Innholdsfortegnelse for Issue 475 i Deals On Wheels Australia

Every time our people go to South Australia, they seem to be drawn to one of many wine regions for some reason. At the risk of sounding like a tourism marketing type – not that there’s anything wrong with that, just ask the prime minister – there’s far more to it than that. Take the History Trust of South Australia, for example. It’s home to one of the country’s most famed and historic vehicles: a Leyland Badger. This one is worth a pilgrimage. Why? Well, as the trust says: “This truck and its most well-known driver, Tom Kruse, were made famous in 1954 when they featured in a scripted documentary, The Back of Beyond, filmed by John Heyer and the Shell Film Unit. This film won Australia’s first International Grand…

It started quietly enough in a land far, far away, with reports that South Korean drivers were experiencing some discomfort due to the lack of the diesel emissions fluid (DEF) that we like to call AdBlue. Due to it seemingly being someone else’s problem, it was barely noticed – until it was. The issue for the South Koreans was its main source is China and that country was experiencing a shortage in its main constituent, that amazingly flexible and useful chemical, urea. This was a few months ago but, in the last couple of months of the year, the realisation dawned that China was also Australia’s main supplier and local supplies were growing short, if not running out in some locales. What had been an annoyance then began to simmer…

Technology is increasingly promising to fill freight-transport data voids, with the ‘FreightSync Roadmap’ initiative the latest cab off this rank. As part of a new national pilot program led by Curtin University, the proof-of-concept project aims to track the near-live movements of a fleet of freight vehicles via a new digital roadmap developed over the last 18 months, in conjunction with transport agencies and industry partners nationally. The goal is to offer faster deliveries and ease traffic congestion, in light of delays caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. The project comes 18 months after the release of a report on the concept, titled Introducing the ‘FreightSync Roadmap – A Pathway to Linking Freight Vehicles and Transport Systems. Lead researcher Dr Charlie Hargroves, from the Curtin University Sustainability Policy Institute, said the…

The Tasmanian government has released further information on the state’s freight transport skills effort. The course details follow a Tasmanian Transport Association (TTA) report, Tasmanian Transport and Logistics Industry Workforce Plan 2020-2030, into gaps between new entrants being licensed and being job-ready. The TTA received an $80,000 grant Heavy Vehicle Driver Licensing Plus (HVDL Plus) pilot program to address this gap. “The grant supports the delivery the HVDL Plus pilot program over 2021–2022,” state infrastructure and transport minister Michael Ferguson said. “I was delighted to meet some of participants of the pilot today and I commend transport industry company De Bruyn Transport for their leadership in this space.” The HVDL Plus program includes the following course components: • heavy vehicle driver licence• high risk work licence (Forklift)• safe manual handling•…

A worldwide survey published by global logistics platform Container xChange shows that 75% of the container logistics industry is rethinking its logistics strategy this year. The survey results indicate that firms are is expecting gloomy times for this industry as it faces resurgent container shipping lines. The top challenges remained finding spots on ships and surcharges by carriers. One-way leasing emerged as the most sought-after alternative as compared to getting equipment from the carriers. The xChange Industry Speak Survey 2021–22 took in some 800 container logistics players globally including shipping lines, container traders, freight forwarding companies, non vessel owning common carriers (NVOCCs), shippers and procurement companies. The objective was to study the industry sentiment, key learnings from 2021 and the outlook for 2022. Key findings were: • The industry is…

As the saying goes, ‘timing is everything’ and, if that’s the case, Hino’s introduction of its vastly renewed 700-series heavy-duty range could be a classic case of just the right truck at just the right time. Time will tell, of course, but, right now, it appears Hino is in a prime position to capitalise on a range of new models that, on one hand, etch an entirely new line in the sand for the Toyota-owned truck brand and, on the other, have the potential to exploit shortcomings in a couple of its competitive countrymen, namely Isuzu and its lately-acquired corporate collaborator, UD. For its part, and despite unbroken leadership of the overall Australian truck market for more than three decades, Isuzu Australia has been devoid of a genuinely competitive heavy-duty…

