Innholdsfortegnelse for Issue 379 i Australasian Transport News (ATN)

The Electronic Work Diary’s (EWD) time has arguably come but the question remains if the nation is prepared for it. The concept should be ready to roll as a tried, tested, useful and fit-for-purpose working alternative to the paper version of a system that is fair, easy to use and resists bureaucratic misapplication and petty tyranny. A reality though it is, many would say that if that was the criteria for the Written Work Diary (WWD), the old version’s time remains somewhere over the horizon and may always be there. The ‘time’ for EWDs, at present, is in the technology and potential advantage. The advantage ought to be that the process of compliance checking becomes so near automatic that driver and truck and company doing the right thing need barely…

Queensland owners of vehicle loading cranes (VLCs) should not take long lead-up to a compliance blitz lightly. Though the safety operation is not officially due to kick off until August, state safety and transport authorities are on heightened alert in the meantime, a spokesperson for Workplace Health and Safety Queensland (WHSQ) says, with a focus to be acute on owners, or persons conducting a business or undertaking (PCBUs) in chain of responsibility parlance. “This campaign has been co-ordinated with other Queensland regulators, the Department of Transport and Main Roads and the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator,” the spokesperson tells ATN. “It was determined to give industry plenty of warning about the compliance campaign by offering a self-assessment tool for owners and PCBU’s with vehicle loading cranes. “There has been extensive consultation…

Aurizon’s plan to sell its intermodal freight haulage business and the terminal at Acacia Ridge, outside Brisbane, could be in trouble – with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) saying it has “strong concerns” about the plan. The completion of the deal, which would see Aurizon sell its Queensland intermodal business to a consortium of Linfox and Pacific National, hinges on the approval of the ACCC and the Foreign Investment Review Board. Aurizon stands to make about $220 million should the sale proceed, with the company having already closed its intermodal operations outside Queensland. ACCC chairman Rod Sims says the ACCC was concerned about the impact of the sale on the freight industry, noting that Pacific National and Aurizon are currently the only providers of intermodal rail linehaul services…

The New South Wales government and toll roads operator Transurban will work with seven car manufacturers to examine how automated cars will interact with the state’s existing road infrastructure. The groups will facilitate a series of on-road trials across the Sydney orbital network – including the Lane Cove Tunnel, the Hills M2 Motorway, Westlink M7, the M5, Eastern Distributor, the Sydney Harbour Bridge and Sydney Harbour tunnel. The automated BMW, Lexus, Hyundai, Mercedes, Audi, Tesla and Volvo cars will be trialled in different conditions and at different times of the day – with all data collected to be published and made publicly available by the end of the year. NSW minister for transport and infrastructure Andrew Constance says the project would position the state as a leader in automated vehicle…

A TRANSPORT company has been fined a total of $58,000 plus $5542 in costs after a worker’s hand was crushed between two containers being moved using a forklift, WorkSafe WA reports. Mineral Trans (WA) Pty Ltd pleaded guilty to failing to provide and maintain a safe workplace and, by that failure, causing serious harm to an employee, and was fined $55,000 in the Esperance Magistrates Court on Friday. In addition, Mineral Trans was fined $3000 for allowing an employee to operate a forklift without holding the appropriate High Risk Work Licence. In partnership with another entity, Mineral Trans operated a transport business trading as Cranes Haulage. In August 2014, an employee of Cranes Haulage was driving a two-trailer combination, each carrying two empty half-height sea containers that were locked together…

LINFOX EXECUTIVE chairman Peter Fox has detailed his company’s desire to embrace electric propulsion and autonomous technologies while acknowledging intervening difficulties. The direction is made plain in the company’s online Solutions Asia Pacific publication headlined ‘Transport of tomorrow’ and follows Fox’s enthusiasm at Fuso’s electric truck presentation at the recent Tokyo Motor Show. “Electric technologies are becoming commonplace in passenger cars, and as advances occur in battery technologies we will see a much greater take up of electric vehicles in commercial applications,” he writes. “We believe the current battery technology will restrict the use of electric heavy vehicles to urban distribution and short-haul trips. However, over time we will see an exponential increase in electric vehicle usage.” He links the move to the company’s long-standing GreenFox emissions-reduction program which he…

