Table of contents for Issue 320 in Owner Driver

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 (HVNL) 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…

NOW BEFORE we start let’s make one thing perfectly clear, this is not an infomercial. It is not a paid write up to drum up business and there will be no buy one, get two offers being made. The reason for that is actually because Mitchell Agate at Metal Models is already flat out with over six months of orders on his books. The young artist is already working 12 hours a day, six days a week just to keep up. What this is, is an introduction to the amazing artwork coming out of a small Gatton workshop, artwork that is being sent to countries from NZ to Canada, the US to Scotland. Artwork that people are happily lining up and waiting months for. All from a mad car fanatic…

With nearly three decades of experience in wharf cartage, Vantrans Container Transport specialises in bulk movement of empty shipping containers between Melbourne’s container depots and the Port of Melbourne. The Footscray-based company has signed on a number of new clients over recent years and to help support this growth and its commitment to those clients, while at the same time increasing efficiency, Vantrans recently purchased three double-configuration Freighter Super-B skeletal combinations from MaxiTRANS. Vantrans is now able to move twice as many containers in one trip. The new 30-metre skeletal trailers are PBS-approved and designed to meet custom specification, with each new Super-B configuration trailers capable of carrying two 40-foot, or four 20-foot containers. “It’s a low-margin business and most of the time we work on very tight deadlines, which…

WHILE SOME EXPERTS are saying the Australian economy is coming off the boil, there’s certainly no sign of the heavy-duty truck market cooling down to any great extent. None at all. Sure, figures for the first half of this year suggest the market won’t reach the extravagant heights of 2018 when more than 14,300 heavy-duty units were delivered but even so, with the first six months of 2019 pointing to a yearly total approaching 13,000 trucks, national sales volumes are anything but lethargic. The two big players, and certainly the two biggest beneficiaries of such a strong heavy-duty sector, are Paccar Australia and Volvo Group Australia (VGA), which collectively commanded just a fraction under half of all new truck deliveries up to the end of June. With three brands in…

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 they 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…

THE BRISBANE TRUCK SHOW (BTS) has been shortlisted for two awards in the 2019 Australian Event Awards. BTS – organised by Heavy Vehicle Industry Australia (HVIA) and supported by Bauer Media as media partner – is up for a gong in the Best Corporate Event and Best Exhibition, Trade or Consumer Show categories. HVIA national events manager Noelene Bradley says all participants in the 2019 Brisbane Truck Show should celebrate the announcement. “The truck show is industry’s show,” Bradley says. “We greatly enjoy working with our exhibitors to keep raising the bar in delivering a truly world-class event, so it is gratifying to receive this acknowledgement from the Australian events industry. “In addition to the wall-to-wall showcase of innovative trucks, trailers, equipment and technology, the 2019 Brisbane Truck Show featured…

AS AUSTRALIANS (or in my case relocated kiwis) it’s our god given right to complain about our jobs; in fact it’s almost mandatory. Complain about our jobs, bitch about our politicians and whilst consuming moderate quantities of alcoholic beverages, solve the majority of the world’s problems. It’s just what we do, so you can imagine the ferocity at which my complaining went up upon hearing from my editor that he wanted me to spend my weekend down in the tiny NSW town of Casino covering their eighth annual Casino Truck show. I mean, I could have been at home, assisting my wife with the house cleaning, getting the weed eater out and attacking the jungle that is my back yard before sitting down to watch a period drama on TV,…

WELCOME LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, and those who are neither. This is not your standard truck profile. Sure, the photos show an amazing Australian built piece of art, a truck that packs more wow factor than a Cirque du Soleil performance. Yes, we will talk about SoilWorx, the family-owned Melbourne company responsible for putting this total package on the road. Of course, I will also cover the driver of this top notch T909, Mike Batten – young man that SoilWorx has trained up through its ranks and who now pilots one of Melbourne’s most eye-catching units. But first, we need to acknowledge someone else, a young admin office worker by the name of Samantha Johns. Where am I going with this you may ask? Fair question. We all know truck driving…

Washington Kudiwa (below) can attest to SGS’s philosophy. A former lawyer in his native Zimbabwe, Kudiwa’s journey has taken him to Australia via the UK. Starting out for a more mainstream company, he saw an ad for SGS in early 2016 and took the plunge, and has enjoyed his time ever since. “The bigger companies look after their own – the environment was getting a bit hostile and there was so much pressure on the driver. “By the time you get home, you’re an angry man. “Here, I don’t feel that pressure. “They respect you as a human being. They’re approachable. “I know I have a job to do and ensure the customer is happy. But If I have any personal requirements I don’t need to explain myself. “Even though…