Engine-maker Cummins has opened its Hydrogen Fuel Cell Powertrain Integration Center in West Sacramento, California. The move signals its commitment to scaling the green hydrogen economy in the United States the company said. The facility aims to aid the development of its ‘proton-exchange membrane’ (PEM) fuel cell technology. “Our presence in West Sacramento is important to advancing hydrogen technologies while being a central part of the decarbonisation conversation in the United States,” Cummins vice president and president of its New Power arm Amy Davis said. “With the most advanced hydrogen infrastructure system in the country, California provides a great ecosystem for advancing alternative power technologies. “Ultimately, our goal is to accelerate change in transportation, innovate for our customers and put more zero-emissions vehicles on the road. This facility will help…

Illawarra-based Metal Transport Industries (MTI) finds value in holding onto and maintaining its Kenworth fleet for the long-haul. From its beginnings in 1979, MTI serviced the scrap metal industry almost exclusively for the best part of 25 years before pivoting toward the direction of heavy equipment haulage in search of increased business opportunities and profit margins. Brothers Dave and Kev Murada are MTI’s co-managing directors. Dave gives an insight into how the business began 42 years ago. “The old man had machinery, bulldozers and the like, and then got involved with excavators in the scrap game. It was Dad that got myself and my two brothers, Kevin and Peter, involved in the scrap metal transport game,” he explained. Under the MTI banner, the three brothers (triplets by the way) began…

Powered by a Cummins Signature engine rated at 620hp To a wide-eyed young fella at the Castlemaine Truck Show, the sight of an immaculately presented and customised T950 Kenworth lit a fire inside. A burning desire that, unbeknown to him at the time, would one day be quenched by a high-stake barter. That truck was ‘The Joker’. The Joker will be well known to those custom truck aficionados who frequent the truck show circuit, or just follow the scene on social media. Hailing from the Thorpe Custom Truck stable, the company is well known for its one-of-a-kind individual personalisation flair, which also includes such works of art as Lenny’s Pride, Life’s A Circus, Black-Out, The Green Mile, The Ring Master and many more customised creations. The Joker, with its Batman…

“Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn” – Benjamin Franklin. It’s a pretty deep and philosophical way to start my first story of the new year. Bear with me though, folks, I’m not just trying to impress you with inspiring quotes, there is method in my madness. This quote by Benjamin Franklin, who along with being known as one of the founding fathers of the country responsible for extremely long, low, cool trucks (the United States), he was also the inventor of swim fins and bifocals. None of that is really that important. The point of the quote is that it sums up the young man behind the wheel of the Fred’s Transport Kenworth T610 you see before you – James Hadley.…

Scan with your Smartphone camera to check out this deal! 99 Benz Unimog U2450L 6 cylinder turbo 16 speed manual $199,000 Kirkham, NSW Interstate Motor Marketing 02 9064 7310 Call it a belated Christmas present. Call it specialised. Call it magnificent. Call it what you will but, as it’s a ‘Mog, it will go anywhere you like and just about do anything you want. As one of our truck reviewers once remarked, “it seems the uses for a Unimog are only really limited by one’s imagination”. What you see here is a former Army U2450L 6x6 wrecker/tow unit. It was the largest of the Unimogs and the German Army, which also used them to transport equipment and heavy weapons, loved them for their ability to climb 45 degree slopes and…

it is extremely important to build long term relationships with companies For more than a decade, Western Australian transport specialist Freight Lines Group has relied on Vawdrey Australia for efficient and reliable trailers, which are often set up as pocket road train combinations and re-configured for optimal fleet utility. In the 1960s, a humble freight company commenced operations in Esperance to Perth. By the 1980s, it established a fuel distribution arm along with fresh fruit and vegetable operations. The business collectively known as Freight Lines Group (FLG) has since expanded into mining, bulk commodities, agriculture and specialised freight, boasting a team of about 210 staff. “The fuel business was sold and then Harding Transport was born with the fruit and veg distribution – this evolved over time to the company…

