Bird’s Eye View

snaking their way up the highway towards me.

Ninety two of them! On average, that's more than one ‘every’ five kms for 450 kms…more than one ‘every’ three minutes for four and a half hours.

Is this sending warning bells to anyone else and where to start?

I have found that the Quads travel closer to 90kph than 100. My current truck of choice is a rigid six Tonner and is fairly zippy with good acceleration so that when the way is clear I can get out and past and back in again a lot easier than some. This is assuming that I have timed it right and arrived at his back corner just when there is a long straight section with no double white line and more importantly not one of those (one every three minutes) incoming Quads heading towards me.

Having said that, every time I passed one of these Quads, I was hanging out there on the ‘hospital side’ of the road for around 500 metres.

And this is me - a zippy nine metre (total length) rigid. How other Semi's and Road trains manage? It doesn't bear thinking about.

To be fair, a number of the Quad drivers will back it off and indicate that it is clear to come around, but I found that few of them use their CB's to communicate - maybe the trucks aren't fitted with them?

Another serious issue I found was when it was raining. Coming up behind a Quad to pass him, I called him to tell him that I was coming round and pulled out. You would expect a bit of road spray from the rain but as I was passing the gap between the trailers the turbulence and swirling spray made me totally blind. Until I got clear of the front of his truck I couldn't see more than two feet in front of me and had to trust the other driver with my life. Truly a terrifying experience and one that thankfully I did not have to repeat that trip,

These Quads are a hot topic in the industry especially for people who travel this stretch of road regularly and they tell me that the majority of the Quads are 'hot seat' trucks. The driver drives from the mine to Port and then hops out for his fatigue break whilst another driver hops in and heads back. The first driver, at the completion of his fatigue break, then gets the next truck that comes in before he heads back. This in itself has huge inherent safety risks as every truck is different with different strengths and weaknesses and chopping and changing vehicles adds more risks due to this unfamiliarity.

Quads are used as a money making exercise - there is obviously more profit in pulling a Quad than three trailers and billions of this money goes to our economy through royalties.

Over the next four years, WA is expecting to collect $28 billion from resources royalties, mostly from iron ore. It collected $11.3 billion from iron ore miners in 2021 and expects to collect $9.1 billion this financial year.

This is great for WA’s economy, great for Australia’s economy but what about the people who have to risk their lives travelling that stretch of road during this.

Sadly, it seems that safety and human life comes in a poor second and you have to ask if there is any investment being made by the Government/s into ensuring the safety and integrity of the road itself. You can’t tell me that a continuous or even intermittent trips (with return) of 92 x 200 tonne vehicles is ‘not’ causing any damage to the road over a continued period.

There are more questions than answers here and we will be following up with the relevant bodies to find out what we can about the future of this stretch of road and its use by the Super Quads.

Many in our industry believe that safety is already being compromised for all users on this stretch of road… The ‘general consensus in industry is that about one Quad per week or five per month is being lost to rolling, flipping, falling over or being involved in an accident.

Many truck drivers will no longer use the Great Northern Highway - instead driving the extra few hundred kms to go up and down via the North West Coastal Highway instead - thus reducing their interactions with these vehicles. What are your experiences along this stretch of road? Email karen@angrychicken.com.au to share what you think.

Having said that, every time I passed one of these Quads, I was hanging out there on the ‘hospital side’ of the road for around 500 metres

WA

TRANSPORT

magazine

VOLUME 28 | NUMBER 2

Angry Chicken Publishing Pty Ltd

Telephone 0430 153 273 www.angrychicken.com.au

ABN: 35 486 530 095

PUBLISHER / COMMISSIONING EDITOR

Karen-Maree’ Kaye T: 0430 153 273 Email: karen@angrychicken.com.au

WRITERS

Karen-Maree' Kaye, Russell McKinnon

CONTRIBUTORS

Jan Cooper, Cam Dumesny, Carol Messenger, Ray Pratt

ADVERTISING ENQUIRIES

Angry Chicken Head Office T: 0430 153 273 E: karen@angrychicken.com.au

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Cally Browning | Bare Creative

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PRINTER

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SUBSCRIPTIONS

Subscriptions available directly from the Publisher. T: 0430 153 273 E: karen@angrychicken.com.au Australia: 1 year $76.45 (inc GST) 2 years $152.90 (inc GST) Overseas subscribers: Airmail postage will be added to subscription rate.

Editorial Submissions: The Publisher welcomes editorial submissions. Once received they will become the property of the Publisher who reserves the right to edit the or adjust the content to fit with the format of our publication.

West Australian Transport Magazine (WATM) is published by Angry Chicken Publishing Pty Ltd ABN: 35 486 530 095 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, adapted or transmitted in any form by any process (graphic, electronic, mechanical or storage and retrieval system) or sold, resold or otherwise exploited for any purpose without consent of the Publisher. The publisher, contributors, editors and consultants disclaim any and all liability and responsibility to any person or party, be they a purchaser, reader, advertiser or consumer of this publication in regards to consequences and outcomes of anything done or omitted, or being in reliance whether partly or solely on the contents of this publication. No person, organization or party should rely on or on any way act upon any part of the contents of this magazine without first obtaining the advice of a fully qualified person. The Publisher shall have no responsibility for any action or omission by contributor, consultant, editor or related party for content within WATM. The opinions and content within WATM does not necessarily reflect those of the Publisher, editor or their agents. No responsibility is accepted for damage or loss of material supplied to the publisher.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

The magazine would not be possible without the advertisers and to you all, thank you. Readers please utilise them because these are the people who care about our WA industry too.

In this edition (THIS IS IMPORTANT) on Page One, TWUWA are running a competition for WATM readers and you have to find the special word in their article on Page 1. It’s easy. Then click the link or QR Code to enter to win a WA transport themed Monopoly Board. Please enter for me and the magazine but most of all for your kids and grandkids… they will love it if you give them a WA Truck themed Monopoly board. Go to Page 12 to read more about what’s in it.

Lastly, thank you to the readers. I am grateful when you reach out to me and this week I received a lovely email from Narelle Capponi the Compliance Officer for Bishops Transport and we later talked about the massive staff shortages everyone is experiencing. Narelle shared with me that she had been reading the magazine for six years from a previous employer to now and was very kind. That call put a little spring in my step because you don’t often hear when you are doing anything good.

Here’s to the heat ending soon and keep safe.

Best, Karen

CONTENTS

2..............................................Super Quads – How many is too many? 6..............................................New tech speeds up receivals for WA’s bumper 21.3 million tonne harvest 7...............................................Autonomous Roadtrains announced for the Pilbara 8..............................................Clear information for those travelling interstate 9..............................................Construction underway on new Hotham River Bridge 12 ...........................................WIN a TWU WA Monopoly board in this edition 13 ...........................................Adblue Production Up 800% 14...........................................Government Support Of Future Fuel Fleets 15 ...........................................A Glimpse Into The Role Of A Main Roads Traffic Escort Warden 16...........................................Western Roads Federation – No Political Will

18...........................................LRTAWA - Vale Jim Cooper OAM 19...........................................Landmark $255 Million Pilbara Urea Project 20.........................................Industry Investigates Coupling Strength 21 ...........................................Boom year for Australian truck market

Every Month

3..............................................Bird’s Eye View 10...........................................Fair Go for Owner Drivers 22.........................................HCVC 24.........................................WA Transport History Endorsed by