DAIMLER TRUCKS NORTH AMERICA (DTNA) has built the first two heavy-duty battery electric Freightliner eCascadias for customers. The trucks are part of Freightliner’s Electric Innovation Fleet and built to test the integration of battery electric trucks into large-scale fleet operations. “This milestone in electric is important as both today and tomorrow’s technology is progressing,” DTNA Roger Nielsen president and CEO says. “Our team is incredibly proud to be leading the way for the industry, but prouder still to be working with our customers in a process of co-creation to make real electric trucks for real work in the real world.” The eCascadia is built on Cascadia foundations and the initial customer shipments are the first heavy-duty additions to the 30-vehicle Freightliner Innovation Fleet. Real-world use of the Innovation Fleet and…

A TRUCK DRIVER’S appeal on a work hours breach has failed but the South Australian Supreme Court judge hearing it has critiqued paper work diaries that fail to emphasise when relevant counted hours start. It is an issue, related to section 250(1) of the Heavy Vehicle National Law (HVNL) that has proven challenging for magistrates in other cases. In the case Ballantyne v National Heavy Vehicle Regulator, the latter now having authority in SA, the driver had been found to have breached his 12 allotted work hours by one and three quarter hours. More than 13 and a half hours’ work time in that period is referred to as a ‘critical risk breach’, the highest of the four ascending levels of breach, which now carries a maximum fine of $16,510.…

A QUEENSLAND UNIVERSITY of Technology (QUT) report has confirmed the suspicions of most in industry – that truck drivers are among the nation’s most unhealthy. Dr Marguerite Sendall from QUT’s School of Public Health and Social Work at the Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation, led a survey of 231 truck drivers aged between 20 and 71 and discovered around two thirds of them are classified as obese, compared to one third of the Australian population. The study, which formed the Truckies’ Nutrition and Physical Activity: A Cross-sectional Survey in Queensland, Australia report, comprised a multiple choice, short response survey to drivers asking them about self-reported health, their sources for health information, how much fruit and vegetables they ate, how much unhealthy food and how much moderate intensity physical exercise…

AUSTRALIAN TRUCK SALES have endured a seasonal dip to start the new financial year, and while overall figures are fairly middling across the board, certain narratives are unfolding in the different sectors. The final Truck Industry Council (TIC) tally of 3,194 falls below last month’s peak of 4,072, but at least remains above the 3,000 mark – which has been the general trend from March onwards. By comparison, it’s a respectable medium between July 2018’s benchmark of 3,344 and 2017’s 2,951. The year-to-date number of 22,083 is certainly no disgrace either, sitting closer to last year’s 23,314 than 2017’s 19,742. There were some notable wins in the year-on-year stakes at least, with Volvo, Scania, Mercedes-Benz and MAN showing improvements in various sectors. In YTD terms, Hino (3,155 vs. 3,125) Volvo…

“AVAILABILITY, QUALITY AND SERVICE ARE THE CORNERSTONE TO THE SUCCESS OF PACCAR AND ITS DEALER NETWORK” 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…

SINGAPORE IS ONE of the hottest countries on the planet, in more ways than one. The heat and humidity can be exhausting, but that doesn’t stop this tiny island nation of fewer than six million people just 80km north of the equator from pulling off some amazing achievements in commerce and transport. At the eastern end of the island – which measures just 50km by 30km – is Changi International Airport, a stopover point for countless Australian travellers. Changi is one of the busiest airports in the world and has been voted the best several times in recent years. It handles a massive amount of air freight. Singapore also has one of the busiest harbours, and again thanks in large part to its prime location as a hub between Asia,…

THE YARRA PLENTY REGIONAL LIBRARY (YPRL) is a mobile library service that covers three council areas in Victoria – Banyule, Whittlesea and Nillumbik – with stops at 14 different locations within those council boundaries. The library service was started in 1954 by the then City of Heidelberg and was referred to as the “travelling free library”; the first of its type in Victoria. Their first vehicle was an Ansair Transett bus. In 1976, the Shire of Whittlesea and the Heidelberg Library Service joined their services together. This meant there were now two buses servicing a wider area. In October 1985 the name was changed to the Yarra Plenty Regional Library Service, reflecting the wide area the library now serviced. In 1987, the buses were retired and the switch was made…

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.…

“The Scania 50th Anniversary Edition recognises the huge role the V8 engine has played.” SCANIA AUSTRALIA is marking its half-century anniversary of V8 engines with the release of 50 limited-edition trucks. Set for a 2020 delivery date, the range will be based on the R 650 V8 6x4 prime mover and finished in Ghost White paint with gold V8 detailing, and will feature a premium leather-lined cab. “The Scania 50th Anniversary Edition recognises the huge role the V8 engine has played in the consistent growth of Scania as the brand that delivers high horsepower with low revs and low fuel consumption,” Scania Australia director of truck sales Dean Dal Santo says. “Scania is the sole supplier of V8 engines for the heavy vehicle market in Australia and our V8 range…