Innholdsfortegnelse for Issue 390 i Australasian Transport News (ATN)

A SPATE OF TRUCK fires has spurred the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator (NHVR) to launch a probe. Concerns had been raised with the NHVR regarding several fires emanating in the engine bay of prime movers over the past year. “There have been a number of high-profile incidents recently, including a semi-trailer fire on the Princess Highway, near Wollongong in January,” NHVR safety standard and assurance executive director Geoff Casey says. “Several other incidents have been reported through various sources as well as from Police and state transport agencies. “Fires are obviously dangerous to heavy vehicle drivers, operators and other motorists, and often lead to major delays on key freight routes. “While the NHVR has a specific interest in prime mover fires, we are also looking at the issue of truck…

LINDSAY AUSTRALIA gives first half results credit to its investments in new locations and equipment when reporting a 7.7 per cent rise in net profits to $5.4 million compared with the previous first half. The integrated transport, logistic and rural supply company also lifted revenues 6 per cent to $203.27 million, while operating cashflow was $15.3 million, a $21 million rise on the previous first half, the company reports. Internal and external transport revenue rose $11.3 million or 8.6 per cent, to $206.6 million, “largely driven by increased capacity and utilisation rates, price increases and additional revenue from its export business Lindsay Connect”. Transport gross profits rose from $7.6 million to $7.7 million. “This robust performance has been delivered despite a challenging trading environment for your transport division, once again…

TOLL HAS LAUNCHED two new ships onto the Bass Strait to replace an ageing pair. Prime minister Scott Morrison and Tasmanian premier Will Hodgman joined Toll chairman John Mullen and Japan Post first executive officer Taneki Ono at a at a special ceremony in Burnie to officially recognise Tasmania Achiever II, witha separate ceremony to welcome sister ship Victorian Reliance II at Webb Dock, Port Melbourne. Toll dubs the 210-metre Tasmania Achiever II the largest general cargo ship to fly the Australian flag. It will carry goods between Melbourne and Burnie. Toll sees the ships as increasing Toll’s Bass Strait cargo capacity by more than 40 per cent on each voyage. “As the country’s largest private investment in coastal trading in 25 years, this is a major milestone for Australian…

Daimler Trucks Australia is running full bore with product testing at the moment as it prepares for vital new product introductions later this year. Pictured either side of the ‘speckled’ Fuso FV demo truck during a recent break on the Hume Freeway were a top-shelf Mercedes-Benz 2663 model coupled to a camouflaged B-double trailer set and an identically ‘cammed’ left-hand drive Freightliner Cascadia and single trailer combination. Word has it the big bore Benz was hauling the Daimler-owned B-double set to compare fuel consumption of the cab-over with earlier results of a similarly powered Cascadia pulling the same B-double combination on the same route. For now, company insiders are keeping the results confidential but with Cascadia using American Detroit Diesel versions of the 13-litre and 16-litre ‘family’ engines used in…

The Ranger 3.2 we have here is a 2019 model and while the 147kW/470Nm five-cylinder diesel and six-speed automatic remains largely unchanged, there are a host of updates, including the convenience of keyless entry and start, a new feature for Ranger. Being a Wildtrak, our test vehicle also has autonomous braking (including pedestrian detection) although this feature is now also optional on the volume-selling XLT. All MY19 Rangers also come with a revised suspension package that offers a more comfortable ride, something we have already previously noticed when driving various MY19 models, including a 3.2. Interestingly, the MY19 suspension changes are also claimed to bring improved towing and load carrying performance. In pervious heavy-duty tow and load testing the Ranger 3.2 has proved to be a top performer both powertrain…

Isuzu’s D-Max may seem like it’s been little changed in recent years, but in 2017 a Euro 5 emissions upgrade to the long-serving 3.0-litre four-cylinder diesel bumped the maximum torque from 380Nm to 430Nm, while a six-speed automatic powertrain replaced the previous five-speeder. All this was done subsequent to our multi-ute load and tow test comparison tests conducted in late 2016. These separate tests involved 800kg in the tub and then a 3,500kg tow test, conducted separately of course as these utes can’t carry that much and tow that much at the same time. On both of those tests, the D-Max’s chassis was generally up to the task but the 130kW/380Nm five-speed powertrain, as it was at the time, let the team down and struggled the most with the work…

