Innholdsfortegnelse for Issue 351 i Australasian Transport News (ATN)

The funny thing about so-called ‘satirical magazines’ is that, bar the absolute comics, they often have a very serious side. In Australia, we’ve taken this on to the small screen. In some cases, we’ve followed our cousins across the pond and used the news commentary format to highlight life’s high-profile absurdities. Network Ten’s The Project brings the trend to a better place, using the precept that four heads, including two comics, are better than one, while taking serious news seriously. The British have done satire extremely well for ages, with one program, Have I Got News For You, using a game show format to skewer those who of high profile and/or power for their misbehaviour or hypocrisy. The schadenfreude when long-serving MC Angus Deaton’s drugs and prostitution scandal saw him…

Local courier service Zoom2u has partnered with Greyhound Australia to spawn a next-day delivery service. The CEO and founder of Zoom2u Steve Orenstein says the overnight service provides a significant cost reduction when compared to interstate freighting by plane. “This new overnight service with Greyhound buses provides individuals and businesses with a real alternative to a traditional courier company,” Orenstein says. “At Zoom2u we’ve been able to grow our network of couriers quickly by using existing assets, rather than putting more vehicles on the road and our own technology enables our customers to know where their courier is at all times, so it’s a much better service.” Greyhound Australia’s head of freight Dan Smith says it is the perfect partner for the courier company as it operates 365 days a…

Another round of heavy vehicle-focused road funding has been allocated, the Australian Local Government Association (ALGA) National Local Roads and Transport Congress has been told. The $107 million will be available through round five of the Heavy Vehicle Safety and Productivity Program (HVSPP) to state, territory and local government for eligible projects “The program is an important part of our road safety and infrastructure efforts,” major projects minster Paul Fletcher says. Applications opened on December 2, 2015 and close February 10. Fletcher says roads were of clear, common interest to all levels of government, and for many councils roads were their largest expenditure item. The announcement came as the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator (NHVR) and ALGA backed the part each plays in supporting regional economic growth. “We recognise that local…

The new Iveco Eurocargo has been awarded the ‘International Truck of the Year 2016’, making the medium-duty truck the fourth Iveco vehicle to claim an award in as many years. The decision by a panel of 25 commercial vehicle journalists means the Eurocargo follows in the shoes of the Stralis in 2013, and adds to the ‘International Van of the Year 2015’won by the Daily and the ‘International Coach of the Year 2016’ award won by the Magelys. “Iveco has delivered a new medium duty truck that, once again, raises the bar in a highly-competitive segment in which Eurocargo has set the market benchmark in the last 25 years,” International Truck of the Year chairman Gianenrico Griffini says. Receiving the award at the Solutrans, the French biennial trade fair for…

Described as a massive win for farmers and the supply chain industry, what is believed to be the largest, continuously-tipped export grain train in Australian history has made its inaugural trip from New South Wales’ north-west to the Port of Newcastle. Leaving Narrabri with more than 5,000 tonnes of wheat divided among 73 wagons, the 1,250m train required five locomotives to bring the haul, destined for south-east Asia, to the Newcastle Agri Terminal. Stretching almost twice as long as the usual grain trains that travel the route, which sit at 650m long and 40 wagons, federal infrastructure minister Warren Truss says the train is a boon for farmers. “In simple terms, the increase in payload means at least a $5 to $10 a tonne reduction in hard costs for the…

Truck rental and leasing company PacLease Australia has appointed Andrew Mills to lease and rental sales manager. Focusing on Melbourne, PacLease says Mills will manage the town’s truck lease and rental fleet from the Kenworth DAF Melbourne dealership in Laverton. “We’re excited to have Andrew join the PacLease team,” PacLease Australia director Olen Hunter says. “Andrew’s experience in the commercial truck market will serve our customers well as he helps them develop customised lease, rental and contract maintenance solutions.” Mills has worked at Paccar since 2005 in operations, pricing and marketing positions, the company says, after graduating from Swinburne University.…

