Innholdsfortegnelse for Issue 350 i Australasian Transport News (ATN)

K&S Corporation has stepped into aviation services with the purchase of Albury-based Aerorefuellers. The avgas fuelling firm has a fleet of bridging tankers, aviation refuelling-capable semi-trailers and rigid tankers, a tray body truck fitted with tailgate lifter, a two-tonne crane and a service truck. All vehicles boast specialist equipment and certified fuel delivery componentry and the fleet is fully and professionally maintained, it says. “The acquisition of Aerorefuellers presents an exciting opportunity for K&S to expand its current transport operations into the aviation sector,” K&S managing director Paul Sarant says. “Aerorefuellers is a well-managed business with a history of outstanding customer service that is complimentary to K&S’ existing service offering and skill-sets.” Bought for an undisclosed sum, K&S says the new acquisition currently generates annual revenue of more than $20…

The National Heavy Vehicle Regulator (NHVR) has welcomed the establishment of a dedicated road network for AB-triple vehicles in South Australia. NHVR manager of access Roger Garcia says the PBS 3A network will be pre-approved for AB-triples, saving businesses both time and money through reduced permit timeframes and requirements. “This pre-approval will provide the heavy vehicle industry with a defined network to operate effectively on, while allowing for loads above general mass limits to be transported, moving more freight more safely,” Garcia says. AB-triple combinations were previously required to have single permits for each and every point-to-point journey. The network includes over 5,000km of road, covering Adelaide and routes to the north and west. Garcia says the State Government has been proactive in recognising the productivity costs of the previous…

A South Australian trucking group has joined those supporting changes to owner-driver remuneration, saying reform is needed to keep small businesses viable. The Owner Drivers Association of SA is in lock-step with the Transport Workers Union (TWU) to secure minimum pay rates for owner-drivers. The Road Safety Remuneration Tribunal (RSRT) has proposed fixed hourly and kilometre pay rates for owner-drivers from January 1, 2016, including payment for time spent loading, unloading and queuing. It last week finished four days of hearings on the issue. “I fully support the work of the tribunal. We need to set a fair, minimum rate of pay for all owner-drivers. “We’re small businesses and right now we’re struggling to make ends meet and put food on the table,” Owner Drivers Association SA CEO Jeff Matthews…

New statistics showing a rise in fatal crashes involving rigid trucks should be seen in a broader industry context, South Australia Road Transport Association (SARTA) executive director Steve Shearer says. The Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics quarterly bulletin on fatal heavy vehicle crashes showed fatal crashes involving heavy rigid trucks increased 5.3 per cent (compared to the same period a year earlier) over the three months to the end of June in 2013. The number of fatal crashes involving articulated trucks decreased by a similar percentage over the same period. While Shearer acknowledges rigid trucks are more prone to crashes than articulated combinations, he says there are several issues that should be considered in line with the raw numbers. First, the total number of truck movements was also…

The looming skills shortage and new entrants looking to start but short on experience have prompted finance firm GoGetta Equipment Funding to release an e-book on establishing a freight transport firm. Aimed at young, prospective owner-drivers primarily but relevant for anyone looking to enter the industry, ‘Starting an owner–driver trucking business’ seeks to give advice that will also stand them in good stead as their start-ups grow. The e-book may be used as something of a stand-in for experienced hands that are being lost to retirement. GoGetta notes that industry analysts IBISWorld’s latest analysis of the industry highlights this loss. It is one that industry observer and Ferrier Hodgson partner Brendan Richards believes offers opportunities as well as challenges. “The road freight sector has been staring down the barrel of…

Diesel exhaust exposure is an unavoidable workplace hazard for people working in the trucking industry, but there is help at hand for companies to manage the risk it poses. Safe Work Australia has released a new guide and accompanying video on the dangers of diesel exhaust fumes and steps that can be taken to protect employees. Safe Work Australia says about 1.2 million workers in Australia were exposed to diesel exhaust in 2011, and the majority of those were working in the heavy vehicle sector. The agency says short-term exposure can cause eye, nose, throat and lung irritation or even suffocation. Longterm exposure can worsen allergies, increase the risk of heart and lung disease and increase the risk of lung cancer. “Safe Work Australia’s guidance material provides information on how…