The ‘580’ in this Amarok’s name stands for 580 Newton-metres, the standard measure of torque, or turning force, at the engine’s crankshaft. The 580 tag also distinguishes it from all other Amarok V6s, which claim 550Nm and are less powerful as a result. Where the 580 produces up to 200kW, the 550 tops out at 180kW. Those power figures are what Volkswagen calls ‘overboost’ figures, attained with 70 per cent or more throttle and only in third and fourth gears, so there to improve response for hill climbing or overtaking at highway speeds. Otherwise, the 580 claims 190kW and the 550 claims 165kW under normal, non-overboost operation. We haven’t actually tow-tested any Amarok V6 before, 580 or 550, but we have tested both at maximum payload, which didn’t worry either…

Daryl Beattie is a bit of a legend in the 500cc MotoGP arena. Since retiring from the track, he’s maintained his zest for life with Daryl Beattie Adventures, which gives trail motorbike riders the opportunity to explore Australia’s outback in a group situation. Beattie also runs concurrent passenger tours with a couple of Iveco Daily 4x4s. Shortly before his current escapade, Iveco was keen to hand me the opportunity to take one of Beattie’s well-specced Daily 4x4s for a weekend spin. This was not your regular Sunday drive vehicle, however. I picked up the twin-cab Daily 4x4 from Iveco Trucks Brisbane at Rocklea on a Friday afternoon, politely barging my way through the peak hour traffic. This ‘monster’ has the height of a truck, easily dwarfing the regular 4WD vehicles,…

FATIGUE-RELATED complaints are the most common calls to the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator’s (NHVR’s) Heavy Vehicle Confidential Reporting Line (HVCRL), according to the data. NHVR CEO Sal Petroccitto says the reporting line, which has been live since July last year, has answered around 115 calls each month. Following the confidential reports, the regulator has responding to more than 65 reports of non-compliance nationwide every month the line has been active. “The Heavy Vehicle Confidential Reporting Line enables drivers and parties in the heavy vehicle supply chain to pass on information about possible breaches of the Heavy Vehicle National Law,” Petroccitto says. “Between October 2018 and January 2019, 505 calls were received which generated 289 new reports. “Almost one-third of these were reporting fatigue concerns, and 25 per cent related to…

THE RATE OF FATAL CRASHES involving heavy rigid trucks has declined over the past year after threatening to overtake articulated trucks, the latest Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics (BITRE) heavy vehicle fatal crash statistics show. The BITRE chart shows a parallel decline from the 2017 December quarter. For heavy rigids, this was the first decline since 2010. Fatal crashes involving heavy rigid trucks: decreased by 26.1 per cent compared with the corresponding period one year earlier (from 88 to 65 crashes) decreased by an average of 1.5 per cent per year over the three years to December 2018. Fatal crashes involving articulated trucks: decreased by 15.2 per cent compared with the corresponding period one year earlier (from 92 to 78 crashes) decreased by an average of 7.8 per…

Few transport markets and industries are comparable, so global surveys on attitudes within them are rare. It is therefore worth the time of reading to gain an insight into how Australian attitudes and expectations fit in with the rest of the world when one turns up. Admittedly the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi (RNM) alliance’s light commercial vehicle business survey is specific to a particular sector of the transport and logistics industry. But it is also instructive that an Australian cohort whose reputation is steeped in insightful and ‘disruptive’ approaches is so conservative in a global sense. The survey reveals Australian small to medium enterprises (SMEs) with light commercial vehicle (LCV) fleets display a high degree of scepticism about the pace of electrification and automation. It may be that its operators are yet to…

Sitting down with Michael and Megan Mahon from MJ Mahon Transport in Brisbane and looking at their setup, I automatically assumed that they both had grown up in transport families. The success of MJ Mahon Transport and the approach the company takes to maximising its efficiency and productivity gives the impression of generations of hard earnt experience. For the second time this year, I was very wrong (the other time involved Valentine’s Day’s ‘No Gift policy’, boy did I get that seriously wrong). Back on point, neither Mahon nor his wife, Megan, have trucking in their blood. However, what they do have is a head for business and a tenacity that has seen them succeed in a very competitive marketplace. Now, 21 years after Mahon hit the road, MJ Mahon…

Next-day delivery services have reached another level following DHL Supply Chain’s move to transform the Harcourt Road warehouse in Victoria’s Altona into transport operations. Previously operating as a warehouse, the site now services 185 clients across multiple sectors such as technology, life science and healthcare, consumer and retail, with over 100,000 deliveries made each year. More than 100 commercial vehicles access the hub each day, some operating multiple legs within a 24-hour period. DHL transport president Les Logue says the 14,000 square metre facility is serviced by 50 vans, 30 rigid pallet trucks and over 30 semi-trailers and B-doubles daily. “Added to this there are outsourced sea container and rail container movements weekly,” Logue says. “This facility allows DHL Supply Chain transport operations in Victoria the space to grow, drive…