The gender gap is hopelessly static within the industry right now. For the last decade, women’s participation rate has increased by a mere one per cent. The logistics industry represents 8.6 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP), adding more than $130 billion to the Australian economy, employing more than 1 million people across the sector but only one in five are females. There are four times more male managers than female managers, with women making up less than 15 per cent of directors on transport company boards. The calendar says it’s 2015, but hard to believe it. Industry leaders, mostly females, gathered at the Australian Logistics Council’s (ALC) inaugural Diversity and Inclusion Summit in Melbourne in November to find ways of attracting women to leadership roles. They want administration…

With any new business opportunity, there may be a need for capital expenditure to acquire new assets or retrofit existing assets, to build further capacity into the existing asset base. This is often a precondition of a tender to win work from customers. Transport companies with capital expenditure needs therefore often seek sufficient volume certainty from their customers to ensure that they can operate profitably. It is common to see mechanisms such as requests for supply exclusivity, an offer of volume rebates and minimum volume commitments sought from customers. These all have the intended effect of trying to build a minimum revenue base from which to derive certainty of earnings and hedge the capital expenditure decision. Where a company is a niche provider, has a geographical hold over a market,…

Who can resist going ‘Ah’ when a girl has such fun playing with her toys? In a move that hasn’t gone unnoticed among online marketers and publishers, Volvo Trucks is continuing its trend of attracting the eyes of industry members and the public alike with its video campaigns. After the success of ‘The Epic Split’, featuring actor and martial artist Jean-Claude Van Damme, which is closing in on 82 million YouTube views, the Swedish truck maker has unveiled a new video putting its 540hp (402kW) FMX 8x6 in the hands of a four-year-old named Sophie. Titled ‘Look Who’s Driving’, the video sees Sophie put the 18-tonne FMX through its paces; remotely steering it head-on through a building or two, a box swinging from a crane, a number of water traps,…

The Tasmanian Government is asking the public and freight industry members to respond to its draft Tasmanian Integrated Freight Strategy (TIFS), which will guide infrastructure planning for the state. In a joint statement, premier Will Hodgman and infrastructure minister Rene Hidding say the strategy outlines 33 policy directions across four areas: competition and service choice across Bass Strait; efficient freight gateways; high-standard, responsive land freight connections; and a single, integrated freight system. “The draft strategy recommends ongoing, structured engagement with industry to inform future freight planning, including implementation of the final TIFS,” the statement says. Tackling the issues over Bass Strait, the strategy will be to facilitate a dedicated national and international air freight service to and from the state; provide better information to the container market; reduce the number…

Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) data puts the broad transport and logistics (T&L) sector towards the back of the class in terms of productivity in the last financial year. Indeed the sector, measured as ‘Transport, postal and warehousing’, saw a 3.9 per cent decline in productivity during 2014-15. The Estimates of Industry Multifactor Productivity, 2014-15 report measures ‘multifactor productivity’ through gross value added, labour input, capital input and labour productivity measures. Nine of the 16 market sector industries recorded positive multifactor productivity (MFP) growth, on an hours worked basis. Mining (+5.5 per cent) had the most significant MFP growth, followed by information, media and telecommunications (+4.5 per cent) and finance and insurance (+4.0 per cent). On the bright side for T&L, labour inputs grew 3.8 per cent and capital inputs…

Toowoomba-based Freight Terminals has greeted warmly Asciano CEO John Mullen’s comments his firm is gearing up for Inland Rail. Freight Terminals CEO Michelle Reynolds was responding to Mullen’s American Australian Chamber of Commerce address, as reported in The Australian, in which he spoke of intermodal hub plans for locations outside Brisbane, Albury-Wodonga and Melbourne. She is particularly pleased he nominated Toowoomba as one of two locations in south-east Queensland. “This news is music to our ears,” Reynolds says. “It shows the confidence that rail players have in our region and in reinventing the rail freight industry in this part of our state.” The announcement is timely given the recent development approval received by InterLinkSQ for the first stages of the project and the lodging of the development approval over the…