WESTERN AUSTRALIAN TRANSPORT firm Centurion has revealed details of how it beat recent northern Australian floods, with the help of customers and a vessel operating firm. The impact of tropical cyclones Joyce and Kelvin, combined with a severe storm, drenched the Kimberley in January and February, isolating people in towns including Broome, Derby and Halls Creek from the south of the state. Working with its large retail supermarket customers and Bhagwan Marine, Centurion commissioned a barge and redirected road freight through the ports of Dampier and Broome. Centurion says it loaded seven refrigerated trailers on to a barge at Dampier port to arrive in Broome two days later and then used its local fleet to distribute the goods to the supermarkets. This process was repeated at the end of February…

DAVID GOODALL has taken over as Isuzu’s dealer sales manager in Victoria and Tasmania, replacing Russel Bragge in the role. Goodall comes to the role after two years with waste equipment manufacturer Superior Pak, where he specialised in waste compaction bodies. He spent five years before this working with CAT Trucks in retail roles and another ten years with Mercedes Benz Trucks wholesale. “Personally, I want to be the face of the brand at the dealer, working with the sales team to reach targets, to visit the local businesses and customers to facilitate that aim,” Goodall says. Isuzu Australia national sales manager Les Spaltman believes Goodall’s experience in retail and wholesale vehicle sales would help the company provide “the highest support” to its dealers in Victoria and Tasmania. “We’re excited…

 I was recently involved in a case where a heavy vehicle operator was charged with a breach of the Heavy Vehicle National Law (HVNL) with respect to restraint issues. “The operator was fined for an alleged load-restraint breach” On October 20, 2016, a curtain-sided B-double combination was intercepted by New South Wales police on the Newell Highway near Tichborne. Of particular interest to the police was the message of flash load restraint used by the transport operator. After inspecting the load, the police formed the view that the transport operator had breached section 183 (2) (G) of the HVNL. In other words, the operator was fined for an alleged load-restraint breach. It should be also be noted that the category of breach was a “substantial breach” and consequently carried with…

Almost all small business people have had to fend off unsolicited offers for new products or services at one time or another – in many cases, when they have entered the market for something else. It was a trend that former commercial leasing agent Matt Sampson observed once he started his own business, putting leasing deals together in the industrial property market. “Currently, as a tenant, if you go out and start talking to a lot of different agents your name can get spruiked through the market – so they know someone is looking,” he tells ATN. To help avoid this, Sampson hit on an idea – what if tenants and landlords were able to deal with each other directly, and cut out the middleman? Sampson’s new online platform, uTenant,…

A TRANSPORT COMPANY has gained a freezing order on its group’s CFO and a number of his firms after an admission of theft of more than $5 million. Michael Kent was an employee of the Pace Group from 2001 and since 2006 acted to the group through the third defendant, Deduce Financials. The order was sought in the New South Wales Supreme Court by MWP Transport, which provides transport services for the group. Kent admitted to Pace Group director Paul Pace in mid-February that he had been stealing from the company for the past five years, with at least $5,882,967.86 taken since January 2015 and further amounts misappropriated earlier, although the precise amount is not yet known. The weeks either side of March 1 were taken up with negotiations with…

As South Australia looks on the way to surmounting its recent electricity issues, Eastern Adelaide garbage collection operator East Waste is starting to look beyond gas propulsion for its fleet. East Waste, controlled by a number of local councils, is spurred by global developments in electric propulsion for trucks. East Waste’s interest is still in early formation and has surfaced in its draft business plan for next year. “There are a lot of hurdles to jump through and if it falls down at any of them, that’ll be the end of the story,” East Waste general manager Rob Gregory tells ATN. “The concept itself is very much in its infancy. “We think it’s prudent and timely now to look at it.” EW’s current plan notes it is examining a fleet…