Of all the changes to the 2019 Ranger, the introduction of the new 157kW/500Nm 2.0-litre bi-turbo diesel and its attendant 10-speed automatic is by far the most significant. This new ‘little’ engine brings cutting edge diesel engine technology and a little more power and torque to a ute that, ironically, is much loved for having a ‘big’ 3.2-litre old-school diesel. How the new engine will be received in the market place will be interesting to see. Currently, the bi-turbo engine and 10-speed automatic (there’s no manual with this engine) is an option for XLT and Wildtrak 4x4s (and XLT 4x2) but will no doubt become more common throughout the Ranger line up as time goes on. When the next-generation Ranger arrives in a couple of year’s time, it could well…

It’s no secret that Mercedes-Benz’s new X-Class ute is based on the Nissan Navara. Mercedes wanted to fast-track a ute into what is a booming global ute market, so turned to strategic partner Renault-Nissan for its Navara D23. But don’t think for a minute that the X-Class is just a re-badged Navara. Far from it. Strengthening the ladder frame and widening the body is just the start of the detailed re-engineering that Mercedes applied to Navara to create the first X-Class models. And all that was before they threw out the Navara’s entire four-cylinder powertrain and slotted in their own V6 diesel complete with a full-time dual-range 4x4 system to create the X350d you see here. All this comes at a price however, as the Mercedes is comfortably the most…

Rating the utes here in a one-to-six finishing order is difficult due to the big difference in price and the big difference in how the six actually performed in our load and tow testing. What’s fairly easy, however, is to slot them in three groups: outright winners, those which are good bang-for-your-bucks work horses and those that aren’t so well suited to hard yakka. In the winners’ group, but in no particular order, are the Amarok 580 and the Ranger 3.2. The 580 is a winner thanks to its muscular powertrain, clearly the most potent here. It backs that with a stable and competent chassis as good as any here and with the added security and safety of full-time 4x4. On the other side of the ledger are its safety…

AT THIS VERY EARLY STAGE, 2019 sales are running some 205 commercial vehicle units below February last year, according to Truck Industry Council (TIC) T-Mark results. But even if the trend continues, there will be no sack-cloth and ashes donned by sales staff who generally can still expect a bonus higher than in 2017. Two months into 2019 and year-to-date sales are at 5,023, below last year’s 5,228 but significantly above 2017’s 4,196. February’s 2,827 was 174 down on the previous February’s 3,001 but, again, more than a match for 2017’s 2,276. Of manufacturer full totals, Hino was a surprise packet lifting this February to 434 from last February’s 427 and the YTD total to 767 from 741. This as Isuzu sunk from last year’s stratospheric heights to 638 and…

LINEHAUL OPERATOR CAMERON Interstate has responded with shock after a subcontractor was arrested following a B-double dangerous driving incident in New South Wales recently. Cameron Interstate director Denis Blaney issued a statement about incident. “Because of what has occurred, we are working diligently to understand what has happened and the likely causes to identify if any further improvements can be made to our safety programs and our hard earned reputation as a leading rod safety advocate in the transport sector,” says Blaney. On posting video of the incident, NSW Police stakeholder relations manager Phillip Brooks gave his take on the events of the weekend. “As you can appreciate, this driver would have had to be seen by others at the beginning of the journey, which you may wish to consider…

VICTORIAN FREIGHT MINISTER MELISSA HORNE has confirmed her government is progressing its probe into infrastructure surcharging at the Port of Melbourne. Speaking at the Australian Logistics Council’s Forum 2019, Horne focused on the state government’s support for rail freight and the charges comment was couched in those terms. “We have made a commitment in the freight plan to look at access charges at the Port of Melbourne,” she says. “In particular, to making sure that the access charges on trains do not disadvantage exporters who opt for rail over road.” Two days before International Women’s Day, National Association of Women in Operations (NAWO) national director Louise Weine underlined the productivity and operational gains for companies with diversity along with the glacially slow pace of change, noting that it will take…

TOYOTA IS PROMISING more for the next generation HiAce van – a bigger nose, extra power for the engine and improved ride. Due to be here mid-year, the all-new HiAce van will be available with two-seat vans in long (LWB) and super-long wheelbase (SLWB) configurations, five-seat LWB crew vans and 12-seat SLWB Commuter buses. “A shift to a semi-bonneted design has enabled the development team to implement significant changes with a stiffer frame, stronger straight-line performance, greater stability and manoeuvrability and more pliant suspensions,” Toyota Australia says. The sixth-generation HiAce range will be offered with two new engines – a 2.8-litre four-cylinder turbocharged diesel or a 3.5-litre naturally aspirated petrol, both available with six-speed manual or automatic transmissions. Cargo capacity has been maintained at a maximum of 6.2 (LWB) and…