Toll Group has appointed seasoned finance and transport executive Simon Thornton as the new executive general manager of Toll IPEC, the parcels business of Toll Global Express. Thornton brings a wealth of experience in the transport and logistics industry, having held roles with major transport businesses in Australia and overseas. He was most recently a partner at McKinsey & Company, where he led large scale business turnarounds in Australia. Previously he held the position of CEO of McColl’s Transport, where he drove a long-term transformation of the company into a specialised milk and chemicals tanker business. Thornton spent most of the 1990s with heavy equipment company Caterpillar in Australia and Europe and held the Vice President role with North American Coal and also with Case New Holland. “I’m very excited…

One of the concepts behind the chain of responsibility (COR) is that all parties in the chain are jointly responsible for compliance with the Heavy Vehicle National Law. It is a chain because each party is linked and like links in a real chain, each party is only as secure as the weakest link. The result is that each party must rely on their counterparties to meet their commitments and so each party has a reason to help each other party to meet its commitments. One way to do this is through your contract documents and it is increasingly common to see clauses in contracts that impose on the parties an obligation to produce on demand evidence of COR compliance. But these clauses are always going to be limited because…

Last month, I was privileged to attend the Transport and Infrastructure Council meeting in Adelaide, where Australia’s transport ministers came together to discuss the big ticket items facing transport. This meeting delivered a mixed bag of results for the trucking industry. Our largest concern is the decision by ministers to continue overcharging the trucking industry by maintaining the revenue raised by the National Transport Commission’s (NTC’s) flawed heavy vehicle charges model. This moves away from ministers’ 2014 decision to align heavy vehicle charges with the cost base by July 1, 2016. As a result, truck and bus operators will pay an extra $250.2 million in 2016-17 and $264.8 million in 2017-18 — more than half a billion dollars in total over two years. The Australian Trucking Association (ATA) argued strongly…

On occasion, this column is fond of quoting a transport conference speaker, back in the day, on the transient nature of the transport and logistics game. “Look around you — in five year’s time, nothing you see will be the same,” he says, or words to that effect. While no great fan of annual end of year retrospectives, 2015’s finish does give an excuse to test the speaker’s thesis. Supporting it is the memory of a still quite new Asciano, which was then a settled firm under the guidance of Mark Rowsthorn. It was finding out how fickle financial markets could be and how cries to take on more debt while money is cheap can turn quickly to jeers about being over-leveraged and vulnerable, often from the same mouths. That…

A Qube consortium, which includes the company, Global Infrastructure Management (GIP) and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB), has made a formal bid for the remaining Asciano shares it does not own, worth $9 billion. The consortium, which already has a 19.99 per cent stake in Asciano, has offered an aggregate implied value of $9.25 per share, comprising of cash (approximately 75 per cent) and scrip. Under the deal, GIP and CPPIB would acquire the rail business and Qube would take over Asciano’s Patrick container terminal business and its interest in Australian Amalgamated Terminals. The new bid sits slightly above the $9.22 offer from the Brookfield Infrastructure Partners (BIP) consortium, which owns 19.2 per cent of Asciano’s shares after a 14.9 per cent purchase . In an ASX statement,…

The impact on container port logistics of the ACFS-Patrick joint venture is due to be felt from Monday with 24-hour, five days a week container park opening hours. The move in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne comes as the joint venture, announced in April, rebrands Patrick Empty Container Parks as ‘ACFS e-Depot’ and follows an operational and structural review since August. “This advancement will significantly assist transport providers in the industry, and promote 24 hours operations in the container supply chain,” the joint venture has told customers. “In addition to the extended hours of operation, we are working closely with Containerchain to implement e-Gate systems through all our facilities within the coming months. “This advancement in systems will promote the efficient processing of trucks in and out of our facilities, through…

The bad news on fatal crashes involving heavy-rigid trucks shows no sign of abating and hopes at the start of last year that the trend may have peaked have been dashed. The April-June edition of the Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics’ (BITRE) Fatal Heavy Vehicle Crashes – Quarterly Bulletins shows heavy rigid fatal crashes increased 5.3 per cent compared with the corresponding period a year earlier and increased by an average of 2.8 per cent per year over the three years to June 2015. The outcome is in contrast with fatal crashes involving articulated trucks, which decreased 16.5 per cent compared with the corresponding period a year earlier and decreased by an average of 5.9 per cent per year over the same three years to June. Articulated truck…