THE NATIONAL HEAVY VEHICLE REGULATOR (NHVR) has added extra performance-based standards (PBS) truck and dog combinations to heavy vehicles classed for PBS pre-advised approval. From April, 3- or 4-axle truck and 5-or 6-axle dog combinations up to 26m long and 73 tonnes gross combination mass (GCM) will now qualify for the PBS pre-advised approval. The NHVR had extended the process for five other combinations in January. “This means additional PBS combination types can be assessed and receive a design approval by the NHVR without submitting the application to the PBS Review Panel,” NHVR chief engineer Les Bruzsa says. “Since we conducted a trial of pre-advised design approvals last year, we have been steadily adding combinations to now cover 85 per cent of all design approvals. “This has reduced application processing…

Tyne ACFS has expanded in the west, with a new facility at the Fremantle Port opened recently. Developed by privately owned Tzaneros Investments for Tyne ACFS and ACFS Port Logistics, the 5.6-hectare facility was once known as Area D, and is situated on reclaimed land. It includes 40,000 square metres of empty container park and has a 1000sqm wash bay, a 672-square-metre repair bay, 900sqm of dedicated survey pad, 36 reefer points and a site capacity for 6147 twenty-foot equivalent units of empty containers. The facility also has queuing lanes for 21 road trains marked green and red to accommodate for paperless processing, the company says, and has direct and inter-connecting access to the North Quay Rail Terminal. Tyne ACFS has appointed David Anderson as the facility’s operations manager, adding…

Automotive Holdings Group (AHG) says it is on track to offload its refrigerated logistics business to Chinese buyer HNA International before July this year, after announcing an anticipated fall in interim profits. The company recorded a net profit after tax of $39.9 million for the six months to 31 December 2017, down 2.4 per cent on the same period the previous year, despite a 7.5 per cent rise in revenues to $2.87 billion over the same period. AHG attributed the fall to lower finance commissions due to credit lending constraints and a lower gross margin from add-on insurance products over the half. The company announced its plan to offload its refrigerated logistics business, which comprises the operations of Rand, Harris, Scott’s and JAT, to HNA for $400 million in November…

Lubrication system specialists Cornish Lubrication Services has become part of Australasian workshop equipment supplier Genesis Equipment in an exciting combination for the industry. Andrew Cornish, of Cornish Lubrication Services, will stay at the helm of Cornish Lubrication Services. “We have known the management team of Genesis Equipment for many years and have always been impressed with how they deliver the best quality and service to their clients,” Cornish says. “We are very excited about joining forces with this trusted industry leader and are looking forward to working closely with our existing clients and the new customers that are coming on board.” Cornish Lubrication Services has had a presence in the industry for more than 30 years, delivering services nationally for large and small workshop installations, refurbishments and bespoke installations. Genesis…

VW GROUP’S management structure is to be revamped with CEO Matthias Müller stepping down and the supervisory board appointing former brand manager Herbert Diess as his successor. VW says the introduction of the brand groups Volume, Premium and Super Premium, along with the planned preparation for capital market readiness of Truck & Bus, “create the basis for a more subsidiary leadership of the Group”. So, Diess will be responsible for Group Development and Research, Rupert Stadler for Group Sales, and Oliver Blume for Group Production. Due to the special significance of vehicle connectivity, Vehicle IT will be led by Diess; Company IT will be headed by Frank Witter. Procurement and Components are to be combined.…

National Transport Commission chair Carolyn Walsh and former chief pilot for Qantas Chris Manning have been reappointed as commissioners of the Australian Transport Safety Bureau for two years. Walsh, who was made chair of the NTC earlier this year, is a former chief executive of the NSW Independent Transport Safety and Reliability Regulator and executive director of the office of the coordinator general of rail. Manning has over 40 years in aviation and has chaired the Australian Aviation Associations’ Forum.…

