Prime Mover December 2020

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December 2020

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Industry Fleet: Trojan Freight Feature: Bidfood Spotlight: Annual NHVR Report Personality: Daniel Whitehead

Innovation Fleet: Turps Tippers Technology: PBS Showcase Test Drive: DAF LF rigid Final Mile: Hino Hybrid

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December 2020

MEET THE TEAM

Australia’s leading truck magazine, Prime Mover, continues to invest more in its products and showcases a deep pool of editorial talent with a unique mix of experience and knowledge.

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John Murphy | CEO

John has been the nation’s foremost authority in commercial road transport media for almost two decades and is the driving force behind Prime Creative Media becoming Australia’s biggest specialist B2B publishing and events company. Committed to servicing the transport and logistics industry, John continues to work tirelessly to represent it in a positive light and is widely considered a true champion for the growth of the Australian trucking and manufacturing industry.

IN CO-OPERATION WITH

DECEMBER 2020 $11.00

ISSN 1838-2320

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Industry Fleet: Trojan Freight Feature: Bidfood Spotlight: Annual NHVR Report Personality: Daniel Whitehead

Innovation Fleet: Turps Tippers Technology: PBS Showcase Test Drive: DAF LF rigid Final Mile: Hino Hybrid

T H E P E O P L E & P R O D U C T S T H AT M A K E T R A N S P O RT M O V E

ceo John Murphy john.murphy@primecreative.com.au editor William Craske

william.craske@primecreative.com.au

Luke Applebee | Managing Editor, Transport Group

Luke has a background in copywriting and content marketing, working with a range of businesses from solar and engineering to freight forwarding and 3PL. With a special focus on digital marketing and content creation, Luke has a strong strategic edge and can draw on years of experience in social media campaign management.

managing editor,

transport group

Luke Applebee luke.applebee@primecreative.com.au

senior feature Peter Shields writer peter.shields@primecreative.com.au

business

Ash Blachford

development ash.blachford@primecreative.com.au manager

0403 485 140

art director Blake Storey blake.storey@primecreative.com.au William Craske | Editor

In his 15-year career as a journalist, William has reported knowledgeably on sports, entertainment and agriculture. He has held senior positions in marketing and publicity across theatrical and home entertainment, and also has experience in B2B content creation and social media strategy for the logistics sector.

design production

manager

Michelle Weston michelle.weston@primecreative.com.au

client success manager

Justine Nardone justine.nardone@primecreative.com.au

A seasoned transport industry professional, Peter has spent more than a decade in the media industry. Starting out as a heavy vehicle mechanic, he managed a fuel tanker fleet and held a range of senior marketing and management positions in the oil and chemicals industry before becoming a nationally acclaimed transport journalist.

Ashley Blachford | Business Development Manager

Handling placements for Prime Mover magazine, Ashley has a unique perspective on the world of truck building both domestically and internationally. Focused on delivering the best results for advertisers, Ashley works closely with the editorial team to ensure the best integration of brand messaging across both print and digital platforms.

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Kerry Pert, Madeline McCarty

journalist Paul Matthei paul.matthei@primecreative.com.au

Peter Shields | Senior Feature Writer

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CONTENTS

Prime Mover December 2020

42

46

34

50

24

COVER STORY “Because of the delivery aspect of the business we want our service to be top notch. In this market space we want it to be as high as possible. So, within reason, we want to keep the fleet as modern as possible. We want to be a five-star truck rental business if there is such a thing.�

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STAYING AHEAD OF THE CURVE

Prime Feature Stories FLEET FOCUS 24 Move on Up A small Queensland business started by two acquaintances has gone on to become an essential service on the eastern seaboard in which Isuzu commercial vehicles account for a majority of its growing fleet.

30 Legends of the Haul Sharing parallels to the Trojan horse of Greek mythology, Trojan Freight, a versatile Newcastle-based company, contains multitudes.

34 Automatic for the People Since opening its first branch in Brisbane 28 years ago, Bidfood Australia has achieved significant growth and become a major national player in the food service industry.

From the beginning, the company has relied upon Hino trucks as the predominant brand in the fleet.

TRUCK & TECH 42 Star Power An appetite for growth and innovation has helped NSW business, Turps Tippers, climb the heap in quarry transport.

A daring decision to use live bottom quad axles pulled by Detroit powered Western Star trucks was a gamble that continues to pay off.

TEST DRIVE 46 Dutch and Go Loaded with new features, DAF’s medium-duty rigid LF is proving itself a quiet achiever.

PBS SHOWCASE 54 Staying Ahead of the Curve The growing acceptance of Performance-Based Standards among Australian trucking operators has elevated the demand for engineering services to develop and certify the increasingly innovative combinations. Smedley’s Engineers is ramping up its operations to meet the market demand.

Regular Run From the Editor 10 Prime Mover News 50 Final Mile 58 Personality 60 Prime Movers & Shakers 62 Australian Road Transport Suppliers’ Association 64 National Heavy Vehicle Regulator 67 Australian Logistics Council 68 Trucking Industry Council 69 Victorian Transport Association 70 Peter Shields’ Number Crunch 08

FROM THE EDITOR

Courting Disaster

William Craske Editor What best characterised the past year for one of the hardest working industries in the country was the long due recognition commercial road transport received in the public domain. It was plain for all to see. Bereft supermarket shelves of essential goods were expeditiously replenished. Delivery drivers knocked on household doors in record numbers, braving conditions that government health agencies had deemed were simply too unsafe for the rest of us. It was also a year in which people desperately wanted answers to questions stemming from the extraordinary circumstances they found themselves in. The responses from those who have insisted we trust the science, namely government officials and academics, have been for many of us inadequate. For every politicised natural disaster, dismal election poll and grossly mistaken health model, a type of fatigue is

8

d e c e m be r 2020

fast creeping in when it comes to mediaapproved expertise which has, time and again, been found wanting. This is hardly new phenomena. When acceptance of consensus is first shaped by bad faith arguments (the earth only has 12 years left!) a narrative prevails over facts under the guise of what looks and sounds like reality. But is it? A few weeks back, a University of NSW academic issued a statement, in the interests of keeping our roads safe, commemorating the worst truck fatality in Australian history from 31 years ago. Some of his supposed findings regarding protocols for long haul road transport and attitudes from drivers he claims to have spoken to have also apparently been taken from the same era.

Taking the Sunliner Express tragedy, the worst road fatality event our country has ever seen as his case study, Dr Christopher Walker, who calls himself a regulation and policy expert from UNSW Arts & Social Sciences, called for more regulatory reform in the truck industry based upon a disaster three decades ago on a notorious stretch of the Pacific Highway, long since widened and replaced in New South Wales. The sleep deprived driver of the semi that careened into the Sunliner bus was at the time found to have excessive amounts of the stimulant ephedrine in his system by the coroner. From that known fact Walker, ignoring the immense work that has gone on in the last few years in fatigue management, truck safety systems and Chain of Responsibility regulations postulates a circuit breaker is needed for an industry whose drivers he intimates are still half asleep and fuelled by drugs.

So that this doesn’t come off like cocktail hour policy made during small talk nibbles with colleagues who don’t work in for-profit industries, Walker insists he talks to drivers who he claims work up to 100 hour weeks, exceeding the legal limit of 72

hours over a seven day period.

“I’ve interviewed truck drivers, and they’ve said to me, ‘I’d get my pay in one hand, and my pills in the other’” he says, unaware the conversation, supposing it happened, might well have taken place in 1989 as well. This doesn’t prove he gets down in the trenches any more than he is aware that the majority of commercial vehicles that have clocked up one million kilometres are not working on interstate linehaul, as he contends, but are consigned to controlled environments like yards and local deliveries in regional areas.

While noting that the rate of fatalities have decreased by an inflated 53 deaths in 1989 with 21 alone in that one accident to 15 last year he notes the spike in deaths of 200 in 2019 without mentioning swollen increases in heavy vehicle registrations, vastly escalating truck movements nor the usurpation of a manufacturing economy with that of a consumer-driven one. These are all measurable real-world factors. In the three decades since that fateful early October morning outside Grafton, the truck industry has proven it can do better.

It has had to. Improved safety protocols, driver monitoring technology, education resources and fatigue management have transformed operational safety. It remains of paramount importance in an industry, as it was again this year, pushed to extremes. It’s time for the grandees at universities and political think tanks to show us they are more than the obedient lapdogs of the administrative state, whose findings are too closely aligned to where the funding can be found. It’s time they did better. Much better.

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PRIME NEWS

> Latest Volvo for Ron Finemore Transport marks milestone Leading freight specialist, Ron Finemore Transport (RFT) has taken delivery of a Volvo FH 540 — the company’s 300th.

This latest addition to the linehaul fleet, which provides both regional and intercapital transport services, was delivered by local dealer CMV Truck & Bus Albury/ Wodonga.

The new unit features Volvo’s Fuel Face technology. It consists of a number of efficiency focused hardware and software features as well as I-See terrain reading cruise control. As RFT operates across three divisions of Food, Produce & Manufactured Goods and Bulk Liquids, safety is its number one priority. That makes Volvo Trucks, for whom it has been aligned for several years, a natural fit.

According to CMV Truck & Bus General Manager Miles Crawford the sentiment in the long-lasting relationship retained through its close association with Ron Finemore Transport is incredibly important to his business.

“The total offer, the relationship and the ownership experience is something that lives long after the truck hits the road,” he said.

Each of the 300 prime movers delivered to Ron Finemore Transport over the

Laurie Brothers (RFT), Brian Withers (RFT), Ron Finemore (RFT), Brent Fuge (CMV Albury/Wodonga), Scott Finemore (RFT).

years has also supported numerous local suppliers within the area according to Brent Fuge, CMV Albury/Wodonga Sales Manager.

“They are a supporter of our local community with a presence on the national stage, and I’m extremely proud of our long standing partnership,” he said.

For Ron Finemore Transport however, local manufacturing and engineering only adds to the Volvo value proposition.

“The fact that these trucks are engineered and built here in Australia provides a level of agility and adaptability for our business,” said Mark Parry, RFT Managing Director.

Efficiency, reliability and driver

satisfaction are all key priorities for the RFT fleet.

“With our trucks hauling loads of food and fuel between centres such as Barnawartha, Wagga, ACT, Brisbane, Adelaide, Sydney and Melbourne, we need safe, reliable and fuel-efficient vehicles,” said Parry. “The extensive Volvo Group service network across Australia means vehicle downtime is kept to a minimum, allowing us to maintain the high level of service expected by our customers.

“This prime mover represents a partnership based on trust, support and innovation, and we look forward to this continuing into the future,” he said.

> Heavy Vehicle Simulator locked and loaded for SA’s South Eastern Freeway A new state-of-the-art training simulator designed to improve road safety in South Australia will soon be available to heavy vehicle operators. The Australian and South Australian governments have partnered with South Australian Road Transport Association (SARTA) to buy the HVSim and software package worth $450,000. According to Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development Michael McCormack the cutting-edge simulator will help existing and learner heavy vehicle drivers navigate the South Eastern Freeway descent, with a focus on improving safety behind the wheel.

“Truck drivers will undergo training and assessments in the simulator and there is scope for expanding the program to 10

de c e m be r 2020

cover other high-risk routes in South Australia and across the country,” he said in a statement. “The Australian Government takes road safety seriously because no family should have to endure the devastation caused by road crashes.

