Innholdsfortegnelse for Issue 396 i Australasian Transport News (ATN)

Toll has seen its June quarter revenue rise swamped by costs increases, parent company Japan Post reports, with China’s economic slowdown blamed. Having seen an earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) loss of $9 million the same quarter of 2017 rise to an $8 million profit in the same quarter last year, this year’s corresponding quarter has fallen into the red by $24 million. “Operating income slightly increased by A$34 million year-on-year (an increase of 1.7 per cent year-on-year; a decrease of 5.3 per cent year-on-year on a Japanese yen basis due to the impact of exchange rate fluctuations) since, although operating income in the Global Logistics maintained a continuous increase, the growth was slowed primarily by the deceleration of the Chinese economy,” Japan Post’s quarterly financial report for the…

The National Heavy Vehicle Regulator (NHVR) is seeking operator feedback on different heavy vehicle loading schemes used during grain harvest across Australia with a view of developing national standards. Currently, different state schemes apply in New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria and South Australia, while a scheme outside the Heavy Vehicle National Law also operates in Western Australia. Each scheme allows for a variety of allowances, including increased loads of up to 10 per cent, depending on the state. NHVR executive director freight and supply chain productivity Peter Caprioli says the Grain Harvest Management Schemes Review issues paper looks at the various opportunities and challenges that exist with the current schemes, and options to achieve national consistency. “There are currently a range of schemes operating nationally with allowances for mass and…

South Australian linehaul specialist Hi-Trans Express has announced the impending unveiling of a centralised transport control room in Adelaide. It will be fed real-time visibility through MT Data and Jaix Software to allow it to “view and respond to any safety or operational issues across the country within minutes”. “We will have leading-edge technology at our fingertips that will enable us to safely monitor and move our core and subcontractor fleet across our national network, 24 hours a day, seven days a week,” the company notes. The centre will monitor a fleet of about 70 company-owned and contractor vehicles nationally. “This will create a platform for us to improve our line-haul efficiencies and work smarter with our sub-contractors and company fleet to build a culture of safety and reliability on…

Moving customers and businesses ahead by ensuring they have access to the highest-quality parts, exceptional product availability, and industry-leading service is what drives PACCAR Parts forward. “Our dealer network thrives on passion focused solely on supporting our customers,” PACCAR Parts general manager Damian Smethurst says. This passion exudes everywhere across the company’s dealer network, he says. A division of PACCAR Inc., PACCAR Parts is a global leader in the distribution, sales and marketing of after-market parts for heavy and medium-duty trucks, trailers and engines. Decades of industry-leading parts distribution processes, remarkable customer service and quality products have made PACCAR Parts one of the most trusted names in the transport sector. PACCAR Parts distributes quality OEM and after-market products, and provides after-sales support with an industry-leading range of high-quality products to…

Volvo XXL: eXXLent adventure What started as essentially a long distance sleep-over in Volvo’s new XXL Globetrotter cab quickly morphed into much more as the 700hp Swedish flagship turned in a stunning performance hauling four trailers and 120 tonnes to the Top End. Heading north just days after starring on Volvo’s stand at the Brisbane Truck Show, it was the maiden voyage to beat all maiden voyages UD Quon and the family Law How hard do you need to be to handle a cargo of crocodiles? For a Northern Territory task, the UD Quon that Innisfail Carrying Company (ICC) MD Lance Law won for a year was fitted with a refrigeration unit to keep the latter-day dinosaurs at a quiet and comfortable 25 degrees for their journey east. His brother,…

Today’s fleet operators can now know more about their fleets than their predecessors ever could. The first decade of the 21st century was focused on building data collection capabilities. Success in the second decade is defined by how to best to deal with the now overwhelming amount of data that’s being collected – and how to get more value from that data. Transport executives – along with those in charge of locomotives, mining equipment, wind turbines and airplane engines – not only have impressive sources of data on how their assets are performing, they’re drawing from a well that’s far deeper than they can effectively utilise. Make no mistake: It’s a huge advancement to have access to data that covers the likes of driver behaviour, GPS location, component sensor data…