Truck turnaround times have risen in three of the five mainland container ports in the past year, Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) figures show. Its annual Container stevedoring monitoring report no.17 shows only Brisbane and Adelaide improved performance of this crucial task. “A driver of Brisbane’s improvement would have likely been DP World’s terminal overcoming its implementation problems following its conversion to semi-automation in 2013-14, the report’s authors say of its 3.6 per cent cut to 38.1 minutes, while giving no indication of where Adelaide’s 19.7 per cent reduction to 28.5 minutes came from. For the majority of the truck-stevedore interface task, average truck turnaround times increased in Melbourne (11.4 per cent to 33.5 minutes), Sydney (4.9 per cent to 39.4 minutes) and Fremantle (9.8 per cent to 30.7…

Australia’s newest national trucking association has already gained a strong supporter, with the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator (NHVR) saying it hopes to work with the group. NHVR CEO Sal Petroccitto has welcomed the establishment of Heavy Vehicle Industry Australia (HVIA), which was formerly the Commercial Vehicle Industry Association of Queensland (CVIAQ). The CVIAQ made the switch to HVIA with unanimous support from its members and will now be the national representative body in design, manufacture, importation, distribution, modification, sale, service and repair of on-road vehicles over 3.5 tonnes. “The HVIA has now been given the mandate by its members to go forward as a single nationally focused organisation tackling manufacturing, suppliers and heavy vehicle component matters across the heavy vehicle industry,” Petroccitto says. “We look forward to working with the…

Scott McKay has stepped into the new role of Bowmans Intermodal CEO charged with overseeing strategy management and further growth. “We have seen tremendous growth especially in recent times with new contract wins resulting in a doubling in business size,” Bowmans chairman Malcolm May says. “The time is right for us to now take the decision of appointing a CEO to manage the future direction of the company and Scott is the perfect choice for this role having worked with us as a strategic consultant for the past two years assisting with supply chain operations, business development and customer engagement.” McKay was CEO of e-Fill Warehousing and Transport Group and held general management positions in supply chain for George Weston Foods and Pacific Brands Clothing Group before becoming a supply…

The man who took over Noske Logistics is tipping a bright future for the once troubled firm, and the company’s former owner is staying on to help run it. Chas Kelly, who purchased the assets of the financially stricken Noske group of companies after they went into administration, says “the future is good” for the business. He says the company will continue providing woodchip and tipper transport services — albeit under a different name and with Tony Noske on board. “We’re rebranding it to Kelly Logistics so it becomes part of our enterprise,” Kelly says. “Tony will be staying on to help us run it. “There is a huge amount of experience and knowledge there that is best for us to keep. “I’ve known Tony for a lot of years…

Much has been written and said since Malcolm Turnbull’s rise to power, about the Federal Government’s role in our cities. There is universal agreement that unless there is a renewed focus by all levels of government to improve our cities’ transport infrastructure, our economic prospects will inexorably suffer. Chief among these is Infrastructure Australia, which warns in its Australian Infrastructure Audit that growing congestion threatens to cost Australians $53 billion by 2031 as the population increases to 30.5 million. Infrastructure Australia also reminds us that the economic contribution of our major cities will increase by 90 per cent to an input of $1.6 trillion in 2031. From the perspective of the logistics industry, greater Federal Government focus on the workability of our cities is a positive step. It has the…

Last issue I looked at simple methods of evaluating purchasing decision. While useful, they have limitations and certainly should not be considered for significant investments. You can make up your own definition for ‘significant’ but whatever you do, make sure it doesn’t get you fired. THE IRR METHOD First out of the blocks this time is the Internal Rate of Return (IRR) method. When calculated, the IRR gives us a single number that essentially becomes a ‘go’ or ‘no go’ gate. The ‘internal’ in the name refers to the cash flows generated by the project — rather than comparing rates available from other financial instruments. There are a couple of rules with IRR that I need to state up front. When the Net Present Value (NPV) of cashflows from a…

We have all seen the headlines — ‘Meteor heading for earth’ or ‘UFO spotted in night sky’ — and then when you read into it, turns out the meteor will pass many trillions of miles from us and the UFO was a helicopter chasing a stolen car. Click grabbers, as they are called on the internet, can be and are very misleading. One such headline getting a lot of attention at the moment is the following; ‘Chinese Bank funding 100 per cent of property purchase price’. I’m sure you have all seen this one and like many responded with something like ‘Seriously how do we compete with that?’ and ‘How are my kids going to get a foot up in the market with this all going on?’ A Current Affair…