That is why we continue investing in critical initiatives to improve road safety to save lives and reduce road trauma, including across our heavy vehicle sector.”

The simulator is anticipated to assist research into driver behaviours. The Centre for Automotive Safety Research (CASR) will be given access to the simulator to conduct testing on proposed road designs.

In May 2019, the Marshall Liberal Government bolstered road safety

by delivering tougher penalties for irresponsible truck and bus drivers caught descending unsafely on the South Eastern Freeway. This followed a Coronial Inquest into two crashes in 2010 and 2014 involving out-of-control heavy vehicles that tragically resulted in lives lost and serious injuries.

Under the Heavy Vehicle Safety Initiative 2020 Grant program the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator (NHVR) allocated $350,000 for the technology. The South Australian Government would contribute a further $100,000 for the simulator to ensure heavy vehicle drivers were well prepared, South Australian Minister for Police, Emergency Services, Correctional Services and Road Safety Vincent Tarzia announced.

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> Last mile delivery group calls for hundreds of new owner drivers A sudden spike in home deliveries has prompted an Australian-owned company to go on a large scale recruitment drive. With new client partnerships locked in and further growth predicted, Australian-owned last mile delivery company ANC is calling for hundreds of new contractor owner drivers around the country.

It’s not just to meet demand for the Christmas rush.

ANC, which provides full-service last mile delivery, plus complex deliveries with assembly and installation, is preparing for an increase in deliveries of almost 50 per cent around Australia over the next three months — and they’re predicting further growth in 2021.

“ANC is growing, and we are looking for contractor drivers to grow with us,” said James Taylor ANC Managing Director.

“A continuing rise in deliveries throughout 2020 and a number of new client partners using our last mile services means we currently need at least 250 new owner drivers to help meet the increased demand. And unlike some organisations, we’ll be keeping our drivers beyond the festive season.”

During September, ANC experienced 58 per cent growth in delivery numbers compared with January. Some of the brands ANC works with have even experienced 700 per cent growth.

“COVID-19 has changed the consumer buying experience, with more people getting goods delivered,” said Taylor.

“We’ve seen a huge increase in whitegoods, such as fridges and freezers, plus desks and chairs from our furniture clients due to more people working from home. And in addition to the big and bulky items, consumers are having items delivered they would previously have picked up themselves.

“ANC specialises in the last mile customer experience. With more and more consumers purchasing online, our delivery professionals are the only 12

de c e m be r 2020

ANC is recruiting 250 new ownerdrivers to meet demand.

human interaction they will have with their purchase, which means it has to be a great experience. We provide specific training, leading-edge delivery technology and communication, in addition to a loyal team to support our contractor owner drivers. Their success is our success.”

Taylor said, while ANC needs drivers who specifically have commercial vehicles such as utes, vans and trucks, it also offers a ‘try before you buy’ option, whereby drivers can rent a vehicle through agencies like Budget to experience what it’s like working with ANC as an owner driver.

“We have been actively recruiting

since COVID-19 changed everything, welcoming onboard many people doing career transitions. To be a delivery professional with ANC you need an excellent driving record plus experience in customer service,” he added. “We have owner drivers joining us from various sectors including events, hospitality, the airline industry, removals, real estate; we even have a former stonemason who switched careers. The common themes are men and women wanting to secure their income in a people facing role, with the independence of being an owner driver with the backing of ANC – and not to be stuck behind a desk.”

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> Fenix Resources adds new prime movers for $360M Iron Ridge contract The road transport component of the Iron Ridge Project in Western Australia has been executed under contract by Fenix Resources. Prime movers and trailers for the project have already been ordered through Fenix Newhaul, the incoporated joint venture company established in May, 2019, to implement the strategic alliance between Fenix Resources and Craig Mitchell.

It is understood that the majority of the newly purchased commercial vehicles have been ordered from Volvo and Mack Trucks. Mitchell is the founder and former owner of Mitchell Corp, a major supplier of transport and logistics services to the mining industry in Western Australia.

Fenix Newhaul is 50 per cent owned by Fenix and 50 per cent owned by Newhaul Pty Ltd, an entity controlled by Mitchell.

Funding has been secured by Fenix Newhaul for the specialist equipment through an equipment manufacturer.

Additional funding for start-up costs and equipment deposits was sourced through shareholder loan facilitiesa and are estimated to be in the vicinity of $3.9 million. The contract is valued at around $360 million for the estimated six year life-of-mine, based on a terminal gate diesel price ex Geraldton of around $1.34 per litre bearing in mind the current diesel price at the time of writing is around $1.05.

In accordance with the current project development timeline, the project is scheduled to commence later this month. Road transport was quickly identified as the largest cost component for the commercialisation of Iron Ridge according to Fenix Managing Director Rob Brierley.

“We took an innovative approach to optimise this aspect and we strongly believe that the joint venture concept with Craig Mitchell has been the

right way to go,” he said in an issued statement. “Fenix Newhaul plan to commence operations with a mix of sub-contract and owned fleet and they are actively recruiting for personnel, with most of their employees to be Geraldtonbased.”

The terms of the contract are in line with the company’s feasibility study, announced on 4 November 2019. These are reportedly customary for contracts of this nature.

The flagship Iron Ridge Iron Ore Project is a premium DSO deposit. It hosts a JORC 2012 compliant resource located around 490 km by road from Geraldton port.

High grade iron ore attracts a premium price on the seaborne market as Chinese steel works increasingly demand more pure inputs with lower emissions due to increasingly strict government regulations.

> First ever F/A-18A Hornet transported by Hogans Heavy Haulage A pair of recently decommissioned F/A18A Hornets are set to take up residence at their new home at the Australian War Memorial. The first of which was moved with the assistance of Hogans Heavy Haulage from RAAF Base Williamstown to Canberra as part of a heritage display.

Prime Mover understands this is the first time one of these legendary aircraft has been transported in such a heavy haulage operation in country. Retired on 14 May, 2020, the F/A-18A Hornet A21-022 had completed 30 years of service and 6131.5 flying hours with the Royal Australian Air Force.

The aircraft, partially disassembled for transport, began its journey yesterday supervised on behalf of Simon National Carriers by Hogans Heavy Haulage which deployed a 685 horsepower Mack SuperLiner pulling a Tuff drop deck extendable trailer. Gross combination mass according to the office of the Australian Defence Minister weighed in at around 35 tonnes. Next month the aircraft will be 14

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The A21-022 F/A-18A Hornet is lowered onto a Tuff drop deck extendable.

reassembled at the Treloar Technology Centre by Boeing Defence Australia before an official handover ceremony to the Australian War Memorial planned in December.

Minister for Defence Industry Melissa Price said the arrival of the F/A-18A Hornet A21-022 was a major step in the preservation of Australian war history.

“This is a special aircraft for the RAAF,” said Price. “It employed the first Australian weapon on Operation Falconer

in 2003 and was also deployed on Operation Okra in 2016-2017.

“It is very fitting that it will now spend its next life on permanent display at the Australian War Memorial.

“This will be a fantastic opportunity for generations of Australians to view and appreciate example of Australian Air Force capability.”

The A21-022 was moved from RAAF Base Williamtown and arrived atTreloar Technology Centre in Canberra.

> Teletrac Navman launches Journey Planner Fleet management and transport solutions provider, Teletrac Navman, has released its next-generation Journey Planner, an advanced in-cabin navigation application which is available through the TN360. Journey Planner, according to Teletrac Navman, allows a transport operator to create routes for drivers including exact roads to follow, including any specific heavy vehicle infrastructure.

Paired with the SmartNav: Route application on the driver’s in-cab device that provides turn-by-turn navigation, the solution helps businesses meet contract requirements, specific company or customer safety requirements, permit conditions, vehicle standards or load compliance.

“Our Journey Planner tool is a major step up from traditional navigation software, which is not designed to keep drivers on a prescribed route,” said Teletrac Navman Chief Product Officer, Andrew Rossington. “Traditional software often redirects drivers to a route that is not desirable, causing compliance or safety issues when truck drivers are sent onto light vehicle only routes or across protected infrastructure.

“We design technology with the aim of solving everyday issues for transporters — it’s a direct response to what our customers are asking for,” he said. “This level of control is going to make operations smoother and more productive for busy transport operators.”

When considering loads that transport operators undertake, such as hazardous substances or valuable goods, planning the exact path the driver can take ahead of time helps to ensure a safe trip. With the Journey Planner tool, operators can take into consideration contractual agreements, vehicle considerations, road considerations, infrastructure (such as bridges and tunnels), and permits when building journeys. A driver can be deviated from the route due to a range of obstacles, road closures, accidents

Planning the exact path for the driver will help carriers who move hazardous and valuable goods.

and road works. The SmartNav: Route application, which displays the route on the driver device, will notify drivers if they leave a designated route and automatically redirect the driver back to the planned journey via the safest and most compliant roads. It will simultaneously alert the back-office.

This gives the business the assurance that they will meet contractual requirements and keep driver safety front of mind for each and every job.

With the Journey Planner tool, a transport operator can provide more accurate quotes based on a chosen route and get a more complete picture of the planned versus actual task to assist in driving efficiencies. They

can also better plan driver schedules with more precise route timing. The additional level of precision can help the business to become more competitive and efficient. Journey Planner and TN360 provides the tools to meet compliance and contractual requirements, making the transport task safer and more efficient for both drivers and operators.

Teletrac Navman’s Journey Planner tool – and matching SmartNav: Route application for the in-cab device – is now available in Australia. Last year, GPS tracking technology came to the rescue for Global Utility Construction (GUC) following the theft of a vehicle in Sydney and subsequent police chase. p r i m em over m a g . c o m . a u

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PRIME NEWS

> Northern Territory dealership joins Elite Daimler dealers Elite Support certification has been bestowed upon a second RGM-aligned facility. It was announced last month that RGM Darwin has become the latest Daimler Trucks dealer to achieve certification after it implemented a raft of improvements over a 13-month period in order to meet the 129 criteria that are required for become a Daimler Elite Support dealer.

It follows sister site Townsville as the second RGM dealer to make the grade.

“The changes we have made along the path to Elite Support certification have already delivered improvements in both the experience of our customers and our staff,” said RGM Darwin Dealership Principal Shaymus Frewen. “We have had many comments from our customers, so the changes are certainly being noticed.”

The adoption of the Express Assessment commitment, which requires that within two hours of a truck arriving at the dealership, the dealer will communicate primary diagnosis, check parts availability, and provide an estimate of cost and repair time, has been particularly appreciated by customers.

“What it means is that we are calling them before they call us,” said Frewen.

According to RGM Maintenance Director Russell Newman, the Elite Support certification process has delivered a range of benefits.

“RGM Maintenance has always been focused on the customer, so we quickly embraced the Elite Support initiative and the framework it provides to further improve the customer experience,” he said. “The end result is a better

experience for the customer and a better business for us.”

In order to qualify for Elite Support certification, dealers must meet stringent criteria based around consistent communication, robust parts availability and range of other measures designed to deliver a premium in-dealership experience. Elite Support was introduced by Daimler Truck and Bus in partnership with its dealership network and many of the Elite Support certified dealers across the country attribute involvement in the initiative as improving their customer satisfaction levels and helping them run better businesses.

There are now nine Daimler Trucks dealerships with Elite Support certification across Australia and New Zealand, with many more in process of achieving certification.

> Coalition threatens boycott of ANZ over emissions policies The controversial decision by ANZ Bank to bring its lending policies in line with emissions reporting has been met with opposition by the Coalition Government.

