to the competition rather…

When ATN first visited Isuzu Australia Ltd’s (IAL’s) new Melbourne head office and distribution centre back in July 2017, it was plain that this was no ordinary construction site. The shell of the 24,000-square-metre building reared out of the flat, Truganina landscape like a monolith. Perched on the corner of Dohertys and Foundation Road, its sleek, glass-fronted showroom gleamed under the low winter sun. Cars slowed their revolutions on the roundabout to get a better look at the new kid in town. Progress on building the ambitious facility has been swift, with Isuzu due to move in at the end of February. The facility is designed to consolidate operations and bring nearly all of Isuzu Australia’s operations under one (very large) roof. It will house the parts warehouse, a training…

New Zealand-based farmers Sara and Sam Osborn decided to help out a mate who bought a transport company and had taken interest in the paperless system the couple were using to run their stockfeed business. “My husband and I are running the family stockfeed business, as well as farming, but about 10 years ago some mates of ours bought a livestock transport company,” Sara Osborn explains. “My husband Sam had built a basic system to run our stockfeed business, right from the ordering through to the dispatch and into our accounting program. “Anyway, our mate said, ‘Let’s come up with something similar to get rid of all this bloody paper I’m dealing with.’” That fateful day marked the early beginnings of the now thriving transport management system – MyTrucking –…

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A key investment in Sydney’s infrastructure, the WestConnex project involves the construction of a 33 kilometre motorway, two thirds of which is underground. It is considered one of the biggest infrastructure projects in Australia’s history and consists of six separate design and construction projects. Part of one of those projects is being undertaken by ResourceCo, which will be making use of eight new Hamelex White Performance-Based Standards (PBS) approved rigid and four axle dog tipper combinations through contracted company, Railroad Transport. Railroad Transport ordered the eight tipper combinations from MaxiTRANS as part of a broader order of over 50 Hamelex White units by ResourceCo’s contractors, purchased to work on a number of infrastructure projects nationally. With many notable features including an emphasis on quality and safety, Railroad Transport said the…

MaxiTRANS South Australia’s Area Sales Manager, Kym Penhall, was announced as the MaxiTRANS Salesperson of the Year for 2016/17 at MaxiTRANS’ annual Awards Night, held in Melbourne in November. Dean Jenkins presented the award to Kym, commending him for his excellent work ethic, “Kym is a fastidious operator, he is self-motivated, diligent and maintains amazing, family-like relationships with his customers.” The award is presented to the salesperson who has gone the extra mile to ensure the success of our customers and fellow team members alike, while embracing The MaxiTRANS Way. It was one of a number of awards presented on the night, with MaxiTRANS South Australia awarded the Dealership of the Year for the second year running, recognising the Dealership’s achievements over the year.…

In August, a delegation of politicians from the region of Maxi-CUBE Tong Composites (MTC), MaxiTRANS’ manufacturing facility in Yangzhou, China, visited Australia. The delegates visited in order to gain an understanding of the broader MaxiTRANS business, prior to discussions beginning about further business opportunities for MTC. MTC manufactures truck body building solutions for the Chinese domestic and export markets in a purpose built facility, using the latest in manufacturing technology.…