Building a successful business through people is the secret behind Followmont Transport’s 35-year-long history. The Queensland and New South Wales-based business has grown steadily over the decades thanks to its 850 employees who, according to managing director Mark Tobin, “own the business”. Tobin has been striving for a healthy, happy workforce ever since coming on board 27 years ago, helping guide the business into a new era. With a focus on leadership training, succession planning and performance reviews, Tobin is very much a hands-on manager whose company is personal – not commercial. Having poured every cent back into the business since becoming a shareholder 15 years ago, Tobin says he’s not afraid of debt either. Three years ago, Tobin and his brother Ben became the two major shareholders after buying…

Dual-cab ute safety is somewhat of a chicken or the egg question, albeit one that’s not without outside influences. The chicken or the egg question is this: did dual-cab utes become the best-selling vehicles on Australian roads because they have increasingly offered the safety of conventional passenger cars or did their popularity, especially as family transport, mean that manufacturers needed to offer more and more safety kit to maintain their competitive advantage? The outside influences include the federal government mandating of electronic stability control (ESC) on light commercial vehicles from the end of 2017 and demands for five-star Australasian New Car Assessment Program (ANCAP) ratings for occupational health and safety (OH&S) reasons from industry and the like. You need to remember that the dual-cab you see as your ‘family car’…

Australian commercial vehicle sales have shown some resilience in August, with Truck Industry Council (TIC) T-Mark figures reaching 3,297, slightly above July’s 3,194. This tally is, however, well down on last August’s bumper 3,845, and veering much closer to 2017’s 3,266 total. These numbers are mostly propped up by van sales, as the only truck segment showing any month-on-month improvement was medium-duty. Overall sales now sit at 25,380 year-to-date, still a solid medium between 2018’s 27,159 and 2017’s 23,008. While not enough to dent the overall leadership rankings, Hino and Fuso did the most to consolidate second and third spot in all segments, with 480 and 280 sales in August respectively, up on 457 and 261 in July, gaining some ground on perennial leader Isuzu (down MOM from 772 to…

■ Few of us will forget the video from Barcelona of a Terex container handler lifting a semi by its attached container, bit like a ball-and-all tackle. Oh how we laughed at the crazy antics of our Spanish cousins. Some creative responses followed, with one user simply pointing out that a “flying truck with container” is essentially “multimodal transport”, while another raises the fact that the truck “will have great fuel mileage”. So we will smile and nod if our colleagues at trucking news service En Camión repeat the favour after the effort recently pictured in Sydney. ■ The straddle-carrier image comes into the public domain courtesy of the New South Wales police stakeholder relations manager Phil Brooks, who refused to be oblivious to the danger. Of the incident, he…

The National Heavy Vehicle Regulator (NHVR) has prosecuted successfully a national company for overloading a gravel truck 120 per cent above the statutory limit. Both the loader manager and the truck driver were casual employees and the outcome, in the South Australian Magistrates Court, is seen as a Chain of Responsibility (COR) win. Magistrate Mark Semmens is scathing in his findings against Boral company Bitumax, which trades as Boral Asphalt, for a mass offence under the pre-October 1 Heavy Vehicle National Law and he fined it $9,900. The maximum penalty for this type of offence is a fine of $55,000. “In no way could this offending by the company be considered trifling or a technical breach,” Semmens finds. “This is a case of wilful blindness and ‘hopefulness’ that was improper…