Last month’s announcement that it would impose emissions reporting on a range of lenders including farmers, builders, transport and energy sectors as condition of lending saw ANZ in the crosshairs of Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack who called the decision “sheer virtue-signalling.”

Taking the extraordinary step of urging a boycott of ANZ, senior ministers of the Federal Government including Minister for Agriculture, David Littleproud, threatened interventions to banks that factored in the impacts of climate change in their lending decisions.

“Regional Australians should reconsider using banks that impose crippling new carbon targets and penalties on Australian farming families and industries,” said Littleproud.

“The Nationals will review every policy leaver at the federal government’s disposal – including the availability of deposit guarantees – to protect Australian 16

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farmers from these sorts of arbitrary boardroom ideological agendas,” he said.

Considered one of the big four banks in Australia, ANZ has, upon updating its climate change statement, committed to working with its 100 largest industry customers to ensure that they had sufficient zero emission transition plans in place. This was part of its overarching goal to reduce emissions footprint in the sectors it had provided. Essential services such as food and beverage were also in the gun as the bank made it clear it would move away from customers “that do not have clear and public transition plans.”

These industries, noted the Deputy Prime Minister, were those which produced food, provided shelter, transported goods and gave working families lights at home.

“With many farming families experiencing one of their best seasons in recent memory, the banking sector’s entire focus should be on supporting our agricultural producers, not adding an extra layer of administration,” he said. “Our farmers are the most productive in the world, producing enough food to feed 75 million people globally. Transport, fertiliser and

fuel companies snared by these new rules could have no choice but to pass on costs along the agricultural supply chain, only to have farmers pick up the bill at the end.

Under these plans ANZ would fall in line with other financial institutions which have agreed to stop funding to new coal mines or coal power stations. ANZ also said that it would only look to provide finance to new renewable energy projects and low carbon gas projects, with the aim of reducing the carbon intensity of its lending exposures. Imposing largely Eurocentric standards to satisfy shareholder activists while the nation recovers from a global pandemic is grossly unfair according to McCormack.

“This is a complete over-reaction given Australia has beaten its Kyoto-era targets by up to 430 million tonnes and our emissions are now more than 14 per cent below 2005 levels,” he said.

“The Nationals will always support a competitive banking sector and encourage banking customers to consider lending options which best suit their sector and its costs and needs.”

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PRIME NEWS

> Border Express triples capacity at new Brisbane facility Express freight company, Border Express, has commissioned a new facility at Underwood on Brisbane’s south side with around three times the capacity of its previous premises at Richlands. Located at a former Australia Post site, the new Border Express facility has been developed to cater for the increased demand for the company’s services, particularly in eCommerce, across the Sunshine State.

“This certainly is a significant step forward for our Queensland operations, said Border Express CEO, Mostafa Kassaby. “The new facility is three times the size of our previous site at Richlands and will give us significant leverage in our future planning. It will also enable us to cement our space in the Brisbane and greater Queensland network and maintain the high levels of service for which the company is renowned.”

Kassaby said the old site at Richlands had been outgrown for some time and that the company had been searching for a suitable replacement when the exAus Post site came up for sale.

“We were pleased to be able to secure a site that already had many of the features we wanted including inground

fuel tanks, truckwash, office and hardstand space — it accommodated us like a glove,” said Kassaby.

That said, Kassaby noted that the company had spent a considerable sum in redeveloping the site to suit its needs, particularly in relation to the interior of the facility.

“Being in a new facility with room to grow into the future is one important factor, along with improving our service levels through a number of key initiatives in our new service platform,” he said. “We now have the ability to release those new services because we don’t have the capacity constraints.

This gives us the capability to grow in the space where we need to grow in Queensland.”

Reinforcing the comments of Kassaby, Border Express COO, Ozan Kara, said the company has experienced upwards of 50 per cent growth in the last three years and that the new Underwood facility was step one in a three-step infrastructure and expansion project.

“Brisbane was a real bottleneck for us, so the beauty of this facility is that it has tripled our capacity and gives us speed to market and greater access

to regional and in particular north Queensland,” said Kara. “Another thing we’re very proud of is the amount of local jobs that have been created and will continue to be created due to the establishment of our new facility at Underwood; not only throughout the project phase with tradespeople coming in and out but also due to the growth in the business that will create long-term employment opportunities.”

Kara said the company had employed more than 70 additional staff members at the new facility compared with the previous site in positions as diverse as truck driving, freight handling, administration, workshop and truck wash.

On top of this, Kassaby said, there will be opportunities for a raft of subcontractors from a local perspective, using a range of different sized vehicles from one-tonne vans to heavy-rigid trucks.

“Our substantial growth through the COVID period, particularly in eCommerce, means we will need to fill a significant number of positions in both company-employed and subcontractor roles,” he said.

The Underwood facility has allowed Border Express to employ 70 new staff.

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> Woolworths transforms transport business Supermarket company, Woolworths, has rebranded its internal supply chain function to Primary Connect as part of its evolution into an end-to-end service provider for the Woolworths Group retail business. This move follows a proposed separation of Endeavour Group from the Woolworths Group. Primary Connect, as a result, has become a fullservice supply chain service provider to liquor supermarket chains BWS and Dan Murphy’s.

“Establishing the Primary Connect platform is a key step in our ambition to build Australia’s next generation supply chain,” said Primary Connect Managing Director, Paul Graham.

“We run the largest and most distributed retail supply chain network in Australia. This size and scale provides us with a unique opportunity to deliver a lot of value to business partners both within our group and beyond.

“But it’s not enough to have a bestin-class network. To be successful in growing the platform, we need to deliver world-class customer service and build on our digital offering to deliver safer and smarter supply chain solutions for partners. We’ve never been better placed to do so,” he said.

Woolworths’ existing Primary Connect transport business is reported to service more than 1,000 external customers,

Primary Connect last financial year moved 8.4 million pallets across 4,000 locations.

including Ingham’s, Kimberly-Clark, Marley Spoon and Diageo. All team members within Woolworths Group Supply Chain will now form part of the expanded Primary Connect team.

Primary Connect’s transport business works with more than 70 trusted carrier partners to optimise freight movements and improve utilisation across its endto-end network.

In FY2020, Primary Connect moved more than 8.4 million pallets across 4,000 locations for more than 1,000 suppliers with high service levels.

Tasmanian-based salad grower Houston’s Farm has been a Primary Connect transport customer since 2017.

Primary Connect transports bagged salads and ready to eat salad bowls from Houston’s Farm’s Tasmanian, Western Australian, South Australian and Queensland processing facilities to Woolworths distribution centres across

Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth and Launceston. The salads are stocked in all Woolworths supermarkets and replenished daily.

“Primary Connect is a premium supply chain service provider with a vision similar to our own,” said Houston’s Farm CEO, Richard Hopkins. “We’ve established a close working relationship with them over the years and are able to share and implement ideas to improve our offering for customers.

“Working with Primary Connect has made transport and logistics much simpler for us to manage, and allowed us to focus on what we do best – growing the best quality fresh produce for Australian families,” he said.

Woolworths said in a statement there are no changes to the existing Supply Chain management team and Primary Connect will remain a key part of the Woolworths Group.

GLOB AL NEWS

> Unique Freightliner Cascadia promised through Waymo partnership Autonomous driving technology company, Waymo, has committed to a global strategic partnership to deploy autonomous SAE L4 technology with Daimler Trucks. Under the arrangement the initial effort will combine Waymo’s industry-leading automated driver technology with what is being described as a unique version of Daimler’s Freightliner Cascadia, to enable autonomous driving.

The autonomous Freightliner Cascadia truck, equipped with the Waymo Driver, will be available to customers in the US in the coming years. Waymo and Daimler Trucks have confirmed that they will investigate expansion into other markets and brands in the near future. Waymo brings over a decade of experience building the World’s Most Experienced Driver, having driven over 20 million miles on public roads across 25 US cities and 15 billion miles in simulation.

Daimler Trucks North America, Daimler Trucks’ US subsidiary, parent company

of the Freightliner brand and the US market leader in commercial vehicle manufacturing, provides their experience in developing state-of-the art Class 8 vehicles. Both Waymo and Daimler Trucks share the common goal of improving road safety and efficiency for fleet customers.

Martin Daum, Chairman of the Board of Management of Daimler Truck AG said his company was an industry leader in pioneering automated trucking.

“In recent years, we have achieved significant progress on our global roadmap to bringing series-produced highly automated trucks to the road,” he said. “With our strategic partnership with Waymo as the leader in autonomous driving, we are taking another important step towards that goal. This partnership complements Daimler Trucks’ dual strategy approach, of working with two strong partners to deliver autonomous L4 solutions that are seamlessly integrated with our best-in class trucks, to our customers.”

In a statement President and CEO of Daimler Trucks North America Roger Nielsen said the combination of increased road freight volumes and the need and vision of fleet operators for highly automated trucks, is what fuels Freightliner’s relentless pursuit of innovation.

“We are pushing engineering solutions that strive above all to increase safety and help our customers improve business efficiencies. Based on our collaboration with Waymo, we will be in the unique position to be able to provide our fleet customers with a choice among the best solutions for their individual requirements,” he said.

Waymo CEO John Krafcik said he had the highest regard for Daimler’s engineering skills and broad global truck product portfolio.

“We look forward to scaling the Waymo Driver, together with our new partner, to improve road safety and logistics efficiency on the world’s roadways,” he said.

> Traton and Hino renew strategic partnership Hino and Traton will team up to shorten lead times on e-mobility products.

A joint venture has been agreed to by Hino Motors and Volkswagen’s heavy truck division Traton SE. The two companies will partner on a plan for e-mobility products to offer customers the highest value per Traton the parent company of both Scania and MAN. Drawing on their unique strengths, Traton and Hino have committed to developing electric vehicles including battery electric vehicles (BEV), fuel cell vehicles (FCV), and 20

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relevant components as well as creating common EV platforms including software and interfaces.

A team of advanced specialists from both companies are going to be formed to launch activities in Södertälje (Sweden) and in a second step in Tokyo (Japan).

Early reports suggest Traton and Hino will team up to shorten lead times for future e-mobility products with battery and fuel cell technology. The two companies are convinced that both technologies will be needed in the future.

“I am delighted that we can follow our procurement joint venture and further embodying our synergy with TRATON in e-mobility, helping to reduce global CO2 emissions and fighting global warming,” said Yoshio Shimo, Hino Motors President & CEO. “We will combine our strengths as leading commercial vehicle manufacturers to offer EVs with the highest value for customers, through joint planning of commercial EVs.”

The mission of Traton is to carefully balance the interests of People, Planet and Performance according to Matthias Gründler Traton Group CEO. “This new joint venture with our strong partner Hino is the next important step in electrification, pushing our mission further ahead,” he said.

The goal of Traton Group is to invest 1 billion Euros in R&D and production of electrification before 2025. Back in 2018, Hino and Traton signed an agreement, aiming for a mutually beneficial strategic long-term partnership.

Based on their shared principle of offering customers the highest value possible, they established a procurement joint venture in 2019, and have now solidified their collaboration in e-mobility. According to a media statement both companies have agreed to explore each other’s capabilities and investigate further possibilities to collaborate in other future fields of technology.

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THE FUTURE IS HERE, AND FASTER THAN EXPECTED Always changing, global sharemarkets have undergone an accelerated rate of change during the pandemic to reflect the changing habits of workers and consumers.