Central NSW councils have dubbed a regional load-restraint education effort a success and will bolster trucking industry arguments on the value of education in boosting industry safety. Parkes, Forbes and Lachlan shire councils’ Load Restraint Education Project aimed to increase awareness of load restraint fundamentals and decrease the number of load-restraint incidents and breaches occurring on local roads. “The results of the project show that load-restraint awareness amongst the target group – farmers and transport companies – did improve over the course of the project and we have seen load restraint breaches decrease 69% this year, with no incidents occurring,” project coordinator and the councils’ road safety and injury prevention officer Melanie Suitor said. “These are amazing results and I’d like to thank everyone that was involved in the project…

Prime minister Scott Morrison has foreshadowed a Productivity Commission examination of the nation’s disfunctional ports logistics system. The federal probe was revealed in a virtual address Australian Industry Group (AiG) recently. This comes at a time of greatly increased scrutiny of the container line industry as it impacts domestically and operates internationally. The port container logistics sector has been a focus of sustained criticism from haulage interests for decades but this has ramped up in recent years due to soaring unregulated landside charges and imposts from stevedores and neglect of market mechanism that has seen local and export costs rise. This has been brought into even sharper focus by pandemic-induced trade disruption and huge shipping cost increases, exacerbated locally by industrial action, which Morrison noted. The Australian Competition and Consumer…

Generally synonymous with big bore diesel-powered heavy combinations, mining and resources-focused transport group Centurion has unveiled its first electric truck. The move – a first for the company and part of its national emissions-reduction policy – is in conjunction with massive mining customer BHP and the Fuso eCanter will operate from Centurion’s Mackay facility. There, Centurion provides third-party logistics (3PL) and network services to multiple mine sites across Central Queensland. “Today is a significant step for Centurion and our early steps towards low-carbon operations across our business, with this newly deployed fully-electric truck being the cornerstone of making our services to BHP more sustainable,” Centurion CEO Justin Cardaci said. “While we’re deploying zero-emission vehicles within our fleet, Centurion is also exploring alternative fuel supplies that will contribute to reducing our…

Bapcor, the vehicle parts firm that counts truck and trailer parts business Truckline among its businesses, has replaced CEO and MD Darryl Abotomey with chief financial officer (CFO) Noel Meehan. The Abotomey departure had been flagged in November but Meehan’s promotion was more immediate. He was previously CFO at Toll Group and has had previous roles as CFO at Treasury Wines Estate and executive director of finance at Orica. He is a Fellow of the Australian Society of Certified Practising Accountants and a Member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. “Noel brings significant financial, strategic operational strengths to the role,” Bapcor chair Margie Haseltine said. “He has an in-depth understanding of the business, our future growth strategy and the needs of our team members, and we are grateful that…

In principle, Victorian government support has been given officially to user-pays road charging but there were other responses of note in the Infrastructure Victoria’s plan beyond that crucial item. The idea suggested in the organisation’s August Victoria’s Infrastructure Strategy 2021–2051 report was to replace fixed road user charges with variable distance-based and congestion charges over the next 10 years, by gradually expanding and reforming the existing electric vehicle (EV) charge. It would also ensure user-pays charging reflects the relative costs of road use, encouraging people to adopt beneficial travel behaviour. The intent was supported but the state government – in its response, entitled Victorian Infrastructure Plan 2021 – which pointed to complicating aspects, including national reform to charging for vehicles above 4.5 tonnes. It also wanted to gauge the effect…

Right now, Australia has three truck manufacturing plants. Soon, there will be two. Mid-way through 2022, the sprawling Dandenong (Vic) production facility built in 1952 by International Harvester as a safeguard against reliance on overseas suppliers during Australia’s post-war construction boom, will build no more. In its long history, the factory has produced almost quarter of a million trucks, or more than three times the current number of trucks built by either Paccar Australia’s Bayswater (Vic) facility or Volvo Group Australia’s Wacol (Qld) plant. However, after a long and stellar performance during the halcyon years of International Harvester, the factory and its thousands of employees have also endured many challenging times. In 1992, for instance, with International Harvester suffering dire economic distress, the brand’s Australian operation and its Dandenong production…