The transport industry needs a new generation of leaders to deal with the issues of today and address the challenge of technological disruption. On March 27-28, the Australian Trucking Association, in partnership with Daimler Truck and Bus Australia Pacific, delivered a Future Leaders’ Forum. This career-defining professional development program brought hand-picked trucking business owners and employees to Canberra for two days of intensive workshops. The Daimler Truck and Bus Future Leaders’ Forum proved to be invaluable. The participants received media training and leadership mentoring and were given the opportunity to raise key industry issues in lobbying meetings with government and opposition MPs at Parliament House. The Daimler Future Leaders raised the importance of improving truck rest areas, establishing safety-focused crash investigations and introducing the mandatory fitting of stability control in…

1900  The history of FUCHS Lubricants (Australasia) Pty Ltd can be traced back before 1900 to a company known as Fred Kidd and Co, operating in Sydney NSW. The current legal trading entity has its origins via The Steel Improvement Company. The Steel Improvement Company was founded in 1911 by metallurgist Claude A. Stewart in Bay St Sydney and soon followed by a charcoal plant in Bargo NSW. 1948  The Steel Improvement Company established a manufacturing facility and laboratory in Woodville, a suburb of Adelaide, in 1948 to service Holden and Chrysler with drawing oils, stamping oils and heat treatment salts. 1979  In late 1979 the Steel Improvement Company was purchased from the Stewart family by Beat Altermatt and Melbourne became the location of the company’s Head Office. Beat Altermatt…

LINFOX AND TOLL have highlighted their support for an Australian Logistics Council plan to compel all heavy vehicles to carry telematics equipment. The calls come in submissions to the NSW parliament’s Joint Standing Committee on Road Safety, also known as the Staysafe Committee, and its inquiry into the use of technology to improve road safety, particularly for heavy vehicles. In its submission, the ALC says the NSW government should advocate for further changes to the Heavy Vehicle National Law (HVNL), establishing it as the law that regulates telematics in heavy vehicles. The HVNL should be changed to require road transport operators to use software or hardware applications that collect data such as vehicle speed, location and distance travelled, and the times the engine was on or off. “ALC believes the…

Western Australia’s rural transport industry has reacted positively to the state government’s Revitalising Agricultural Region Freight Strategy initiative. Announced by transport and planning minister Rita Saffioti and agriculture minister Alannah MacTiernan, a former WA transport minister, the strategy is to be developed by a multi-agency team with representatives from the Department of Transport, Main Roads Western Australia, Public Transport Authority and Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development. “The team will engage with external stakeholders throughout various stages of the process to ensure that the entire supply chain is addressed,” the government says. It adds that specific “infrastructure upgrades, technological solutions and policy measures that will enhance road safety and freight transport productivity will be identified and prioritised in the strategy. “The strategy will provide the context for business cases…

“Every Australian should be concerned about this” TRANSPORT WORKERS UNION’S New South Wales branch (TWU NSW) has taken the cudgels to deal between secure document handling service Iron Mountain and consistently growing firm Direct Couriers. The union accuses US-headquartered Iron Mountain of effectively walking away from its contracts with current drivers for services to a range of high-profile domestic and international firms. It claims Iron Mountain recently revealed plans to outsource the security of its clients’ data and documents to Direct Couriers, the burgeoning courier and taxi truck services company with a presence in eastern state capitals and New Zealand and a fleet of more than 800 vehicles. “In doing so, Iron Mountain is refusing to honour its existing contract with its current drivers, which doesn’t expire until 2019, in…