W

hen COVID began surging through the Australian and international economy the economic carnage was tangible. During the early weeks of the pandemic we witnessed scenes not seen in decades. Unemployment queues snaked around city blocks.

We all know someone who subsequently lost work or whose business has collapsed. Once JobKeeper ends, unemployment is projected to peak at eight per cent. And of course, this is foremost a health crisis.

So how then can we explain the postpandemic stockmarket surge?

Since late April, the ASX200 has risen 13 per cent. In the US the Dow Jones Industrial Average is up even more, 14.5 per cent. Some of this is simply clawing back losses from the depth of the sharemarket panic and loses. In March and April, nobody could tell how bad this virus would get. Markets hate uncertainty.

Part of the answer lies in the historically cheap cost of borrowing. Over the past decade, the world has been increasingly awash with cheap cash. Both the cash rate and bank funding costs have more

than halved, from a little over four per cent to well below two per cent.

As anyone who has recently refinanced their mortgage can attest, it has never been cheaper to borrow. For stockmarket investors, the return on that borrowing – the yield – need not be as high as it once was to justify the decision to invest.

In turn this means there are more investment dollars chasing the same shares, which fuels upward lifts in share prices.

But another more interesting dynamic is at work.

Global sharemarkets are always changing, the rate of change has accelerated in the pandemic. For example, the global share markets (represented by the MSCI World Index) has changed dramatically. This time last year, financials made up about 17 per cent of global stockmarkets. But that is shrinking quickly as bank margins are compressed by lower interest rates and banks face the prospect of rising default rates. At the same time, disruptive technology stocks such as Apple, Alphabet (Google), Facebook, Netflix, Microsoft and Tesla are soaring.

These six stocks alone now account for

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15 per cent of the market capitalisation of the developed world markets, and the IT sector now accounts for 22 per cent.

Lockdowns and other restrictions on our movement have accelerated this trend. Mortgage repayments are cheaper than ever. And while confined to our homes, we are ploughing at least some of those savings into streaming movies and television programs on Netflix or YouTube. With many of us still working from home, perhaps for some time to come, demand for new computer hardware and software is also soaring.

Technologies that bring the world to the home are the winners.

This shift away from finance is also happening on the Australian market though it isn’t as pronounced given the small size of our tech sector.

What all this points to is an accelerated trend towards companies that reflect a new

economy. The winners have surged, lifting the overall indices while more traditional sectors such as finance and industrial have not had the same trajectory.

What we are seeing is a fundamental shift in society through a leap forward in technologies and their acceptance, which is likely to persist long after the pandemic has receded.

At TWUSUPER, our Chief Investment Officer Edward Smith is leading a review of our investing approach in the light of a changing world and emerging risks and opportunities.

Alignment of our goals with people in transport and their better futures is core. We believe that our smaller scale compared to the largest funds will enable us to take on niche investment opportunities and to be more agile.

The pandemic has also provided an opportunity for us to manage our

investment costs. Our latest Product Disclosure Statement shows that for the average $50,000 account this has resulted in an annual saving of approximately $91.

We expect to announce further substantial savings early in the new year.

We felt great pride this year that people in transport were finally recognised by the public for what they do every day.

Heck, even the term ‘supply chains’ or availability of food for drivers between Melbourne and Sydney was discussed positively in the media.

Changing times are a great catalyst for renewal and my view is that although it’s been an awful year in many respects, we will learn a great deal from it. I am looking forward to 2020 and being able to share more about our investing strategies and alignment with the people that keep Australia moving — your people. p r i m em over m a g . c o m . a u

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COVER STORY

MOVE ON 24

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UP

Isuzu NPR 45-150 pantech is the model of choice across the business.

A small Queensland business started by two acquaintances has gone on to become an essential service on the eastern seaboard in which Isuzu commercial vehicles account for a majority of its growing fleet.

I

nterwoven through the short history of Mobile Truck Rental, a Brisbane based transport company that specialises in one-way rentals, is an understanding that its approach to service should be reciprocated by its commercial partners. To that degree there is an ongoing expectation that they receive what they themselves work hard to offer customers: reliability, flexibility and safety.

Directors Travis Werry and Simon Schekoske started out with a singleminded plan for a business they have continued to build despite the obvious challenges involved in running a company whose model, at least in part, requires that they have access to state borders, regularly. While the decisions of some state governments have engendered criticism for lack of foresight p r i m em over m a g . c o m . a u

25

COVER STORY

Travis Werry and Simon Schekoske.

“We will drop off the truck as a one-way rental pretty much down the entire east coast of Australia. We’ve found the one size truck helps us in terms of servicing and parts while it fits with our target market of mums and dads moving house.”

Travis Werry Mobile Truck Rental Director

with regards to border movements this year, Mobile Truck Rental not unlike many businesses, has had to refocus its energy to those parts of the business it can control. Expanding into other areas, at least temporarily, is on pause as it commits to improving the service and customer experience in those regions it has in recent years developed a presence.

With its national fleet now surpassing 100 light duty trucks, Mobile Truck Rental 26

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runs all three major Japanese brands, however, a growing commitment to Isuzu over the last 18 months constitutes over 75 per cent of the mobile assets including four newly acquired NPR 45-150 pantechs — its preferred vehicle of choice.

The customer portfolio encompasses people who run events businesses, stage display homes, set up pop up stalls at supermarkets and even exotic animals, should you need to transport a sealion

to Sea World, as was the nature of a more recent enquiry. Furniture removals, however, involving customers moving home do comprise the bulk of the demand the company receives.

Although the business caters for long term rentals and truck leases, their niche and specialty is offering the one size of truck aimed at car licence customers. The NPR 45-150 offers, among its chief selling points, ease of function, an important consideration when you entrust customers with your mobile assets and they in turn count on you for their safety.

In addition to ease of use and safety, the vehicles must be at once reliable and durable given they will be driven all over the country. Long trips such as Atherton to Maryborough in central Queensland are not unusual.

The vehicles are spread between branches in Melbourne, Sydney, Gold Coast,

Brisbane, Ipswich, Townsville and Cairns.

The aim of Mobile Truck Rental is to provide a variation on the truck rental model. With that in mind the business delivers the truck to the customer as part of its service.

“It’s a little different to the norm,” says Travis. “We will drop off the truck as a one-way rental pretty much down the entire east coast of Australia. We’ve found the one size truck helps us in terms of servicing and parts while it fits with our target market of mums and dads moving house.”

The company offers a one-way service to almost anywhere on the eastern seaboard.

Interstate movements such as Port Douglas to Geelong or from Albury to Bundaberg going in the other direction, border restrictions permitting, are not out of the question.

Indeed border lockdowns have been a

challenge for many businesses including theirs. In light of an enormous revision of population growth in Victoria, the state worst-hit by the globally recognised pandemic, it will have 400,000 fewer people by next year. Federal Treasury has since the budget was handed down downgraded the state’s migration estimates from a forecast 16,800 increase to negative 1200 this year. That will no doubt spill into home removals. But for now the possibility of leaving has been discouraged by having to quarantine for weeks once entering another state, a burden many families leaving economic ruin cannot afford. It’s understandable that these conditions have decreased one-way rentals for Mobile Truck Rental although they have managed to offset it by concentrating on intrastate movements.

“It was to be expected that we would be impacted by much less activity with interstate travel. But people still need to move house and that’s happening for us in Queensland. It hasn’t been the busiest year in the Melbourne area. Other areas have bounced back relatively well,” says Travis. “I feel the border closures have affected what we do to a certain extent regarding one-way rentals. But we haven’t put all our eggs in one basket. We do what we can. We try to give the best advice as possible to our clients. We try and help them mitigate issues to the best of our knowledge.”

Recalibrating operations to focus more on local markets has been a successful strategy in helping to increase business that balances out any likely losses of revenue in other areas. With the arrival of four new Isuzu NPR 45-150 pantechs, Mobile Truck Rental will continue on its trajectory of phasing out the remaining Japanese brands on its books. Two years ago the company changed to non diesel particulate filters (DPF) to avoid associated issues.

“Getting away from DPF was a major selling point for this truck,” says Travis.

“Also, increasing the term of the warranty to five years as part of our purchasing has helped to no end.”

Where possible the business looks to turnover its vehicles every 250,000 kilometres. That averages out to around four to five years in the service life.

Truck road side assist needs to improve over all three brands to the point it is comparable to the roadside assist associated with passenger cars according to Travis. It was another reason to credit Isuzu with a superior offering.

“To judge from all the major brands we have used Isuzu has the best road side assist program and aftersales service,” he says. “We’re running a service business.

If we encounter an issue with any of the vehicles we just want it sorted.

Generally speaking there needs to be less loopholes and more accountability.

In our previous experience, too many

Reservation Team Member Dean Meiers.

p r i m em over m a g . c o m . a u

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COVER STORY

All trucks come with a tailgate lift and can be driven on a car licence.

people want to offshoot responsibility.”

Having initially tried a more committed approach to all three light duty brands, Isuzu came out ahead. It helps that the directors at Mobile Truck Rental think they are the most aesthetically pleasing to look at along with meeting other key performance criteria. Brand awareness in the marketplace, another area Isuzu is a leader, is also a significant factor as it makes a better case for resale. They originally started with the Isuzu NNR Series and have graduated to the newer NPR Series which, given it is tailored to a host of different vocational activities, broadens their customer base.

“We get a lot of people including cabinet makers, couriers and businesses that need to ferry goods,” says Travis. “If there are sales on at the likes of Good Guys or Harvey Norman these retailers will use our services. Their market fluctuates depending on the time of year. If they decide that they need to move more product then we’re a good fit because their drivers are mostly car licenced 28

de c e m be r 2020

“The trucks are designed for common usage. They might not suit everyone but they will tick the boxes for the biggest percentage of clients out there when they need something to move things.”

Travis Werry Mobile Truck Rental Director

drivers and they need a tailgate lift which all our trucks come with. The trucks are designed for common usage. They might not suit everyone but they will tick the boxes for the biggest percentage of clients out there when they need something to move things at short notice.”

The benefits of keeping the fleet modern are myriad according to Simon Schekoske. He acknowledges the trucks can easily handle another 250,000 kilometres at what he has confidence would amount to being a 90 per cent standard of reliability. But that isn’t the objective of the business.

“Our goal is to ensure the equipment is at the highest benchmark and we’ve got

to keep in mind the customer as well,” says Simon. “If someone is jumping in a truck in Port Douglas and looking to go as far as Geelong or even Adelaide you don’t want to be embarking on a 3,000 kilometre journey in a truck that has already clocked 300,000 plus kilometres on it. You want something modern. We want to give the customer something as new as possible.”

In addition to the benefits of keeping a modern fleet regarding maintenance, warranty and reliability, it’s crucial the business provides a new vehicle to the rental customer who may not be used to driving a small truck.

“Because of the delivery aspect of the

Head office is based in the Brisbane suburb of Zillmere.

business we want our service to be top notch. In this market space we want it to be as high as possible,” says Travis. “So, within reason, we want to keep the fleet as modern as possible.

We want to be a five star truck rental business if there is such a thing.”

As directors in their mid-30s, both Simon and Travis are still relatively young. Company growth has been swift, predicated on smart investments and customer satisfaction. The fleet expanded to 20 odd light commercial vehicles inside the first year of business with a plan to grow it to 30 units after 15 months. This goal was achieved along with opening up in new areas. They’re hoping to expand into Mackay, Newcastle and Canberra next year. For the moment those plans are on hold. Much is pending government restrictions as to workable and adult economic policies regarding approaches to COVID-19 next year.