To Richmond. No, not Virginia, the better one in Melbourne. This for breakfast with advertising and media guru Russel Howcroft, Pacific National strategic procurement specialist Michael Paterson and Tesla Australia marketing and communications manager Heath Walker, who were hosted by Custom Fleet CEO Aaron Baxter and one of his new bosses, Element Financial executive vice president Jim Halliday. As you’d expect, the morning got off to a slow start with attendees forgetting the food in favour of drooling over the car Walker brought along. Halliday, fresh from having GE Capital’s Australian businesses including Custom Fleet, fall into his lap, says he had “50 people” on his tail about working here when they found out he was taking a global leadership role. Russel Howcroft loves sales and as any watcher of…

A senior Transport Workers Union (TWU) official has dismissed claims that minimum rates for owner-drivers will price them out of the market for work. TWU national assistant Michael Kaine says trucking companies and supply chain operators will continue to need owner-drivers even if the Road Safety Remuneration Tribunal (RSRT) introduces mandatory minimum hourly and kilometre rates for contractors. A number of parties, such as Toll and Border Express, have warned of the likely impact including that a lot of work will be brought in-house should the RSRT’s proposal — which includes payment for waiting time and rest breaks — be introduced on January 1, 2016. However, Kaine points to the flexibility owner-drivers provide companies, including saving them from investing in capital and aiding them during peak demand for work when…

Contractor and subcontractor submissions have flown in the face of a Transport Workers Union (TWU) assertion that subcontractors have nothing to fear from driver rates reform. Submissions from six firms arrived on the Road Safety Remuneration Tribunal’s website displaying similar arguments and in some cases the same terms. Beattie Transport, McCarthy Transport, Ri-Industries, Hi-Trans Express and Clarend Transport all say they are subcontractor users and will reduce this option “dramatically”. They question the industry costs methodology, as modelled by KPMG, with several stating it was “far more variable and complex that the simplistic modelling used by the RSRT in developing its proposed rates”. They also implicitly reject the link between the rates as structured in the draft remuneration order and safety outcomes, saying the vast majority of subcontractors were safe…

Belief in the global freight transport and logistics outlook is “plummeting”, according to the Stifel Logistics Confidence Index. The monthly index, released by international publication Transport Intelligence (Ti), measures how much conviction there is in the future of air and sea freight and is seen as one proxy for the health of global trade. A recent index shows what there is has dissipated further, having now fallen beneath the neutral 50 point mark for the first time since January 2013 after a fifth consecutive month of decline. Shipping is bearing the brunt but air freight is also sick. “Sea freight was down more significantly than air, falling 2.1 points to 50.8. This total was 13.9 points lower than that recorded in October 2014,” the index report says. “The shipping industry…

Record interim revenues were unable to hold Mainfreight’s profit line, the international logistics firm reports. Higher costs generally and softer trading in Australia and the United States were blamed as first half profits slid 1.5 per cent to NZ$33.14 million (A$30.81 million). This was despite revenues rising 12.9 per cent to $NZ1.114 billion, “a record for our half-year reporting”, the New Zealand-headquartered company says. Earnings before interest, tax depreciation and amortisation was up for Asia and Europe operations, but fell in Australia, New Zealand and the Americas “as overhead cost increases exceeded gross margin increases”. Trading in September improved across all five regional divisions, and weekly pre-Christmas volumes were stronger through October and into November. Australia has been a tough market for the firm. Sales revenues were up 5.2 per…

The Refrigerated Warehouse and Transport Association of Australia (RWTA) has a new national chairman along with office bearers and directors for 2015-16. During a recent RWTA board meeting, Doboy Cold Stores chairman David O’Brien, who joined the RWTA board in March 2010, was elected as RWTA national chairman, with AmeriCold senior vice president Asia Pacific Jeff Hogarth taking the position of vice chairman. Former chairman Paul Fleiszig of Oxford Cold Storage takes up the position of immediate past chairman. Fleiszig takes over that post from Peter Quinn, whose service with the association began as a director on the RWTA Board back in October 2004. He become chairman in August 2007 and took on the role of immediate past chairman in August 2011. RWTA state divisions also nominated their individual state…

How many people in the management and driving side of the trucking industry can honestly say they’ve never taken the workshop staff for granted? When something needs fixing, everyone wants it done now, regardless of the time of day or night; when something minor isn’t fixed, people complain to other staff; when accidents happen, poor maintenance is often the first suspect. All too rarely does the rest of the Australian industry marvel at the hard work, patience and skill of most mechanics, fabricators, electricians, tyre-fitters and so on, so it’s great to see some of our best and brightest workshop people being formally recognised every year. That’s in the form of the joint Australian Trucking Association/Australian Road Transport Suppliers Association Craig Roseneder Award for Technical and Maintenance Excellence in the…