TRANSPORT CERTIFICATION AUSTRALIA (TCA) has updated the Telematics In-Vehicle Unit (IVU) Functional and Technical Specification. Built-in or aftermarket telematics IVUs are increasingly used as a technical and communications ‘hub’ within vehicles by connecting multiple systems and devices, while supporting numerous applications, TCA notes. “The latest update (Version 3) of the Telematics IVU Functional and Technical Specifications reflects current and emerging developments, and anticipates disruptive influences which continue to shape the open technology market,” the organisation announces. “Version 3 of the Specification also draws upon TCA’s operational experience in managing applications administered through the National Telematics Framework. “TCA has been able to identify areas of the Specification where requirements can be made less stringent, without compromising performance-based outcomes which relate to robustness, accuracy, reliability, tamper evidence, data storage and security. “Importantly,…

AT THE FIFTH Brisbane Truck Show to be held the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre, over 300 exhibitors will showcase all the latest trucks, trailers, equipment, components and technology. There’s a whole range of new trucks set for unveiling on opening day, and all the big names are there this year. There’s even some new guys on the block for the first time. Everybody loves to see something entirely fresh, so just a quick namedrop – have you seen the Diamond Reo? Paccar has been teasing the release of some new Kenworth T610 variations and now, with the first locally built DAFs, the Australian-made story is big. In that space Volvo always has something special and Iveco have also been delivering so many amazing things across its diverse range. Scania…

According to Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) figures, 379 insolvencies were recorded in the 2017–18 financial year for the ‘transport, postal and warehousing’ sector – equating to at least one business per day winding up its operations. That figure represents about 5 per cent of 7,613 recorded cases across 24 industries, making it the fifth-most ‘insolvent’ sector, behind only retail trade (7.8 per cent), accommodation and food services (14 per cent), construction (21.6 per cent), and other – business and personal services (28.2 per cent). In an industry where competition is fierce, margins are tight, and a business can live and die by a contract it signs, it may come as no surprise that ‘inadequate cash flow or high cash use’ was the leading cause of business collapse, attributed…

Everybody knows the old saying, ‘Don’t put all your eggs in one basket’. It also appears to be very sound advice. However, before this adage became ingrained in our society, a very rich man by the name of Andrew Carnegie was quoted as saying, “Concentrate your energies, your thoughts and your capital. The wise man puts all his eggs in one basket and watches the basket.” What he was saying also makes perfect sense – specialise in one area and focus on doing it well. Lenssec Transport in Tamworth has been doing that for over 30 years, and the funny part is their success has relied almost entirely on eggs. The operation literally has put all its eggs in one basket. Sure, Lenssec Transport has had its share of ups…

In Fuso parlance it’s known as the ‘Black Panther’ project. A comprehensive corporate initiative based in Japan, designed to put more class, more comfort, more corporate componentry and, significantly, more safety into Fuso’s heavy-duty arsenal. But seriously, hauling down the Hume from Albury to Melbourne on a bright and balmy day, this particular ‘panther’ looked more like a speckled rooster on ‘roids. Seriously, if you were on the road that day and missed it, you definitely need a labrador. Whatever, if the aim of the marketing minds behind the mottled montage was to attract attention and announce that this was no ordinary Fuso on the fly, then they certainly succeeded. It was, indeed, a Fuso with a difference and as senior manager of product management and engineering Romesh Rodrigo was…

All of the utes you see here are rated to tow 3,500kg but rarely do. Trouble is, once you hook up 3,500kg behind any of them you can’t carry much, if anything, legally in the tub once you have a driver and passenger on board. More typically these utes are used to tow something in the order of 2,500–3,000kg, while also carrying some sort of payload, given that you and your passengers are all payload, as is the tow bar and any other fitted accessories such as a bullbar or canopy. And that’s before you put anything into the tub. With that in mind, we decided on a more real-world-reflective test of towing around 2,500kg while also carrying 450kg (of sandbags) in the tub, and a driver and a passenger.…

The Colorado hasn’t been mechanically changed since we last tow and load tested it against all of its class rivals. In fact, since it’s major, top-to-bottom revision for the 2016 model year, the Colorado has participated in a 3,500kg tow test comparison and two load test comparisons, one with 800kg in the tub and two people on board, and one with 650kg in the tub and three people on board. In all tests, it’s performed well. Not a first-place winner in any of those outings but still up with the front-runners on all three occasions. Its 147Nm/500Nm 2.8-litre diesel engine and six-speed automatic providing competitive load-hauling performance and its chassis also proved up to the task. The Colorado is a popular seller in a highly competitive ute market, one of…