Innholdsfortegnelse for Issue 416 i Australasian Transport News (ATN)

While it may seem self-evident that good truck maintenance is linked to better safety outcomes, insurer NTI and the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator (NHVR) have crunched the numbers to frank the assumption – with caveats. Also involving the NTI-backed National Truck Accident Research Centre (NTARC), the report, Are Good Trucks the Sign of a Great Operator? A Special Report into Heavy Vehicle Roadworthiness, brings together for the first time de-identified data from NTI’s NTARC Major Accident Investigation Report (MAIR) and the NHVR’s National Roadworthiness Baseline Survey (NBRS). At the basic level, the answer to the question in its title is it is likely that ‘good’ operators "are aware of the systems which pose the greatest safety risk and are ensuring that these systems are maintained appropriately". While report author and…

Australia’s infrastructure and transport ministers propose heavy vehicle charges increase by 2.5 per cent in 2021–22. The Transport and Infrastructure Council’s (TIC’s) latest communique notes that, having considered the latest estimates from the National Transport Commission (NTC), "following recent growth in government investment in roads, there was a growing gap between road expenditure and revenue from charges". "National heavy vehicle charges are designed to recover the heavy vehicle share of road expenditure," it reads. "Having considered the submissions of industry representatives, Ministers agreed charges should rise by 2.5 per cent in 2021–22, to contribute to the construction and maintenance of roads." Western Australia and Northern Territory will separately consider their heavy vehicle registration fees for 2021-22. As part of the response to Covid-19 in 2020, an increase was deferred "to…

Sydney’s empty container congestion continues with imports measured by twenty foot-equivalent units (TEU) continuing to outpace exports, according to Port Botany operator NSW Ports’ statistics. In the last six months, total imports have exceeded total exports by about 12,000 TEU. The silver lining is that there has been a significant increase in the repatriation of empties by containership lines from below 60,000 TEU a month last July to around 80,000 in the five months before March. Haulage body Container Transport Alliance Australia (CTAA) notes that December and February see a positive load/discharge ratio – 1.02 and 1.07 respectively – meaning that more containers were exported through Port Botany than imported in those months. "In February, full imports were up by almost 30 per cent on the same time last year…

This month, the still rather new Infrastructure and Transport Ministers’ Meeting (ITMM) is due to consider Heavy Vehicle National Law (HVNL) reform proposals. This is a crucial time for the trucking industry and the transport & logistics (T&L) sector as a whole, as what is defined now could remain unchanged for a decade or two. Amongst the ideas put forward for consideration is the Australian Logistics Council’s (ALC’s) National Operating Standard (NOS) idea, which, it says, is different in conception to the ‘operator licensing’ proposal it has championed. In its March edition, ATN looked at the NOS, as the ALC explains it, while noting the challenges it faces getting any sort of trucking industry backing for it. Since then, the ALC has appeared before the Senate’s April Rural and Regional…

The chase for Toll Global Express appears to have ended, with Toll Group agreeing to sell the operation to private equity fund manager Allegro Funds. Allegro says it has raised $500 million in funding to complete the separation and transformation of the business, with the deal’s completion expected on June 30. Other national and international private equity players were reportedly interested the business, along with logistics firms, but the sheer size of an operation that scored $3.2 billion in revenue seems to have tipped the balance towards the former. Toll chairman John Mullen notes the agreement is consistent with Toll’s strategy to focus on its Asia-Pacific logistics strengths and fits with Allegro’s “investment thesis” of investing in Australian and New Zealand companies to realise their potential. “We have spent the…

The purchasing of a new truck can be a torturous ordeal. There can be 101 different reasons to choose a particular truck and 102 reasons to choose a different truck. It can come down to so many little things. However, sometimes you just buy a truck because, well, quite frankly, you just want it. I completely get that. I’m exactly the same when I hit the KFC drive through. I don’t really need it, it’s not doing anything for me, there are other smarter options but god damn if the Tower Burger isn’t exactly what I want. So, when Garry Leeson from Leeson’s Logging & Cartage piped up and informed his team: “I want a Peterbilt”, I could fully empathise. In Garry’s case, though, the Pete has been a lot…

ATN: Let’s rewind nearly 10 years. You had your own TV show, a fleet of flash trucks in your business, Heavy Haulage Australia (HHA), and from the outside it looked like it was good to be Jon Kelly. What happened? Jon Kelly: At the end of the day a lot of people forget that I did sell the business (HHA). Unfortunately, when McAleese bought in, they didn’t have enough firepower to get through the downturn in the economy and it took out a lot of players in heavy haulage. We needed additional equipment and they had surplus capacity to assist us, so it was good fit in theory but I don’t think anyone really saw the downturn in the market coming in 2014–15. We were the biggest privately-owned heavy haul…