Automotive Holdings Group (AHG) has a better understanding of its Refrigerated Logistics division and must revise earlier advice on that division’s carrying value of receivables. Listed AHG, which is undergoing a takeover by rival automotive sales rival AP Eagers, has been keen to divest the division for about two years and thought it was in line for around $400 million for it before China’s HNA International withdrew the offer a year ago. Now, a six-month review, aided by “external advisors following extensive upgrades to the Refrigerated Logistics division’s computer systems”, has reinforced the sale decision but uncovered an $18 million pre-tax overstatement of its revenues. The result is a restatement of last year’s annual results. “The overstatement of revenues in FY2018 arose as a consequence of complexities associated with the…

Chalmers bids goodbye to the Australian Securities Exchange as an individual entity and records an annual net loss of $5.1 million, compared with a $573,000 loss last year. The port transport and logistics firm recently bought by Qube saw its revenues fall 9 per cent to $61.6 million for the financial year. The company put the profit plunge down to continuing poor financial performance of its Brisbane and Melbourne empty container parks, an issue that has plagued the company in recently. “The container stock levels and gate moves remain at historically low levels,” the company says. “These low levels of activity have been caused by a combination of loss of customers, adverse climatic conditions and change in shipping line behaviour, that is direct terminal de-hire. “The Chalmers Tank Service operations…

Geoff Miles is a busy man. When he is not managing operations of his family-run transport company, Miles Transport, he is performing maintenance checks on his fleet. Geoff started working alongside his parents in 2008 and there has been no looking back since. “I have always been around the business,” he says. “Even as a young boy, I came in and washed trucks on the weekends. After finishing my diesel mechanic apprenticeship, I came back to officially join the business in 2008.” Miles Transport was established in 1991 by Geoff’s parents, Nick and Mary Miles. In the beginning, the company transported garden and nursery stock from Melbourne to all over Tasmania, however in 1999 they were asked to cart fresh-cut flowers from Melbourne to Sydney – something Miles Transport has…

It’s made waves across the globe, but now the ‘Silver Tsunami’ is making a huge splash in Australia’s trucking industry. Currently, the average age in the heavy vehicle workforce is 47, but data from the ABS predicts that by 2026, nearly half of the current workforce will be over 65. Only 15 per cent of the trucking workforce are under 30. According to a 2016 survey by Volvo Group, the number of road freight is expected to double by 2030. Older drivers are retiring faster than younger drivers can be hired, which poses a serious problem for the nation’s economic future. THE CORE OF THE PROBLEM Negative public image is the primary factor impeding the growth of the trucking industry, with many viewing the workforce as unsafe, dangerous and dominated…

It’s not easy to suggest that a model still months away from being launched and even further away from the cold, hard world of commercial and operational reality, will set an entirely new standard for conventional trucks in Australia. That, however, is the unequivocal conclusion as Freightliner now puts the finishing touches to its right-hand drive Cascadia, a truck that for the first time will deliver to the Australian conventional market the levels of safety and technological leadership normally the preserve of European cab-overs. Have no doubt, if all goes to plan – and from what I’ve seen, heard and driven both here and in the US, there’s absolutely no reason to suggest otherwise – Cascadia will take a vast, long overdue leap beyond anything currently available among Australia’s conventional…

Heavy-duty trucks wearing the three-pointed star are once again a common sight on Australian roads. The latest generation of big Mercedes-Benz trucks has been a sales hit since it arrived in late 2016, reminding many of just how popular the brand has been. FIRST SIGHTINGS Australians have had a long relationship with Mercedes-Benz trucks dating back to the early 1950s when trucks were assembled in Melbourne from CKD kits sent from Germany. Local assembly of Mercedes-Benz trucks was carried out in four different locations over the years, including a line on the grounds of the current Daimler Truck and Bus Australia Pacific head office in Mulgrave, Victoria. The truck that would really put Mercedes-Benz on the map in Australia was the 1418, which was introduced in 1965. There are several…