“Ideally we’d like to get two of those proposed sites opened,” says Travis. “Shutting borders is hurting more than just tourism which the media likes to harp on about. But there’s many other businesses suffering as well across key industry. We’re one country. We should be opening up.”

For that brief period Queensland eased border restrictions earlier in the year Mobile Truck Rental saw a tangible spike in activity. It was yet another reminder the business is on the right track.

“It was hell for leather there for a time,” says Travis. “People have responded well. They like the service and have really taken to the model we are exploring.” p r i m em over m a g . c o m . a u

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FLEET FOCUS

LEGEN HAUL OF THE

Sharing parallels to the Trojan horse of Greek mythology, Trojan Freight, a versatile Newcastle-based company, contains multitudes.

P

aul Bennet is adept at running his three diverse businesses involving road freight, fibreglass supplies and aviation. A boat builder and shipwright by trade Paul moved from the Taree area on the New South Wales mid-north coast to Newcastle where a friend was involved in the business which was to eventually become Trojan Fibreglass. Paul ran the business for a while before deciding to purchase it himself.

Trojan Fibreglass manufactures resins and composite materials for fibreglassbased industries such as boats, spas and swimming pools. Paul extended into the road transport business essentially due to necessity. Trojan Fibreglass was using a local freight operator but ultimately that company couldn’t keep up with Trojan’s increasing needs, and as much of the freight associated with Trojan Fibreglass is in various categories of Dangerous Goods, it was essential that every piece of licencing was always in place.

“We were virtually pushed into transport because other people didn’t do a great job,” he says. “It was decided we might as well get our own truck so we don’t let the 30

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customers down.”

So it began. Paul and one other driver with a rigid pantech. As the fibreglass business grew further a second truck was added, this one a twin-steer to accommodate additional payload to ensure the products were getting to the customers.

“Then we thought we might as well get a semi because we were making too many trips with the rigids,” he says. “At the time we were using other carriers to bring our containers up from Sydney so we might as well do that ourselves, too.”

Initially, a third party carrier was used to pick up Trojan’s containers from the port in Sydney and Trojan would collect them with their own sideloader, returning the empty container to the other carrier’s depot once they were unpacked.

“We thought: ‘what’s the point of getting someone else to get them off the wharf?’

We may as well pick them up ourselves, so we obtained a skel, and then that led to more drivers and more trailers and more trucks,” he recalls. “We started doing some freight for other people and we ended up with numerous freight forwarders as clients who wanted us to do

their freight because they were unhappy with their existing freight providers.”

The Trojan prime mover fleet today consists of two Kenworth K108s and four K200s, with the most recently delivered K200 unit destined for A-double duties.

Paul considered a bonneted Kenworth T610 but ultimately stayed with the cab over model due to its abilities when manoeuvring in the tight situations often involved in container operations.

“I’ve always had Kenworth prime movers and all have been bought through the Gilbert and Roach dealership here in Newcastle because I try to do the right thing by local businesses,” he says.

Not unlike other container carriers, Paul has experienced frustration with the situation at the Sydney empty container parks during 2020. As the void between Australian imports and exports widens the build-up of empty containers has led to excessive amounts of time lost in queues, plus often difficult access or redirections at late notice all of which lead to additional costs.

The third, and most spectacular, division of the Paul Bennet Group is related to aviation. Paul has converted

DS

One of the new Kenworth K200s in operation at Trojan Freight. p r i m em over m a g . c o m . a u

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FLEET FOCUS

his boyhood obsession with model aeroplanes and flying into a career that has him recognised as a champion stunt pilot internationally, through to putting on airshows throughout Australia and Asia at the controls of one of his 400 horsepower stunt bi-planes or historic ‘warbirds’.

Paul’s father was a non-commercial pilot and after being exposed to flying at a young age Paul’s goal was always to perform aerobatics as he wasn’t necessarily interested in flying from A to B. After being taught the skills for aerobatics Paul became successful in competition, advancing to the highest

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grading. It was a natural progression for him to establish a flying school as well as the Aero Hunter flight experience operation for passengers who want to experience stunt flying or military style aircraft for themselves.

“We set this business up to do airshows and provide the complete package to promoters and aero clubs. I used to just turn up with one aeroplane but now we organise the whole show with a package of up to ten aeroplanes. We handle the paperwork, ticketing, and advertising and promotion.”

Now with 18 aeroplanes at his disposal, Paul also flies custom built stunt

aeroplanes and a Wirraway which was built for the Australian military during World War II, and is one of only three left flying in the world. He also flies several ‘warbirds’ for other collectors including a Mustang and a Kittyhawk with their raucous V12 engines.

“They’re sort of heavy but have plenty of power and a pretty cool sound and can be more fun than driving a Kenworth.

It always changes when a hobby turns into a job, but I still get a thrill flying and I’ve been missing it a bit lately and am looking forward to the Hunter Valley Airshow next March,” he says.

The absence of domestic and

Paul Bennet.

international airshows due to the COVID situation during 2020 has led to Paul having the time to concentrate on the road freight operation, culminating in the introduction of an A-double combination expressly for the Sydney Port - Newcastle route. The approval process was set in motion a year previously and Paul says it was relatively straight forward as other carriers had already gone through the necessary steps.

“While we’ve had this year in turmoil it’s been good to get the A-double project rolling along. The A-double obviously brings with it a degree of flexibility All trucks and trailers including a set of new A-doubles are licenced for Dangerous Goods.

and its weight capability of 85 tonnes against the 64 tonnes with a B-double will suit the high number of heavy containers we move. The only downside of an A-double is they are hard to back in and you can’t just go wherever you want. With a B-double there are many approved routes these days and you can almost go anywhere you want and drop a trailer and go back out to do another delivery and come back. It’s not that big of a deal.”

Trojan Freight transports quite a few containers into the Gosford area which usually involves uncoupling trailers before each delivery. Its services include dangerous goods warehousing, unpacking containers for local customers and then distributing the clients’ freight items to various locations. Trojan’s expertise in packing and transporting aircraft both within Australia and overseas has become recognised and has shown potential for further growth.

All trucks and trailers are Dangerous Goods licenced, as are the drivers. A selection of sideloaders, skels, drop decks, flat tops and curtainsiders are available including for over-dimension jobs. Wharf and container work can be hard on trailers so inspection and maintenance is paramount in ensuring reliability and safety.

Paul applies similar standards of ensuring compliance to his transport operations as he does to his aviation equipment and the trucks are audited every couple of weeks to make sure everything still complies.

“It’s a matter of reading the legislation and making sure we comply. We have to be diligent on the factory side as well where everything has to be DG approved, plus we hold an EPA licence,” he explains. “None of it is easy but it all works together.”

Once airshow activity returns Paul will probably phase himself out of driving but is likely to continue to drive one or two trips a week.

“I’ll probably do a few loads in the A-double and make sure everything is right and then I’ll hand that over to one of our drivers,” he says.

The ‘Trojan’ name associated with Paul’s businesses including the road transport division was influenced by the T28 Trojan aeroplane which Paul coveted in his early years and was eventually able to add one to his fleet.

While most people would be satisfied with a successful involvement in one niche industry, Paul Bennet continues to prove that three diverse, yet surprisingly complementary operations can be pursued as well. p r i m em over m a g . c o m . a u

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FLEET FOCUS

AUTOM FOR THE

PEOPLE

Hino 300 and 500 Series are fitted with 2-pallet to 16-pallet bodies across the fleet.

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ATIC

Since opening its first branch in Brisbane 28 years ago, Bidfood Australia has achieved significant growth and become a major national player in the food service industry. From the beginning, the company has relied upon Hino trucks as the predominant brand in the fleet.

F

rom the outset Bidfood has partnered with Hino as a onestop-shop supplying fully built trucks to its branches all over Australia. As a result, the company is able to leave most its vehicle needs in the capable hands of Hino while concentrating on maintaining the highest levels of customer service for its valued clients.

Indeed, a major determining factor in the success of any business is customer service. Get it right and the business is likely to grow; get it wrong and very soon the competition will be eating into market share, jeopardising the very viability of the company.

In the case of Bidfood, getting it right has seen the company flourish from a single branch in Brisbane 28 years ago to a national operation comprising 43 sites covering every state and territory in Australia.

Bidfood, formerly known as Bidvest Foodservice, was originally part of Bidvest Group Limited, a South African services, trading, and distribution company founded in 1988 by Brian Joffe and listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange in 1990. In 2017 the Bidcorp Group was formed focusing solely on the foodservice industry and commenced trading under the new name of Bidfood, after it was listed independently on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange in 2016.

As such, Bidfood Australia has grown

to become a pre-eminent out-of-home food service provider to the likes of cafes, pubs, clubs, restaurants, mine sites and hospitals. Today, the company has well in excess of 30,000 customers across the nation.

According to Grant Fairlie, who has been General Manager Procurement and Marketing of Bidfood for the past nine years, the original manager of the business started out using Hino trucks and the company has continued using the brand ever since.

“It has always been about reliability, reputation and service – and Hino delivers on all these points in spades,” Grant says – adding that the company operates a variety of different sizes from the 300 Series and 500 Series ranges, fitted with refrigerated van bodies in sizes ranging from two-pallet to 16-pallet.

In fact, according to Grant, Bidfood has over 250 Hino vehicles on the road across Australia, with the number of different roles almost matching the different sizes of vehicles employed.

“Some do longer interstate runs or to smaller regional branches which can include overnight stops, while others are running around metro areas delivering to local restaurants, pubs and clubs,” he says.

Interestingly, in addition to company drivers, Bidfood also engages a significant number of subcontractors. p r i m em over m a g . c o m . a u

35

FLEET FOCUS

Bidfood Richlands General Manager Duncan Alderson with Operations Manager Stephen Tomlinson.

According to Grant, while these are free to use whatever brand they prefer, many choose to buy Hino, deeming it the ideal unit for the task and at the same time blending nicely with the companyowned trucks.

When it comes to maintenance, Grant says while some of the larger branches have workshops where servicing and minor repairs are performed, as a rule relevant Hino dealerships or authorised Hino specialists across the country are relied upon for this essential service.

Thus, keeping the machinery in tip-top condition for as long as possible, it’s not surprising that many of the Hinos in Bidfood’s fleet are between five and ten years old and still going strong, testament to the longevity of the Japanese brand when driven and maintained optimally.

That said, Grant maintains, the company purchases between 60 and 70 new Hino trucks each year, making it one of the larger Hino fleet purchasers in the 36

de c e m be r 2020

Bidfood purchases up to 70 new Hino trucks each year.

country.

It was therefore fitting that Bidfood recently helped Hino celebrate a major milestone when it took delivery of the 125,000th Hino truck sold in Australia.

The sale of Hino Australia’s 125,000th vehicle came at a poignant time for the company as it is now 55 years since the first Hino vehicle was sold in Australia.

The truck, a 500 Series Standard Cab FE1426, was handed over at Bidfood’s new facility in Richlands, Brisbane.

“For Bidfood, the Hino 500 Series Standard Cabs are a logical choice as they boast class-leading safety, high levels of innovation and technology, while also meeting Euro 6 emission standards,” Grant says. “And the feedback from our drivers has been overwhelmingly positive.”