To be blunt, it was a surprise when word starting filtering through late last year that Daimler Trucks Australia was extensively testing a 500-plus 13-litre engine in Fuso’s flagship Shogun model. After all, Japanese makers have, over many years, appeared to have a historic and almost ritualistic indifference to engines of such size and output in their heavy-duty contenders. Whether that apparent indifference has been driven by European masters in the case of Fuso (Daimler) and UD (Volvo), or by a dearth of domestic demand in the case of Hino and Isuzu, is contestable. Whatever, the lack of an advanced, efficient and potently powered engine in Australia’s burgeoning 13-litre class has kept the Japanese contingent largely caponised as true heavy-duty contenders. Take market leader Isuzu, for example. Sure, it sits…

A mid a showroom backdrop of Volvo Group Australia’s (VGA) latest offerings, president and CEO Martin Merrick outlined VGA’s direction in the local market at the group’s 2021 press conference, stating that its global aim is to have 35 per cent of Volvo trucks utilising electric drivetrains by 2030. While Merrick wouldn’t provide an estimate on the percentage of local electric trucks, the company hoped to be shifting by the 2030 target, he set out a road map for the brand which features electric and alternative fuel drivetrains. Another couple of future dates to keep in mind for Volvo are 2040, when the company says it will no longer be using fossil fuels, stating that liquid natural gas (LNG) and biodiesel will be the future drink of choice for its…

■ ‘If you knew Suzie like I knew Suzie, oh, oh, oh what a gal…!’ Thus goes the song but what is the right spelling for this coiled cable/lead? Was it originally named after a woman and, if so, was she Susie, Suzy, Suzi or some other derivation? Well, there’s no official explanation online. So, rather as an acolyte ascends a mountain to consult a guru, we asked Australian Trucking Association chief engineer Bob Woodward if, just as ships and trucks came to be gendered back in the day, the same occurred on the more mundane level of cables. Had he been sterner, the answer might have been “don’t be so sentimental”. No, ‘suspended insulated electrical’ is his wisdom after decades of occasional research. This is supported by a learned…

One of Victoria’s worst truck crashes – and deadliest police-related incidents – has seen the driver responsible jailed for 22 years. Truck driver Mohinder Singh will be eligible for parole in 18 years and six months after the Eastern Freeway crash in Melbourne last year that killed constables Glen Humphris and Joshua Prestney, senior constable Kevin King and leading senior constable Lynette Taylor. The 48-year-old pleaded guilty to eight charges, including culpable driving causing four deaths and drug trafficking. On April 22, 2020, Singh veered into the freeway’s emergency lane and crashed into the officers, who had earlier pulled over Porsche driver Richard Pusey for speeding. The Supreme Court hears Singh was fatigued and under the influence of drugs, with a mental health deterioration manifesting in a psychosis and visions…

Pacific National and Linfox have entered into an option agreement for a strategic co-location at Adelaide Freight Terminal. According to Pacific National CEO Dean Dalla Valle, with intermodal rail services playing a critical role in major national supply chain links, the agreement helps to accelerate development of co-location logistics solutions to ensure efficiency in both costs and service delivery. "With more than 230 million freight TEU-kilometres travelled annually through Adelaide Freight Terminal, the intermodal site is the ‘freight gateway to the west’," Dalla Valle says. Pacific National’s Adelaide Freight Terminal currently employs 125 staff – including train drivers, terminal operators and maintenance crew – who operate a total of 90 rail services in and out of the site each week deploying 1,800-metre interstate freight trains. Dalla Valle notes that securing…

Peak roads agency Austroads is undertaking a study analysing the impacts of an ageing heavy vehicle fleet in Australia and New Zealand. Options for Managing the Impacts of aged heavy Vehicles covers heavy vehicles above 4.5 tonnes gross vehicle mass (GVM) used in freight transport, reviewing the main issues associated with continued use of aged trucks and identifying potential policies and other interventions most suitable for these two countries. It notes trans-Tasman trucks are older than in many other countries due to low barriers of entry, exacerbated by having no secondary disposal market, and few restrictions on how and where they operate. Based on the above criteria, the aged truck cohort represents 56 per cent of the national fleet, because there are few regulatory, policy, or market forces to drive…