It’s impossible to give a definitive one-to-10 safety ranking of all the popular dual-cabs as it’s impossible to assign a definitive weighting of all the safety features against one another. Is, for example, blindspot monitoring more important than lane departure warning, or a driver’s knee airbag? And is a primary safety feature like full-time 4x4 more important than a secondary safety feature like curtain airbags? What’s more, while all the dual-cabs have, for example, ESC, the calibration and therefore the effectiveness of the individual systems may not be identical. In the same way, not all AEB systems will work in exactly the same way in terms of judging the critical point of intervention. That’s something that will have been programmed into the system using a set of protocols developed by…

An unconditional agreement has been executed for the sale of the Western Australia-based business and “certain assets”. K&S will still retain the Regal’s heavy haulage arm. “After considering various options in relation to Regal General Freight, the Board of K&S Corporation elected to undertake this transaction to realise improved shareholder returns and provide ongoing certainty to the Regal General Freight employees and customers,” the company says in an announcement to shareholders. “The Transaction will allow K&S Corporation to focus on its core competencies, including its Regal Heavy Haulage business, which will continue to be operated and invested in by K&S Corporation. “K&S Corporation will redeploy (or sell) assets that are not currently generating an adequate rate of return in the Regal General Freight business and the transaction will also release…

“The on-road response involved heavy vehicle safety inspections between August 12 and 15.” NSW Police has reacted sternly to a fatal truck collision in the state’s mid-north coast, conducting a five-day compliance operation that saw more than 150 heavy vehicles inspected, it reports. The collision, for which police are preparing a report to the Coroner, occurred on the Pacific Highway at Nabiac on July 26. A 38-year-old garbage truck driver died at the scene, while a 62-year-old B-double driver was injured and taken to hospital. The on-road response involved heavy vehicle safety inspections between August 12 and 16 on the Pacific Highway at Jones Island, conducted by officers from the Traffic and Highway Patrol Command’s Traffic Task Force, local police districts, and Roads and Maritime Services (RMS) NSW inspectors. “In…

Record revenue, driven by service diversification and facilities expansion, has underscored a strong financial year for Lindsay Australia. The transport, logistics and rural supply company announced revenue of $386.07 million for the 2018-19 financial year, up 7.1 per cent on the previous year, and net profit after tax of $8.87 million, an increase of 10.2 per cent. It notes the strong result was underpinned by investments in facility additions, equipment upgrades and diversified service offerings. The financial contributions were led by its Transport arm, where revenue grew 7.4 per cent to $268.26 million – predominantly through expansion into refrigerated rail containers and growth from capital cities, which offset some negative impacts in regions affected by adverse weather and seasonality. Its Rural division revenue also grew 3.7 per cent to $113.99…

Work health and safety authority SafeWork NSW has shone a light on the dangers of livestock transportation, issuing an incident report following the death of a truck driver who was struck by a bull. On August 6, a 69-year-old contract transport driver sustained fatal crush injuries in north-western NSW. The worker was loading cattle onto a single deck trailer cattle transporter when a bull turned to exit the truck and pinned him against the race wall, SafeWork explains. SafeWork NSW inspectors responded to the incident and have been investigating the cause and circumstances of the incident. The incident report asks operators to consider ‘reasonably practicable’ control measures to manage the risk of being crushed, kicked, trampled or gored. “If you work with cattle during loading or unloading you are at…

Just two weeks after swallowing port logistics firm Chalmers, Qube saw a slight fall in net profits on a much larger rise in revenues and profits before non-recurring items. Following a 150 per cent profit rise last financial year, net profits were down 1.4 per cent to $196.4 million while revenues rose 3.9 per cent to $1.8 billion and ‘underlying’ profits jumped 15.4 per cent to $123.2 million. “In the face of some strong economic headwinds, this is a pleasing result. Qube’s diversification strategy has protected the business from a slowing economy and helped deliver our continued good performance,” Qube MD Maurice James says. “Throughout 2019, management focused on growing market share, defending margins in a competitive environment while maintaining tight control of costs across the business units. “This result…