It may be a momentous time for Iveco’s truckmaking future in Australia but the make’s vans arm is kicking huge goals with Europcar. The vehicle rental business is about to digest a 195-unit order comprising of 150 vans and 45 pantech-bodied cab chassis units, while 241 are also on order and due to enter service in Australia in the first half of next year. The attraction of Daily 35S van models to Europcar is that can be driven on a passenger car licence and offer generous load-carrying ability, while remaining easy-to-drive and manoeuvrable for drivers of all levels of experience, Iveco noted. Further assisting the vans’ ease of use is Iveco’s eight-speed fully automatic transmission, which is matched to a new 2.3L 136hp (101kW), 350Nm, Euro 6-rated turbodiesel engine, delivering…

Funny how small, seemingly off-the-cuff statements can also be the precursor, the first hint, that something substantial is brewing in the background. Take, for instance, a press conference at the Sydney Opera House near the end of 2019, marking the formal introduction on the Australian market of Freightliner’s much-anticipated Cascadia. This was obviously a big deal for Freightliner’s future and corporate heavyweights from Europe and the US had flown in for the occasion, led by the biggest bopper of them all, Daimler Trucks’ chairman of the board, Martin Daum. Initially, it seemed neither the place nor the event to expect anything other than a firmly fixed focus on Freightliner, its domination of the North American truck market and Daimler Trucks North America’s (DTNA) high expectations for Cascadia in Australia. Still,…

We needed the space to turn up to a job with all of the essential tools on hand At the crack of dawn, Cameron McDonald and the team at Outdoor Residential are already out on the road in Sydney’s North Shore, ready for a full day of landscaping and garden care. With a dual-axle tandem trailer hooked up to their NPR 55-155 Tipper (upgraded from Isuzu’s 4.5-tonne model for extra oomph), McDonald says the crew are ready to get down to business before the sun gets too high in the sky. “I’m up at 5.30am on the computer, organising our runs for the day and getting the crew scheduled in,” he said. “We look after around 250 gardens and properties around here on the North Shore, from lawns to landscaping…

Trucking can be in turns back-breaking, immensely satisfying, mind-breaking, rewarding when things are going your way, tragic and a lot of fun. It is also endlessly fascinating and chock full of drama. As we enter a new year, it is on the agenda again for those who must be obeyed and the general populace. For one that has seemed ‘the only invisible industry in front of everyone’s eyes’ for so long, these past two years have widened the public’s eyelids like few in living memory. For, by the time you read this, the nation will have a better appreciation of whether it will ‘stop’. Yes, the sentiment of those signs on bullbars and the back of trailers will get a thorough workout, if the best efforts of the Department of…

TT-Line’s two Spirit of Tasmania ships saw freight traffic step in as passengers were blocked due to Covid-19 restrictions, the ferry service’s annual performance revealed. The Tasmanian government-owned enterprise pivoted to freight passenger eased due to border restrictions, state infrastructure and transport minister Michael Ferguson has noted. This involved amongst other things, offering a premium ‘last to leave, first to arrive’ freight service, which was further expanded when passenger demand dropped. The shipping container record now stands at 122,131 20-foot equivalent units (TEUs) of freight carried in 2020–21. This is well up on the 110,561 TEUs carried in 2019–20, the last full year of unconstrained passenger demand. Passenger numbers for 2020–21 were only 232,849, well down on the 451,932 passengers carried in 2018–19, the previous fully unconstrained year, bearing in…