A simmering face-off between the biggest and most powerful businesses and small to medium enterprises (SMEs) has hit full boil and trucking is helping put the division into sharp focus. The heat is turned up in Canberra amongst employer bodies, where Council of Small Business Organisations Australia (COSBOA), backed by Australasian Convenience and Petroleum Marketers Association (ACPMA), lashes the federal government for dropping measures tackling wage theft following pressure from big business, The Australian newspaper reports. This is met by a counter-strike by the "big end of town", in the form of the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI), Australian Industry Group (Ai Group) and, most trenchantly, Australian Mines and Metals Association (AMMA). They argue that higher penalties for directors for wage theft must be part of wider industrial…

WATCH THE VIDEO @ FULLYLOADED.COM.AU What you read here is an indulgence and I make no apology for it. It is the story of a close friend, who is totally blind, and his only son, and their abiding passion for trucks and family heritage. Nonetheless, it is a difficult story to tell because it mixes the inherently opposing loyalties of a strong personal relationship with the responsibility to report the challenges and pressures of an enterprising family business. But it is, above all else, a story of human spirit and the strength of family. My hope, and only hope, is to do it justice. On my office wall hangs a large framed photo of two little boys under broad-brimmed hats, their backs to the camera, sitting on a big log.…

Stepping into the cab of a heavy-duty truck for the first time can be a daunting experience for anyone, but for people who have a genuine fear of driving it can seem like an impossible barrier to break through. Add to that if you are a woman trying to break into a male-dominated industry and the odds are stacked against you. Bobbi Lockyer is a Port Hedland-based artist, photographer and mother of four, whose designs have appeared on the catwalk at New York Fashion Week, but until International Women’s Day (IWD) she had never been behind the wheel of a truck. Living in a situation of domestic violence for more than a decade, Lockyer had a very real fear of driving and has only had her driver’s licence for the…

Daimler Trucks Australia chief Daniel Whitehead is an affable, agreeable bloke. Most of the time. However, there are other times when, with his competitive instincts suitably stoked or umbrage taken at something or someone considered less than adequate, an abrupt and somewhat stern countenance can quickly surface. Admittedly, those latter times are rare – at least in the public gaze – but such a transformation was briefly, and perhaps justifiably, evident at the recent media launch of Fuso’s electric eCanter at Daimler’s Mulgrave (Vic) headquarters. “The eCanter,” he said earnestly at the start of the presentation, “is a full production electric truck.” Then, with an instant change of tone and an intent most assuredly planned to hit a carefully targeted mark, it was a dour Whitehead who gruffly added: “Ours…

Such has been the coverage and promotion of the latest Freightliner and Mercedes-Benz models over the past few years, you could be forgiven for thinking Fuso is something of a poor cousin in the Daimler Trucks world. But not so, and certainly not in Australia. Fuso, in fact, sells many times more trucks in our part of the world than either of its high profile partners. Admittedly, the Japanese brand contests all three market segments – light-, medium- and heavy-duty – whereas Freightliner and Mercedes-Benz trucks are almost entirely dedicated to the heavy-duty class. Even so, Fuso figures in 2020 leave no doubt of its critical importance to Daimler’s Down Under department, delivering 3,529 units for the year. Mercedes-Benz, on the other hand, continued its steady rise with a respectable…

Exchangeable battery-electric truck firm Janus Electric has revealed that its prototype vehicle will appear at the Brisbane Truck Show this month. Claiming world-first patented technology, the Janus’ truck is an electric-converted Kenworth T403. Developed by professional engineers, led by co-founder Bevan Dooley, and transport operators, Janus batteries aim to remove the need for heavy electric vehicles to plug in and charge for 12 hours. Instead, the revolutionary solution can be swapped out in three minutes with a fully charged battery ready to go, thereby increasing vehicle utilisation and all but eliminating downtime. Janus Electric general manager Lex Forsyth believes the exchangeable battery is a game changer for the transport industry globally. “The fact it’s exchangeable and can be done in three minutes at one of the charge stations located initially…

The business is charged with serious safety offences after a truck toppled onto a pedestrian island crossing. The heavy vehicle was loaded with a shipping container carrying 26 tonnes of imported timber plywood products when it rolled over in Dandenong on November 11, 2019. The load’s consignor has been charged with exposing drivers, unloaders and members of the public to the risk of death or serious injury by failing to comply with sections 26G and 26H of the HVNL. The NHVR will allege the consignor failed to comply with loading and restraint requirements, failed to advise an overseas supplier of Australian safety regulations, failed to have any restraint system in place in the container, and failed to advise the driver and operator how the load was packed. It will be…