A Federal Court appeal has overturned an Administrative Appeals Tribunal of Australia (AAT) decision that was seen as reinforcing a narrow legal and administrative view of injury in the workplace. The case focuses ostensibly on liability of employers of fly in, fly out (FIFO) workers to pay compensation for injuries incurred in remote locations where employees are required to live and work but when they are not engaged in actual work. However, aspects of the case could conceivably relate to long-haul truck driving or remote warehousing operations. The AAT decision in case of Westrupp v BIS Industries, which had Comcare as a second respondent, came at around the same time as the failure of a commercial driver’s claim against the Queensland Workers’ Compensation Regulator. Together, they were seen by legal…

A new intermodal facility will be built in south-east Queensland after the Federal Government announced a $9.6 million investment in the Bromelton Intermodal Rail Freight Precinct project. Sitting 6km west of Beaudesert and on the interstate rail line between ports in Melbourne and Brisbane, the new intermodal facility will create 500 medium-term jobs and 1,000 in the longer term, local federal member Scott Buchholz says. “Works will include constructing 6km of new rail track and developing civil infrastructure at the site, all of which will encourage future rail development in the industrial precinct,” Buchholz says. “Once complete, the new intermodal facility will support the transfer of up to 795,000 tonnes of freight annually from 2020–21 and will improve south-east Queensland’s economy by increasing efficiencies in rail freight transport and providing…

A $12 million upgrade project at Tasmania’s Burnie port has been completed, with works focusing on the rail intermodal terminal and its links with the Toll terminal. The project, funded by the federal and Tasmanian governments, TasPorts, Toll Transport and TasRail, provides increased container storage and an extended rail yard to accommodate larger-capacity trains. The changes have also moved all rail activity to the operational area of the port. Federal member for Braddon Brett Whiteley says the works will make Burnie more viable and improve safety for those accessing the West Beach. “The works at Burnie Port have involved redeveloping the southern rail yard and creating a high-productivity transport link within the port precinct from the rail yard to the shipping terminal,” Whiteley says. “The expansion of the rail yard…

Though it might not be the worst offender, transport and logistics (T&L) has one of the highest rates of failure due to an inability to handle strategic business management. Proof this is a significant problem for the industry emerges from the Australian Securities and Investment Commission’s Insolvency statistics: External administrators’ reports (July 2014 to June 2015) report. For ‘poor strategic management of business’ as a reason for company failure, T&L, with 46.5 per cent of reports, came behind only ‘mining’ at 54.8 per cent and ‘agriculture, forestry and fishing’ (49.3 per cent). The silver lining was that the sector ,measured as ‘transport, postal and warehousing’, failed to feature in the three worst for ‘inadequate cash flow’ or ‘high cash use and trading losses’, the other two main reasons for company…

Stephen Bradford is TasPorts’ new chairman after long-serving Dan Norton announced his intentions to retire. Tasmanian infrastructure minister Rene Hidding says Bradford “has had a long and successful career in the field of infrastructure, particularly ports and is a highly valued non-executive director”. Bradford has a long history with Australian ports after spending a decade running the Port of Melbourne and more recently serving as a director of the Napier Port Corporation and the chairman of Cruise Down Under. On Norton’s 10 years in the role, Hidding says he is “pleased to congratulate and thank Norton for his service”. “Norton continues to be a great servant of Tasmania, being chair at TasNetworks and deputy chair of the Tasmanian Water and Sewerage Corporation, and he remains involved as a director of…

Diversity and inclusion is integral to major trucking compay McAleese Group’s culture. The number of women in senior leadership positions is up by 18 per cent thanks to the company’s ‘make it happen’ attitude. The company’s board had set measurable objectives for achieving gender diversity, with the number of females in senior roles exceeding the board’s objective a year ahead of schedule. It has also gained a woman on the board, with Kerry Gleeson becoming an independent non-executive director. “At McAleese Group, we view people as our most precious asset,” the company says. “We understand the importance of fostering a work environment that is responsive to the changing needs of today’s workforce. “We aim to create a workplace that is fair and inclusive in order to attract and retain the…