How states are handling Covid compliance is about to get more complicated, with a new variant causing national anxiety and the present rules threatening freight transport. The former, courtesy of Omicron variant, is widely reported but the results of a survey conducted by the Victorian Transport Association (VTA) is likely to be less so. It shows that onerous compliance measures and vaccine mandates for freight workers are wreaking havoc on road transport operators. The VTA said it had queried more than 75 small, medium and large operators carrying freight ranging from chemicals and fuel, construction goods, agricultural, food, groceries and general merchandise about a range of issues that have emerged during the pandemic. The goal was to understand how regulatory adjustments might assist an industry trying to overcome massive supply-chain…

The awards are affiliated with the National Safety Council of Australia (NSCA). Linfox Logistics gained the Best Wellbeing Program award, while Toyota Material Handling Australia (TMHA) took out the Best Solution of a WHS Risk (Large Business) gong. Australia Post won Best Return & Recovery at Work System category, while also appearing as a finalist in the Best Mental Health Program section Meanwhile, North Queensland Bulk Ports was a finalist in the Best Solution of a WHS Risk (Medium Business) section. “This NSCA Best Wellbeing Program Award is a wonderful endorsement of Linfox’s commitment to safety, health and wellbeing through our Healthy Fox program,” Linfox Logistics Australia and New Zealand CEO Mark Mazurek said. “It is also a reflection on the people who bring our ‘be safer’ message to life…

A trucking company whose driver died with a mix of drugs and alcohol in his system has failed in an approach to Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA) over a rejected claim. The federal watchdog’s determination does not name the company, which had made its complaint via a broker against Chubb Insurance Australia. The claim stemmed from a fatal 2019 prime mover crash in Western Australia, with policy providing cover of $250,000 for accidental death. Though Chubb had paid out for the co-driver, who was also killed, it refused to do so for the deceased driver. The coroner’s finding noted that: “Toxicological analysis showed multiple intoxicating agents in [the driver’s] system, including methylamphetamine and its metabolite amphetamine, buprenorphine (Suboxone), a low level of codeine and morphine and cannabis. “There was a…

Australia Post has welcomed the first of 20 electric trucks to its national delivery fleet, with three Fuso eCanters delivering parcels to customers in Melbourne ahead of Christmas. And the federal government-owned enterprise is looking forward to adding 17 more this year The eCanters add to Australia Post’s existing electric delivery fleet of more than 2,100 electric delivery vehicles and 1,400 electric bicycles and follows the successful trial of the Daimler-developed truck in late 2019. Australia Post general manager networks James Dixon said the addition of the eCanters to Australia Post’s delivery fleet was an exciting step for the organisation. “We’re very proud to be Australia’s largest electric fleet operator, but up until this point our electric fleet has consisted solely of smaller delivery vehicles that are used for the…

In a country dominated by cricket, rugby league and cross-country netball (or Aussie Rules), it’s almost sacrilegious that I start this story with a quote from one of the all-time greatest real footy (soccer) players, Pelé. I’m not saying there’s probably no good lines from Ricky Ponting or Jonathon Thurston or some AFL player that I don’t know. It’s just that Pelé, in one quote, managed to sum up completely the journey to success of Flying Horse Transport and, in particular, the man behind the bright orange truck you see before you: “Success is no accident. It is hard work, perseverance, learning, studying, sacrifice and, most of all, love of what you are doing.” That one quote sums up Rasdeep Singh Bajwa, who is better known as Rusty and is…

When Darcy Pollard arrived at Centenary Landscaping Supplies at Darra in south-east Queensland just on 32 years ago, it was by all accounts a fairly modest operation. His arrival was only three years after the now managing director Terry O’Shea purchased the company, which itself hadn’t long been in operation. Pollard recalled starting out in a little Centenary Landscaping Supplies’ 2.5-tonne Daihatsu. “We had one loader and one forklift when I started, and maybe four little trucks and one big truck,” he said. He laughed when he said he would load a little more than the allocated payload on the Daihatsu, adding: “I had long hair and no grey hairs when I started.” Pollard, a painter by trade, came to Centenary almost by accident. He was in the midst of…