The Supreme Court of New South Wales casts greater light on the role of transport contracts when goods are damaged due to an event beyond a transporter’s control. The judgement comes seven years, almost to the day, after a derailment involving an SCT Logistics train damaged Woolworths’ cargo, and the case centres on how the transport contract was constructed. Woolworths subsequently sued SCT for its $893,399.25 in losses, using an indemnity contained in the parties’ transport contract involving ‘transport terms and conditions’ and ‘prescribed procedures’, and the Australian Rail Track Corporation Ltd (ARTC) for negligence. SCT argued before Justice Patricia Henry that, as the derailment was caused by extreme weather involving heavy rain and flash flooding, this activated a ‘force majeure’ exception to its liability. Under the force majeure clauses,…

The National Road Transport Association (NatRoad) is recording its relief at the passage through federal Parliament of the Fair Work Amendment (Supporting Australia’s Jobs and Economic Recovery) Bill 2021. Commonly referred to as the IR Omnibus Bill, it passed Parliament on March 22, in what NatRoad describes as "a timely win for employers". "After the bulk of the Bill was rejected by the Senate, the provisions left in the Bill are those relating to casual employment, the highest priority reform identified by NatRoad," the industry body notes. "With the passing of the legislation, we now have a statutory definition of casual employment for the first time. "The legislation also clarifies the situation regarding ‘double dipping’ by casual workers, after courts had ruled that they should receive standard employee entitlements as…

The Queensland government has rolled out some big guns in support of one of its biggest and most sustained industry events – the 2021 Australian Heavy Vehicle Industry Week (AHVIW) and the events under its umbrella. Two ministers have put the state government’s weight behind the initiative, which is facilitated by industry body Heavy Vehicle Industry Australia (HVIA), owners and organisers of the Brisbane Truck Show, and now the accompanying South Bank Truck Festival. The heavy-duty showing is a tribute to the importance officially attached to it and HVIA chief executive Todd Hacking states that the Queensland government’s support enabled the expansion of the iconic industry event into South Bank Parklands and across the city. “We are extremely grateful to the Queensland government and the City of Brisbane for coming…

Industry and politicians have lined up to highlight the significance of Paccar Australia’s 50 years of manufacturing in Australia. With the half-century anniversary celebrated recently, Paccar is lauded for supporting local jobs, industry productivity and the Australian economy with truck production at its Bayswater plant in Melbourne. Since March 2, 1971, more than 70,000 trucks have been built by Paccar there. “Paccar built the Bayswater facility in 1971 to design, engineer and manufacture Kenworth trucks – a unique and high-quality product that has become an icon of Australian trucking” Paccar Australia managing director Andrew Hadjikakou says. As part of the celebrations, federal treasurer Josh Frydenberg, assistant treasurer Michael Sukkar, assistant minister for freight transport Scott Buchholz, assistant minister to the deputy prime minister Kevin Hogan, ATA chair David Smith and…

With an Australian legacy that reaches back to 1985 and the D21, Nissan’s Navara deserves recognition for its part in building the popularity of utes to the unprecedented levels you’ll find today. Go even further back, though, and you follow a long bloodline of pickups all the way to the Datsun 2225 that had its genesis in 1947. Unlike some relative newcomers to the market, therefore, it’s fair to say Nissan has well and truly earnt its ranking among a growing range of compelling options. But there’s only so far history and heritage will carry a brand in this fearsomely competitive market and, in the eyes of pragmatic Australian buyers, bang-for-buck is king. That’s precisely why you won’t find the short-lived X-Class in Mercedes showrooms for much longer. The resoundingly…

The 2021 Mitsubishi Express van has made history by being the first vehicle to score a zero-star Australasian New Car Assessment Program (ANCAP) rating. The Express, popular with tradies and commercial fleets, failed to earn a single star because of the absence of active safety systems, such as autonomous emergency braking and forward collision warning. It also delivered “marginal performance” in physical crash tests and “lacks basic safety features that consumers have come to expect in a newly released model”, according to independent crash-testing body ANCAP. Mitsubishi Australia reintroduced the Express nameplate in 2020 after a seven-year hiatus. However, instead of bringing an all-new van, it rebadged the ageing Renault Trafic – Mitsubishi is able to do this because it is part of the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi strategic alliance. The Renault Trafic…

March comes in at 3,558, above March 2018’s then all-time high of 3,447, while the quarter hits 8,325, just below 2018’s 8,675, according to Truck Industry Council (TIC) T-Mark statistics. This marks a sizzling return to form after total figures dropped successively over the past two years. Across the sizes, Isuzu is in new territory, with 820 units for the month and 2,034 for the quarter, just above 2018’s 817 and 2,006 and significantly higher than last year’s 640/1,714. The market leader has seen its monthly totals rise strongly, with January at 500 and February at 714. One step down, Hino’s dynamic is slightly different as its efforts to bridge the gap make some headway. Hino’s 551/1,326 against 2018’s 440/1,181 is a higher margin on 2018 than Isuzu, though its…