It takes a lot to get heavyweight global transport and logistics executives to put aside competitive instincts and work as one. But such is the universal nature of the humble shipping container that a rule change that affects its handling can have impacts that can stretch from plush and sparkling headquarters in the United States and Europe to the backlots of rural Australia — and everywhere in between. While supply chain participants, including the trucking industry, across this country were being appraised of what it might mean for them, sharp minds sitting above sharp suits were coming together in the northern hemisphere to make their voices heard. The issue at hand is ship safety — specifically, containership safety. Governing that is the International Convention for the Safety of Life at…

In my last column of 2015, I reported on the outcomes of the Transport and Infrastructure Council meeting in Adelaide, which produced mixed results for the trucking industry. Following this meeting — and particularly in light of the ministers’ decision to continue overcharging the truck and bus industry by some $500 million over the next two years — I was particularly pleased to read the federal government’s response to the Competition Policy Review, better known as the Harper Review. In this response, the federal government supported the introduction of cost reflective road pricing, with this pricing subject to oversight by an independent economic regulator to ensure that governments cannot ignore over-charging issues like this in the future. Establishing an independent economic regulator, such as the access and pricing regulator proposed…

McAleese Group will continue restructuring as it looks to ride out the mining downturn, chairman Don Telford tells shareholders at the firm’s annual general meeting. But shareholder patience is wearing thin with a strong vote recorded against the management remuneration package as earnings are forecast to struggle again. While backing management efforts to stabilise and diversify the business, Telford warns economic headwinds will continue to buffet the company. “Key commodity markets have continued to experience volatile conditions and the capital projects pipeline in the resources sector remains subdued,” he says. “The competitive landscape has continued to create margin pressure and general freight activity remains soft.” Despite that, Telford remains confident of its financiers’ backing. The board “has endorsed a strategic process targeted at finding ways to strengthen our capital structure…

After $221 million and eight years the Australian Synchrotron has helped local researchers come up with a material they say will boost the trucking industry. The synchrotron accelerates electrons to nearly the speed of light to form an enormously powerful light beam and X-rays for extremely high-resolution imaging and structural analysis. The researchers, led by a team at the University of New South Wales (UNSW), used it to turn the discovery of an ultra-low density and corrosion-resistant magnesium alloy they believe will take a significant amount of weight off certain truck parts. The facility’s operator, Synchrotron Light Source Australia (SLSA), says the discovery is the first step toward mass-producing, a new high-strength, lightweight metal for cars, trucks and aeroplanes, dubbed ‘stainless magnesium’. The magnesium-lithium alloy weighs half as much as…

The Federal Government will press ahead with road pricing reform following its formal acceptance of the Harper Review’s findings. Canberra will accelerate work with states and territories on heavy vehicle road reform and investigate the benefits, costs and potential next steps of options to introduce cost-reflective road pricing for all vehicles. “The principle of moving towards cost-reflective road pricing is an important one — offering the promise over time of roads that flow more freely and better meet the needs of road users,” major projects minister Paul Fletcher says of the response to the review of competition policy. “It is important road pricing does not involve higher overall charges on road users, as the Harper Review specifically noted — hence its recommendation any introduction of direct road pricing should be…

Aurizon CEO Lance Hockridge has reiterated his concerns about the state and national policy settings and the balance between road and rail freight. At a time when the trucking industry points to weaknesses in the road charging regime, Hockridge calls for greater transparency on costs for infrastructure use. In comments reported from the company’s annual general meeting, the man who oversees the nation’s preponderant rail concern contrasts the fixed track charge with a variable fuel excise that is affected by engine efficiency gains. He raises the prospect of developing more intermodal operations but has linked that to policy changes along the lines of mass distance location charging. The comments echo those made mid-2015 related to Infrastructure Australia’s Australian Infrastructure Audit report. “The rail freight industry has worked to reduce transit…

Transport Certification Australia (TCA) is to push ahead with making electronic work diaries (EWDs) fit for purpose following a deal with the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator (NHVR). NHVR executive director of productivity and safety Geoff Casey says the NHVR had contracted TCA to progress the development and implementation of EWDs. “The move to implement EWDs follows a significant level of planning and preparatory work performed by the NHVR and TCA over the last 18 months,” Casey adds. “The EWD specifications are now being finalised as a first step in ensuring EWD systems meet the regulatory requirements for recording work and rest hours. “This is a key step forward and one of particular interest to the telematics industry and we are encouraging them to be involved.” The deal marks the start…