He adds that the high level of safety features on the new Hinos has prompted Bidfood to accelerate its replacement program to ensure its drivers are

spending their workdays in the safest and most comfortable environment possible.

According to Bruce Lawson, Corporate Business Manager at Hino Australia, the long-term relationship between the company and Bidfood has endured due to the one-stop-shop service Hino is able to provide. All of Bidfood’s Hinos are built up in Brisbane and then delivered to the Hino dealer nearest to the depot where the truck will operate from.

“We manage the complete build of every truck Bidfood orders through us from start to finish,” Bruce says. “We organise the fitting of all the accessories including the body, signwriting, tailgate and fridge unit and then have the completed truck transported to the dealer nearest to the Bidfood branch that ordered it.

The dealer organises the predelivery inspection and registration before washing the vehicle and delivering it for us.”

Bruce says this approach is important

because it provides a uniform build for Bidfood’s Hinos right across the country.

“Value adding is one of our strong points with managing national fleets in Australia – we control the entire process for the customer from factory to handover,” he says. “It gives our clients peace of mind because they effectively only have one contact point for any queries. Therefore, they can rest assured that we have everything in hand in regard to their new vehicles.”

Bruce adds that the company has a comprehensive handover process to ensure the drivers are familiar with the extensive array of safety features that comes standard with the latest 500 Series and 300 Series Hinos.

“We try to do as much driver education as possible to help get the drivers up to speed on each of the safety and technology features that they may or may not be aware of,” he explains.

“The new 500 Series Standard Cab

comes standard with advanced safety features including Pre-Collision System (PCS), Lane Departure Warning (LDW), Vehicle Stability Control (VSC) and Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC).

“Bidfood considers it important to have these features across the fleet as soon as possible,” he says.

Furthermore, all the Hinos Bidfood buys feature automatic transmissions – Aisin in the 300 Series and Allison in the 500 Series – which brings the two-fold benefits of lower maintenance costs and a larger driver pool from which to draw compared with manual trucks.

“Our 500 Series comes standard with an Allison fully automatic transmission which has no clutch to wear out, reducing maintenance costs with its seamless gearchanges that are always done at the correct rpm,” Bruce says.

“Similarly, our 300 Series has the Aisin automatic which is similar to the

Allison but on a smaller scale.”

He mentions that the automatic transmission equipped trucks have the potential for overall fuel savings over manual equivalents – where driving skills play a larger role in determining fuel use.

“Bidfood understands the benefit of having trucks that are virtually as easy to drive as cars where the drivers simply put them in Drive and away they go, with the various safety features warning them of a potential hazard ahead or if they stray from their lane,” Bruce says.

Grant Fairlie echoes the sentiments of Bruce Lawson in regard to safety features and ease of driving due to the automatic transmissions that are part and parcel of every new Hino Bidfood buys.

“We also have GPS tracking on each of the trucks so we can keep our customers informed in terms of approximately when they can expect their deliveries,” Grant says.

As for the refrigerated bodies, they are manufactured and installed by Ace Truck Bodies at Pinkenba, Brisbane, with Carrier Transicold fridge plants completing the picture.

The bodies feature tri-zone compartmentalisation which ensures the correct temperature is maintained with frozen, chilled and ambient temperature goods in the same load.

Some of the bodies are also fitted with Anteo aluminium tailgate lifters.

Grant fully appreciates the benefits of having Hino in charge of the entire build of the trucks as it lets him concentrate on other pressing aspects of business operation.

“Hino takes care of the whole process for us which really takes a load off my mind,” he says. “They understand our business, are reliable and give us great service – there is really nothing more we could ask from a truck supplier.”

Having trucks of a safe, efficient, reliable and durable nature supplied by a company such as Hino that is willing and able to go the extra mile in ensuring optimum customer satisfaction, is pivotal to the continued success and growth of Bidfood. p r i m em over m a g . c o m . a u

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TRUCK & TECH

SE National has added 12 Renault Master vans to its fleet in the last year.

A COUNTRY PRACTICE Based in Shepparton in Victoria, SE National, performs parcel pick up and deliveries over a wide area using a fleet of Renault Master vans.

W

hen we think of parcel deliveries we generally conjure up the image of a metropolitan streetscape in a capital city. Yet people in country towns and regional areas have parcels to be picked up and delivered too.

“When I first started in transport, I was running a few trucks out of our family cold storage and warehousing business.

In the beginning, we were contracted to service the linehaul for a small parcel business Shepparton Express” says SE National Transport Managing Director Anthony Sfetcopoulos. “We were then offered to take over Shepparton Express as the owners were in financial 38

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difficulties, so we took it as the next step to go out and establish a full service transport business” The business expanded. And with it the name was changed to SE National to better reflect the emerging national capabilities of the overall operation as it grew from being a parcel distribution service offering an overnight service from Melbourne, to providing national linehaul and warehousing capabilities covering all capital cities in Australia.

Since 2008 there has been a significant amount of consolidation of the parcel business in the Shepparton region and SE National is now the major local player alongside the high profile

national operators.

“There has been a lot of growth in online shopping and more people are getting things delivered now, so we’ve managed to consolidate that and put in the various systems such as track and trace to provide efficient and reliable service,” says Anthony. “We’ve got the depot. We’ve got good people and we’ve got the vehicles to do it.”

SE National is owned by the Sfetcopoulos family who have been involved in business in the Shepparton area since 1946 and the transport and warehousing operations currently employ more than 150 people in various roles.

the Shepparton depot which can include trips almost back to the northern areas of Melbourne, over the Murray River border into southern NSW and the Albury region, as well as west across to the greater Bendigo region.

The bulk of the local parcel deliveries are performed using SE National’s fleet of fifteen Renault Master vans, twelve of which have been added during the past year or so.

“Originally we used light duty ‘box’ trucks and we thought that big vans looked good because we could fit a couple of pallets in there and fit plenty of parcels as well,” says Anthony.

“We went and had a look at all of the different ones available from various manufacturers and the Renault Master has everything exactly like you need it for parcel deliveries.”

it for three years, and don’t have to do anything to it. We do a couple of services on it and might change some brake pads or put some tyres on and that’s about it.

The upfront purchase cost of the Renault in the market is good and when we trade-in we still get a good price.”

Safety is a genuine core value at SE National and extends to the prime movers being equipped with lane assistance systems, adaptive cruise control and blind spot monitoring, as well as the latest fatigue monitoring technology from Seeing Machines.

The Renault Masters’ own comprehensive suite of safety features includes dusk sensing headlamps, rain sensing windscreen wipers and LED front daytime running lights as well as side airbags for the driver in addition to the front airbags for

“We buy the biggest Masters we can because of the volume and payload. There’s also their great reliability and long, 30,000 kilometre, service intervals.”

Anthony Sfetcopoulos SE National Transport Managing Director

The city of Shepparton is 180 kilometres from Melbourne and the upgrades to the main route along the Goulburn Valley Highway will eventually provide freeway conditions for the entire journey.

Depending upon the varying demand, SE National runs multiple B-doubles and semis each day into Melbourne to pick up mixed freight including parcels which are subsequently taken to the company’s depot facility at Lemnos, a suburb in the northeast of Shepparton.

There, the loads are broken down and sorted for delivery to addresses in the surrounding region. Deliveries are typically made throughout the area within a two hour driving radius from

The Renault Master’s single rear wheels result in lesser intrusion into the load space by the wheel arches and permit the placement of a standard pallet in the back, something that excludes some other large vans with rear dual wheels. If required, a second pallet can be loaded into the front section via the side door.

“We buy the biggest Masters we can because of the volume and payload,” says Anthony. “There’s also their great reliability and long, 30,000 kilometre, service intervals. We turn them over after three years and some might only have 100,000 kilometres on them and we’ve only serviced them three times, maybe. It’s the best way: we buy it, use

both driver and passenger. Electronic Stability Control for a vehicle of this size is important especially taking into account the varying weights of the loads being carried.

Anthony is impressed with the fuel efficiency from the Masters’ 2.3 litre diesel engine combined with the six speed automated manual transmissions.

“We actually had another brand of van on hire when we were flat out a while ago, and in comparison with the Renaults it used a lot of fuel. We were putting a tank in it every day whereas the Renault you do 500 to 600 kilometres before you have to fill up.”

The vehicles are fitted with the latest p r i m em over m a g . c o m . a u

39

TRUCK & TECH

SE National Transport depot in Shepparton.

“In the past 12 months we have probably doubled our local delivery business. That’s why we bought so many new vans and hopefully we can keep growing the business and getting more people employed in our area.”

Anthony Sfetcopoulos SE National Transport Managing Director

GPS technology to allow the SE National operations team to co-ordinate efficiently the pickups and deliveries and provide estimated collection and drop off times to customers.

The compulsory lockdowns in Victoria have had mixed effects on businesses and have been particularly tough on the people, no more so than in a country city such as Shepparton. At the time of speaking with Anthony, Victoria was just starting to tentatively emerge from its hard lockdown.

“People want some certainty,” says Anthony. “It’s hard to make decisions when we don’t know what we are doing tomorrow. That’s been the hardest thing. None of our guys are really wanting to take time off because there’s nowhere to go. Hopefully when things settle down a little bit and the pubs and the entertainment venues are open, staff will want to take time off.”

Efficient systems and vehicles, 40

de c e m be r 2020

combined with state of the art facilities and dedicated staff have been key not just to SE National’s survival during

2020, but to its continued prosperity in the face of the challenges brought about by the COVID pandemic. Anthony Sfetcopoulos bases his optimism for the future on the company’s response to the unique circumstances of the past year.

“In the past 12 months we have probably doubled our local delivery business,” he says. “That’s why we bought so many new vans and hopefully we can keep growing the business and getting more people employed in our area.”

Renault Master comes with a comprehensive suite of safety features.

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TRUCK & TECH

S TA R

POWER An appetite for growth and innovation has helped NSW business, Turps Tippers, climb the heap in quarry transport.

A daring decision to use live bottom quad axles pulled by Detroit powered Western Star trucks was a gamble that continues to pay off.

Of the three premier American truck brands Turps Tippers operates, Western Star comprises nearly half the fleet.

These are predominantly Western Star 4800s with Detroit DD15 engines working as prime movers, truck and quads or pulling pup trailers. A smaller rigid Western Star 4700 was part of a recent purchase order made from Penske Australia with whom the company enjoys an ongoing relationship that commenced in 2010 with its very first new truck purchase. Up until that time the business, not unlike many outfits starting out, had been running secondhand vehicles. One truck soon became four; four later became a dozen; and now the fleet, an increasing presence in the foothills of the NSW Southern Highlands where it is based in Bargo, comprises more than 40 bonneted units.

The company specialises in gravel and sand haulage between local quarries around the state. Turps Tippers Director Ian Turner has lived in the area his entire life. Having a foothold 30 minutes south of Marulan Quarry in Cambpelltown provides the company with a strategic advantage in operating across the greater metropolitan area although its three main areas of allocation revolve around 42

de c e m be r 2020

the southwest to regional Goulburn; the South Coast of the nearby Illawarra greater shire and a dedicated return run daily to Newcastle.

“Having the ability to go direct to Goulburn and the South Coast is a major advantage for us,” says Ian. “Even though it might sound a fair way out it’s actually quite central for the quarries our fleet will frequent.”

The company, which has innovated in recent years by investing in unique live bottom quad axle trailers from Muscat

as it upgrades the more traditional tipper bins, retains an affinity for robust American drivelines. Such high volume work on repetitive hours of operation requires muscular equipment capably afforded by the durable Western Star truck.