The federal government is considering policy options to increase the uptake of autonomous emergency braking (AEB) as a measure to reduce the number and severity of heavy vehicle rear impact crashes. It has started consulting on technology to refine the Australian Design Rules (ADRs) in line with the National Road Safety Action Plan 2018-2020, releasing a Regulation Impact Statement (RIS) which identifies international-standard AEB as the most effective measure available. The government quotes Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Cities and Regional Development research that finds AEB systems meeting such standards can reduce the number and severity of all heavy vehicle crashes by almost 15 per cent, and reduce fatalities and injuries by up to 57 per cent. The RIS proposes to adopt AEB across the new heavy vehicle fleet, and also…

Container Transport Alliance Australia (CTAA) has updated its critique of the transport and logistics woes besetting the country’s major container ports. Sadly, in the lead-up to the peak transport season in the months leading up to Christmas, little appears to have changed since CTAA highlights issues affecting the Sydney port haulage market. But the organisation is pointing to a more hard-nosed attitude from container hauliers. In a sector fragmented by Federation and marked by regulatory neglect, empty container redirection and an inflexible container detention charging regime continue to inject costs on and disruption to trade and related transport operations, the CTAA’s ‘notice to industry’ notes. The main pressure points nominated are empty container redirections, empty container management delays and shipping line empty container detention charges, with increased quarantine efforts against…

The fully-responsive websites, Forhire.TradeTrucks. com.au, Forhire.TradeEarthmovers.com.au and Forhire. TradeFarmMachinery.com.au, compliment Bauer Media’s network of ‘for sale’ websites launched in 2013. Sellers are now able to list stock for hire and/or for sale, simply by ticking the appropriate box/es in the TraderAds. com.au inventory management system. Hirers can include item description, multiple images and videos, and wet and dry hire rates. Stock will be automatically listed across all three websites where appropriate. Importantly, hirers will only receive enquiries from people who know they want to hire your machine/s and for the rate listed (we won’t pit you against multiple other companies in a race to the bottom on price. You list what your gear is worth). And at the end of each month you’ll receive a report that shows the number…

At the time of writing, submissions have tailed off for the latter categories, perhaps an indication of law review fatigue, or some bases being covered in earlier submissions. However, route access has been identified as a significant area of inefficiency, hampering industry productivity through costly time delays. For example, road managers have 28 days to consent or request an extension to an application. The NHVR has no powers to help resolve the delay. And, “as road managers under the HVNL, many local governments are not sufficiently resourced to deal with their role of providing access consents”, NTC says. Despite this, the strong view from councils, as summarised by Local Government NSW (LGNSW), is that any changes to the HVNL undermining the authority of councils to grant or deny access to…

Hands up all of you that can recall seeing the stunning silver and blue colours of a typically shiny Bobbins Transport truck. I bet there’s a fair few hands in the air right now, which probably looks very strange to all the people around you who are now wondering what you are reading. But let’s continue anyway. Bobbins Transport isn’t one of the biggest fleets around; it now has nearly 30 prime movers on the road and in their eye-catching colours they leave a lasting impression when spotted. Now hands up anyone that can easily point out on a map where Pambula is? Not so many hands, I bet. There should be though, because Pambula, the little town of three pubs and around two and a half thousand people, is…

Imagine the benefit of getting a few seconds’ warning that you’re going to hit something you haven’t noticed in the dark, rain, fog, smoke, dust or heavy city traffic. Then if you fail to act in time because you’re too tired, imagine the truck cutting the throttle and hitting the brakes all by itself. You might still hit the camel, tree, pole or other vehicle, but a lot of speed will have been washed off. Rolling out this amazing radar and camera-based autonomous emergency braking technology on Australia’s truck fleet could save nearly 70 lives a year. That startling statistic was produced by Monash University’s Accident Research Centre a few years ago. It’s one of the reasons the Australian Trucking Association wants to see emergency braking in all new trucks.…