Participants in the 2018 Daimler Truck and Bus Future Leaders’ Forum have raised key trucking industry issues with Australian politicians in lobbying meetings. The Daimler Future Leaders Forum was hosted by government and opposition MPs at Parliament House in Canberra, raising the importance of improving truck rest areas, establishing safety-focused crash investigations and introducing the mandatory fitting of electronic stability control in heavy vehicles. “The industry needs a new generation of leaders to deal with the issues of today and address the challenge of technological disruption,” ATA chair Geoff Crouch says. “The trucking industry needs better rest areas, safer vehicles and more knowledge about the causes of crashes to ensure everyone gets home safely at the end of the day, and the ATA is proud to work with such promising…

THE WEIGHT OF INFRASTRUCTURE spending in the next two decades will fall predominantly on transport, the newly released NSW State Infrastructure Strategy 2018-2038 shows. With $41.4 billion said to be brought to bear over four years on major projects “connecting people and places”, the aim is to cater for a state population set to grow to more than 12 million people by 2056. The strategy dovetails with the Future Transport 2056 Strategy, also just issued, the draft of which was released last October. “This landmark vision integrates social infrastructure, transport and planning, so we can make the most of this Government’s unprecedented investment in communities across our state,” Premier Gladys Berejiklian says. “Over the last seven years, our strong economic management has meant we’ve been able to deliver a massive…

Queensland is planning to reintroduce a levy for dumping waste in the state’s landfill facilities, following the release of a report use of the facilities by interstate groups. In 2011, the state government led by Anna Bligh had imposed a levy of $35 per tonne of waste deposited in landfill, but it was scrapped by the Campbell Newman-led Liberal-National government when it took office in 2012. This in turn made it more attractive for companies in New South Wales to transport waste across the border, avoiding that state’s levy of $138 per tonne. Some large construction companies are estimated to have transported more than 900,000 tonnes of waste into Queensland in the 2016-17 financial year alone. The Waste Contractors & Recyclers Association of NSW told a NSW Parliamentary inquiry into…

“Ports are intrinsically linked to our prosperity” PORTS AUSTRALIA’S chief executive Mike Gallacher has argued the case for directing more freight through coastal shipping to aid longevity of expensive and overused land transport infrastructure. Addressing a hearing of the Australian Parliamentary Standing Committee on Infrastructure, Transport and Cities, Gallacher, flanked by policy director Ash Sinha, urged a greater appreciation for the ‘blue highway’. “Figures show that the country’s freight task is set to double and that our current and future spend on roads and rail will not be adequate to meet the requirement of the incoming freight tsunami,” he says. “Over the last 25 years domestic sea freight has grown by 1 per cent where rail has grown by 210 per cent and road 61 per cent.” This, Gallacher says,…

A MARITIME UNION OF AUSTRALIA (MUA) effort to move further inland has been driven back to the waterfront in the Fair Work Commission (FWC). In a modern manifestation of a demarcation dispute, the MUA argues that Qube truck drivers engaged on rail loop operations at Sydney’s Port Botany, some of whom had been enrolled in the MUA, are engaged in stevedoring operations. The MUA’s intervention came as Qube was seeking to finalise an enterprise bargaining agreement the Transport Workers Union (TWU) after 10 months of negotiation. Through what’s known as a “scope order”, the MUA wants Qube to be involved in two separate negotiations, allowing the MUA to be dealt into proceedings. The MUA claims that they were working in the chain of loading and unloading of containerised cargo on…

Anna Squire, principal at engineering consultancy Arup, has gained a seat on the Australasian Railway Association (ARA) board. Squire has garnered an international reputation and has been named ‘Global Rail Leader’ after more than 10 years at the firm. “I am delighted by this appointment and am excited about the opportunity to contribute to the future of the rail industry through my ongoing involvement with the ARA,” she says. The ARA emphasises the breadth and depth of experience Squire bring to the table. “We are very pleased to have Anna Squire join the ARA board, at what is both an exciting and an important time for the rail industry,” the ARA’s chairman, Bob Herbert, says. “Anna Squire brings more than 25 years’ experience as an accomplished project director, having successfully…