Ever since it won contracts with major suppliers Boral and Holcim in 2016, Turps Tippers, whose original model relied heavily on moving asphalt, has been concentrated around the evergrowing predominance of shuttling

A pair of Western Star 4800 FX units with unique live bottom trailer.

trucks from quarry to concrete plants.

The Western Star vehicles have no trouble in handling the undulations common to the on-road part of the job.

Access to and from distribution points, notoriously restrictive for commercial vehicles, is not in question given the set forward front axle and elongated wheelbase of the Western Star help immensely with the task of efficient reversing and loading.

Generally regarded as the most versatile truck in the local Western Star portfolio,

the 4800 FX gets ample power supply from a 560 hp Detroit 14.7 litre engine.

Ian admits he has been loyal to the Detroit product for many years.

“I’ve always had an alliance with Detroit.

For a long time I have run Detroit engines. That has helped carry me through,” he says. “Given the warranty there’s a real trust and understanding which is hard to go past.”

Despite service intervals being a recommended 60,000 kilometres, Ian prefers, in steadfast adherence to

formulas for best practice long held by the business, servicing the vehicles every 20,0000 kilometres. These principles, he maintains, have done much to encourage swift growth within the business after little more than a decade.

“To me oil is cheap. Filters are cheap.

Let’s keep doing what has got us to where we are,” he says. “If our approach is not broken there’s no need to try and fix it.”

Matching the Detroit DD15 to the Western Star 4800 facilitates efficiencies for the team. The company manages its own appropriately supervised workshop.

“Once everyone is au fait with a particular model it’s very hard to change when you factor in the schedules, parts and familiarity with the machinery,” he says. “You know how everything works and where everything is. If a mechanic says ‘I need three sets of filters’ than the girls in the office know what to order. Everything is standardised from that perspective. By having the same brand makes it a lot easier for everyone involved.”

In addition to its crew of mechanics, Turps Tippers employs a full time tyre fitter.

“Everything is performed inhouse aside from the rare occasion they might need to get the dealer involved,” he says. “We work these trucks on a grueling schedule. It’s in the nature of this business you’re going to have, for instance, a gearbox play up and we’ve been looked after by Penske Australia who have always been good to us.”

Generally, after four years, Ian has recourse to move the trucks on. When it comes to the Western Stars they usually have at least a couple of years warranty left on them. For Ian, that’s important knowing a future buyer will get some value out of it.

“If you can sell a truck with a million kilometres warranty on the engine and you’ve only done 450,000 kilometres that certainly helps,” he says. “Because I can safely pass that warranty onto a person knowing that they have got some sort of coverage.”

Once he finds them a new home — p r i m em over m a g . c o m . a u

43

TRUCK & TECH

usually to a mum and dad company that needs a part time vocational truck — he buys new again. For the moment, Ian is waiting on the sidelines as he makes an assessment on the next generation Detroit DD13 and DD16 engines, the first to incorporate AdBlue.

“It’s a different realm Detroit are going into now. I’m watching with interest. We’ve been with Detroit for a long time. We’ve had 12.7s and we followed them through to the 14-litre bracket. The 14-litre EGRs were not from my perspective troublefree. I’m not the only one whose had that experience. We gave them another crack with the 15-litre and they’ve absolutely proven themselves to us.”

Even though the trucks aren’t doing what he calls “ridiculous kilometres” Ian acknowledges they run regularly to over a half million. He is pleased there are no issues to report.

“The Detroit engine matched with the Western Star we find you can fix and repair and even rebuild quite cheaply compared to some of the others,” he says. “I have some trucks at work assigned day shift that go straight into the night shift. They are essentially

working around the clock. It doesn’t seem to harm or hamper the Detroit in any way. Those trucks don’t get much of a break all year and we don’t have any trouble at all with them to be honest.”

And if they do, the aftersales service Penske provides more than exceeds Ian’s expectations.

“It’s not like we have to beg, borrow and steal to get things done. We’re on a pretty good footing with them,” Ian says. “We’ve grown with them and they sort of appreciate that and they do their best to look after us.”

Ian recognises that most of the original equipment manufacturers now partner with a European truck builder. He understands it. But he believes the American build is better suited for Australia.

“I just think they’re stronger. The Western Star is built to last. There’s no doubt it is equal to the conditions. It delivers value whole-of-life,” he says.”I don’t know what the next generation at Turps Tippers will do. That will be up to them to evaluate the market. At the moment we’re happy with how the 4800s are going and what they are

doing. For day work at quarries, the Western Star is, to my thinking, the perfect equipment for what we do.”

That next generation includes daughters Jayme-Lee and Madison who work in the front office as head of operations and head of allocations, respectively.

They are joined by three friends, who they graduated alongside, working across maintenance and human resources. Each brings some tech savvy to operational processes that have been increasingly digitised in recent years.

Fleet management. Service intervals.

Tyre rotations. It’s all now done online at Turps Tippers.

“The younger generation think a different way. That’s to be expected and it’s refreshing,” he says. “They’re in their 20s. They are very keen and switched on.

It’s a very computer-based industry now.

You can’t work any harder. You’ve just got to work a bit smarter.”

On the suggestion of youngest daughter Madison, Ian persuaded an initially reluctant Muscat Trailers to build a live bottom four-axle dog combination fitted to the truck and dog. That first one was unveiled in 2019 and won an award for The Western Star vehicles are powered by Detroit DD15 engines.

44

de c e m be r 2020

Unveiled last year, the live bottom combinations have removed the need to tilt the trailer.

innovation in NSW. In the interests of efficiency and mitigating safety hazards, the live bottom floor removes the need to tilt the trailer which brings with it the flexibility to work in new environments from carparks, under bridges, beneath tree lined streets and other more nominal exclusion zones.

“We’re very happy with it. The longer these quads and five-axles were getting the higher up in the air they were tipping,” Ian says. “It’s a very different application but simple in effect. You open up the back doors and the floor moves and the sand falls out the back.”

Despite losing 1.5 tonne in payload on the new application, they have added

an extra load in time saved through operational efficiency. The investment was not without considerable risk. If it had failed it would have been the end of the company according to Ian. The application, however, is starting to slowly catch on.

“To their credit, Boral have now seen it work and they’re using them on a regular basis. That in itself has vindicated the money I have invested,” he says. “For me that’s what it’s all about — risk and reward. Sometimes you’ve got to take a chance but if you believe in something maybe that’s how things work out. It’s worked out for us.”

As gratifying as it is to know the

equipment has delivered better safety outcomes for the business and its workers, Ian believes the concept of the live bottom truck and dog is the future of the market segment. It ultimately takes for that one somebody like Ian who is prepared to pioneer it.

At work, with its tight knit group where key decisions are made, the boss is outnumbered by females five to one.

Although still young, the women in his team are experienced in negotiating with multi-nationals, dealer groups and managing the latest equipment according to Ian. “They’re the driving force now. I’m closer to retirement than I am starting off. They’re very headstrong girls. I brought them up that way. They were told they could do anything a guy could,” he says. “Sometimes that comes back to bite me on the butt when it comes to getting my way.”

The next generation is by no means finished with where this business will go and where they will eventually take it.

“Everyone is very similar in what they do at transport companies. You’ve got to give yourself a point of difference.

Otherwise you won’t standout. You won’t get recognised by anybody. By recognised I mean we try and be as versatile as we can for the clients that we work for which has led us to where we are now with the advent of the live bottom truck and dog combinations.”

Muscat Trailers built the live bottom four-axle truck and dog combination. p r i m em over m a g . c o m . a u

45

TEST DRIVE

DAF LF rigid under evalutation.

DUTCH Loaded with new features, DAF’s medium-duty rigid LF is proving itself a quiet achiever.

T

aking somewhat of a back seat at the launch of the latest versions of the heavy-duty DAF CF and XF models earlier in 2020, the DAF LF range competes mainly with Japanese brands in the 12 to 24 tonne category. A number of innovations has been added to the DAF LF model range, which includes significant driveline enhancements, an upmarket new interior, a contemporary exterior design, a comprehensive instrument panel 46

de c e m be r 2020

and improved visibility for the driver.

Despite the additional features the LF has managed to retain its low kerb weight and provide efficient payload capacities.

The external design provides the LF with a distinctive look and there is no mistaking the manufacturer’s identity due to the large DAF logo at the centre of the grille. Front corner air deflectors help fuel economy by directing airflow around the sides of the cab as well as keeping road grime off door handles and mirrors.

The new adjustable roof air deflector and side fenders improve aerodynamics and lower fuel consumption especially at higher speeds.Three cab configurations are available: a day cab, a sleeper cab with 700mm bunk, and the extended day cab which is essentially the sleeper without the bunk and retains the three good sized storage lockers in the floor.

The LF cab offers many other storage options for documents and personal belongings including door pockets and

AND

GO

two large compartments located above the windscreen.

The LF has good accessibility with doors that open to a wide 90 degrees, well placed grab handles and convenient illuminated steps. Most drivers involved in urban distribution drivers are frequently in and out of the truck and the considerations in the design of the doors and steps will certainly be appreciated.

A minor trade-off for the low entry is the need for an engine tunnel but it is by no means intrusive.

Urban distribution trucks typically don’t

exhibit too many considerations for the driver so the DAF LF’s driver-friendly ergonomics are quite exceptional, starting with the easy cab access and egress.

Once in the cab the air suspended seat has ample adjustments and combined with the pneumatically locked multiadjustable steering wheel and column, any sized driver can be accommodated.

The driver is treated to ideal mirror positioning and a clear range of visibility to the front and sides. There is an option for an additional window in the lower section of the kerb side door to increase

the identification of the presence of other road users such as cyclists.

In recognition of the fact that much of the distribution task is carried out during the hours of darkness, the DAF engineers have opted for halogen headlights enclosed behind protective Lexan covers.

Fog lights combined with cornering lights are also available as options.

The LF hasn’t missed out on the ‘highend’ trim which has earned significant appeal in the larger CF and XF cabs.

The flat angled dashboard provides ease of use and functionality with all controls readily within reach and logically grouped by function. The Driver Information Panel provides more information to increase comfort and efficiency and is the window to the DAF Driver Performance Assistant (DPA) which employs state of the art technology and encourages the driver to get the best overall performance and efficiency out of the LF. The electronic analysis package is similar to what is fitted to the CF and XF ranges and is a good response to the market’s ever-increasing demand for vehicle data. Regardless of the aerodynamic and driveline efficiencies a crucial factor in fuel economy is the way in which any particular driver operates the vehicle. The DPA records the driving of individual drivers, benchmarks this against an ideal, and gives useful tips for efficient acceleration and braking, as well as optimal gear selection.

The LF’s multifunction steering wheel includes finger controls for the cruise control, engine brake and the audio system.

State-of-the-art inclusions extend to the LF’s safety systems such as Adaptive Cruise Control, Forward Collision Warning, Advanced Emergency Braking System, Lane Departure Warning System and Vehicle Stability Control. If, despite all of the electronic aids, a collision is unavoidable, the occupants still p r i m em over m a g . c o m . a u

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TEST DRIVE

Ventilated disc brakes are fitted at each wheel.

Driver-friendly ergonomics are exceptional on the DAF LF.

have DAF’s Protective Cab Suspension Construction, seatbelt pre-tensioners and a driver’s airbag. The Protective Cab Suspension Construction is a PACCAR proprietary technology which, in the case of a collision, helps to absorb a significant amount of the collision energy, thus protecting the occupants and enabling easy access for emergency services.