The Victorian Government has announced a new partnership with Transurban to build the $5.5 billion Western Distributor Project, a move backed by the Victorian Transport Association (VTA). The road project, which will connect the West Gate Freeway with CityLink, aims to take up to 6,000 trucks off the West Gate Bridge and improve access to the Port of Melbourne. “For too long, Victoria’s heavy vehicle operators have had to rely on a West Gate Bridge that is plagued by congestion and delays, underscoring the urgent need for a second river crossing with more efficient access to the Port of Melbourne,” VTA CEO Peter Anderson says. “The VTA, through ongoing consultation with Transurban and other stakeholders has been satisfied that the project will address these congestion concerns and provide significantly improved…

Material handling company Crown Equipment has unveiled Rental Express, a new service for companies requiring same-day delivery of a rental forklift. General manager of rental sales at Crown Equipment Paul Kartelo says the service, limited to Australian metropolitan areas, has more than 10,000 vehicles for customers. “Renting forklifts has always been a financially attractive option when you need extra capacity, but the real driver for many rentals is the absolute need to keep up with material handling demands,” Kartelo says. “Waiting two or three days for the right truck is no longer an option.” To gain same-day delivery, Kartelo says a call needs to be made before 11am on business days. Crown Equipment also had a win at the WorkCover NSW SafeWork awards, collecting the ‘Best Workplace Health and Safety…

Penske Power Systems has gained experienced engineering identity Ross Deves as its national engineering manager. Deves has more than 30 years’ experience working across Australia’s on-highway industry, delivering strategic engineering development and expertise, Penske notes. He has held positions at some of the country’s more high-profile companies and organisations, including National Heavy Vehicle Regulator (NHVR) vehicle standards principal engineer, Volvo Mack Trucks chief engineer, DaimlerChrysler Australia engineering manager and Powertrans engineering manager. He will lead a team of engineers and technicians in Melbourne, Brisbane, Sydney and Perth. Based in Penske’s Melbourne facility, Deves replaces Guy Macklan who has retired after 27 years of service to the business, its customers and the industry. According to Penske director of off-highway Hamish Christie-Johnston, it was important for the business to recruit a suitable…

“Jobs don’t fall out of trees and promotions don’t fall out of trees — they happen for a reason and you’ve got to turn yourself into being a lot more proactive,” Toll’s Nicola Wakefield Evans says. The mother of four’s career took a turn when she was offered to lead an Australian law firm in Hong Kong. “I had no idea why I was picked; husband was working full-time, there were four children and when they offered it to me I thought it was fantastic and I had never looked back,” Wakefield Evans says. “The reason I reached the Toll board was partly because I run a business in Asia; at the time I felt I was taking a huge step, it was into the unknown, moving countries and dealing…

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…

As marketing people do market resear h, it became popular for procurement folk to formalise purchasing market research. After all, if your clients are important enough to research, then the folk that help you serve them — your suppliers — probably deserve a bit of research too. Almost 10 years ago, I wrote an article on ‘category management’. It’s a technique many in fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) would be familiar with. An excellent definition of category management is: “A process that involves managing product categories as business units and customising them on a store-by-store basis to satisfy customer needs.”1 Essentially, it’s a fiendishly clever method to get you to buy more stuff when you’re in a store. It makes the shelves look attractive, it manages inventory at a store…

Recent decisions in the Fair Work Commission have shed further light on how the commission will interpret key aspects of bullying and harassment. We look at three decisions that consider whether: • verbal statements made during a 20-minute period meet the “repeated and unreasonable behaviour” requirements • a culture of not dobbing creates risks of ongoing bullying • ‘unfriending’ a colleague from Facebook can be indicative of bullying behaviour. One of the most significant recent decisions was in Bowker & Ors versus DP World & MUA. In this case three employee stevedores of DP World complained of bullying by other employees and members and officials of the Maritime Union of Australia (MUA). Under the Fair Work Act, to make orders to stop bullying the commission must be satisfied that a…