The LF is powered by the Euro 6 PACCAR PX-7 engine which displaces 6.7 litres and is available in the LF range in two power ratings with the models referred to as the LF260 and the LF290. The engine in the ‘260’ version produces 194kW (264 hp) at 2,300 rpm and 1,000Nm of torque at 1,000-1,700 rpm. The ‘290’ specification delivers 217kW (295 hp) and 1,100 Nm at the same engine speeds as the 260. To meet the Euro 6 emission standards the PX-7 engines use a combination of EGR, 48

de c e m be r 2020

SCR and DPF technologies. PACCAR claims its PX engines are designed to simplify maintenance and minimise operational costs and this is confirmed by tilting the cab and observing the excellent access to service components such as filters. Daily checks of essential fluids are easily performed via the lift up front panel, which also provides convenient access to the numerous electrical relays.

These engines are programmed to automatically shut down after five minutes of idling. Relative engine quietness is achieved in part due to various component and brackets being integrated into the engine block and cylinder head which reduces vibration and harmonics. A six speed ZF AStronic automated manual transmission is standard in the LF260 and the 12-speed AStronic is standard equipment for the

LF290. Transmission options include the ZF Ecolite six speed manual as well as an Allison five speed full automatic.

Front suspension is provided by parabolic springs with the rear featuring two or four bag (on the 6x4) DAF Electronically Controlled Air Suspension. Ride is enhanced and body roll reduced due to the fitment of effective shock absorbers and front and rear stabiliser bars.

Ventilated disc brakes are fitted at each wheel, complemented by the engine’s effective exhaust brake.

The LF260 has a GVM of 12,000 kgs and the standard GVM of the 4x2 LF 290 is 18 tonnes, and a GVM of 23,500 kgs is possible in 6x2 format due to the factory fitted, air suspended and lifted rear tag axle. The 6x2 is only available in sleeper cab format.

The LF boasts the smallest turning circle in its class thanks mainly to the tight wheel angles possible with its front steering geometry.

Available in a number of practical wheelbase lengths, the chassis frame incorporates several innovations which will appeal to body builders and consequently dealers and customers, such as Body Attachment Module (BAM) programmes and pre-drilled chassis rails, which contribute to quick and easy installation of bodies. By positioning various components such as air tanks and braking system components on the inside of the rails, the LF’s chassis is completely flat which provides for extra flexibility for different configurations. The chassis rails continue in their full size all the way to the rear in order to maximise the support for the fitting of tailgate loaders which will be a typical addition for the type of work the LF can be expected to be involved in.

The XF and CF DAF trucks have defied the 2020 downward market trend and have maintained similar sales numbers to those achieved in the previous year.

The DAF LF, with its standout features including driver-focused design, excellent mechanicals and fuel efficiency, and state of the art electronics, can be expected to perform well in the medium to light heavy category.

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FINAL MILE

Hino Hybrid delivers the goods at North Entrance.

POWER T R I P The Hino 300 Series Hybrid is Australia’s only light-duty hybrid electric-diesel truck.

H

ybrid vehicle technology has reached a significant level of maturity in recent years. The latest Hino Hybrid benefits from a number of changes to the original hybrid drive system which had been used since the first model was launched in Australia in 2007. The 2020 Hino 300 Series Hybrid features a number of changes to the hardware and operational software system of the parallel electricdiesel hybrid driveline with the intention of improving fuel efficiency and reducing emissions, while also reducing weight.

Electricity is stored in the Toyota Groupsourced nickel metal hydride battery, which is similar to what is used in over 15 million hybrid vehicles worldwide.

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The battery itself has been reduced in size but retains its 6.5 Amp Hour (AH) rating.

The Power Control Unit (PCU) manages the battery, inverter, Engine Control Unit (ECU) and DC-DC Converter and has been redesigned for lighter weight and more compactness, resulting in a weight saving of 28 kgs. The hybrid system continuously seeks to supplement the delivery of diesel power with electric power and is constantly switching between diesel engine drive only; a combination of both electric motor and diesel engine drive; and can also utilise electric drive only in certain situations.

The Hybrid battery is charged from the regenerative braking system through kinetic energy capture when the vehicle

is coasting. This also acts as an effective auxiliary brake and slows the vehicle and results in a significant increase in brake pad life and further reduces whole of life costs of the truck.

The Hino 4.0 litre N04C-WR four cylinder turbo-diesel engine has common rail injection and produces 150hp (110kW).

The electric motor contributes a further 47 hp (35kW) and the maximum 470Nm of torque is delivered in combination with the electric motor from a very low 1,000 rpm. Euro 6 emissions standards are achieved by the use of a combination of Exhaust Gas Recirculation (EGR), a Diesel Particulate Active Reduction Filter (DPR) system, and the Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR) system which uses

AdBlue stored in the 13 litre tank. Diesel tank capacity is 100 litres in the Standard Cab models and 80 litres in the Wide Cab variants.

Hybrid models are available in four versions from the 616 Standard and Wide Cab car-licenced models, through to the 716 Wide Cab and the 916 Wide Cab, which has a maximum Gross Vehicle Mass (GVM) of 8.5 tonnes. The new Hino Hybrid employs a six speed automated manual transmission, up from the five speed used previously and is coupled directly to the electric motor.

The additional gear and the wider ratio spread enables the diesel engine to spend more time in its most efficient rpm range.

From the driver’s perspective the hybrid operates exactly as does a regular dieselpowered truck of a similar size. The AMT noticeably performs its shifts slower than the full automatic in a conventionally powered Hino 616, but power delivery is smooth and it can be left to the electronics to select the correct ratio rather than manually over-riding using the selector lever. Approximately 600 Hino Hybrids are currently operating in Australia. Suitable applications are varied and include dry van and refrigerated delivery applications such as the test unit provided for our assessment. Hino Hybrids have also found favour operating in city and regional council vocational applications such as rear loader waste, parks and gardens service, and tippers.

The Hino Hybrid models feature SmartSafe, the same comprehensive suite of safety features found in all new Hino 300 Series vehicles, with advanced driver assistance technology which takes an active role in protecting the life of drivers, passengers and other road users.

SmartSafe incorporates a Pre-Collision System (PCS) with Autonomous Emergency Braking (AEB), Pedestrian Detection (PD) and Lane Departure

Hino 4.0 litre N04C-WR four cylinder turbo-diesel engine has common rail injection.

The nickel metal hydride battery maintains a 6.5 AH rating.

Warning System (LDWS). The SmartSafe system complements Hino’s existing safety package which includes Vehicle Stability Control, dual SRS airbags, fourwheel ABS disc brakes, UN ECE R-29 cab strength certified and a hill start function.

The reversing camera has infrared night vision displayed on the 6.5-inch multimedia unit which is also capable of connecting an additional three cameras and has AM/FM radio, DAB+ digital radio, Bluetooth music streaming and mobile phone connectivity with voice dialling.

The Hino 300 Series Hybrid is the first Japanese-manufactured light truck

available in Australia which meets Euro 6 exhaust emission standards. This will add further appeal to fleets wanting to minimise their carbon footprints. Hino claim the new 300 Series Hybrid has shown fuel efficiency improvements of 21 per cent when compared to its dieselonly counterpart. The latest model can be expected to deliver even better efficiencies due to the changes in the weight and operation of components associated with the hybrid drive as well as from the six speed transmission, all of which contribute to the Hybrid’s whole-of-life financial proposition. p r i m em over m a g . c o m . a u

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PBS REPORT

WHEELS OF

FORTUNE Australia’s world-leading Performance-Based Standards scheme continues to gather momentum as more operators realise the benefits. The National Heavy Vehicle Regulator Chief Engineer, Les Bruzsa, is keen to provide an update outlining just how much the PBS system has improved and grown in recent times.

I

n spite of a decidedly lacklustre year on a number of fronts, the uptake of Performance-Based Standards (PBS) by a broad cross section of the trucking industry has continued unabated as operators seek out ways to improve productivity and efficiency. PBS is a world-leading program that enables Australia’s heavy vehicle industry to use the most productive vehicles for specific freight tasks. It fosters innovation in vehicle design to improve productivity while achieving safer operation and making minimal impact on road infrastructure.

The National Transport Commission (NTC) implemented the current PBS scheme in 2008. Now 12 years down the track, it is more than delivering on the opportunities that were foreshadowed at the outset to unlock productivity gains and improve safety outcomes. Indeed, it would appear the exponentially

increasing success of the PBS scheme over the past decade is a clear testament to the freight industry’s desire to innovate and be smarter.

As the freight task continues to grow, PBS will be an essential tool in meeting this growth in the safest, most productive and efficient manner possible.

The Australian Road Transport Suppliers Association Institute (ARTSA-i) and the NHVR want to see further barriers removed that potentially limit this innovation to ensure future generations of PBS vehicles are safer, cleaner and even more productive.

To achieve that goal the current scheme framework needs to be continuously improved and hurdles to the use of PBS equipment need to be tackled to ensure Australia continues to lead the world in innovative regulation of heavy vehicles.

When it comes to talking about PBS and

the benefits it can deliver to the industry, none are more passionate than Les Bruzsa, Chief Engineer at the NHVR. As an Automotive Mechanical Engineer, his background includes over three decades of experience in various fields of the road transport industry both locally and overseas.

Between 1995 and 2013 he was employed by the Queensland Transport Department and Transport and Main Roads as Principal Engineer, responsible for assessing new vehicle combinations, developing technical standards, policies and guidelines for vehicle use, access and management.

In his current position, Les provides engineering and technical leadership to the strategic development and improvement of the PBS Scheme and leading the development of NHVR engineering and technical standards related to heavy vehicle safety and

Symons Clark Logistics 36.5 metre long Super B-Quad with Kenworth K200.

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POWER ED BY

Les Bruzsa.

productivity.

Speaking about the current state of play with PBS, Les says a significant milestone was reached early this year with approval granted for the 10,000th PBS combination.

“That number has continued to grow significantly this year, reaching 11,350 at the end of October, and it’s very important to celebrate that achievement because it far surpasses original predictions when the Scheme was first implemented,” he says.

Les explains that when the fledgling PBS Scheme had its first review in 2009 the prediction was that there would be 12,000 PBS combinations registered by 2030. Instead, that number is set to be reached some ten years earlier.

In addition to the higher than expected uptake over the last decade or so, Les also notes that the effects of COVID-19 and a weaker economy have not significantly lowered the PBS uptake this year. In fact, he states that year-on-year results, comparing this year’s forecasted total with that of 2019, are surprisingly similar.

“I estimate that this year we will end up with a total of 1,600 to 1,650 combinations compared with around 1,700 last year,” he says. “This is no mean feat considering the whole country is in an economic downturn with around a 20 per cent drop in new truck registrations.

“The fact that the PBS uptake rate is

still increasing, rather than reducing in line with the drop in new vehicle registrations, shows that the industry is supporting PBS and selecting these PBS vehicle options when available.”

Expanding further, Les says over the past three years around 20 per cent of the total new heavy vehicle market has been PBS approved which he describes as very good market penetration.

“What’s also interesting is that the median age of PBS vehicles is 4.3 years compared with 11 years for prime movers and around 13 years, for rigid trucks and trailers.

“What this means,” he elaborates, “is that the PBS fleet is fitted with superior safety technologies and designed to higher level technical standards.”

This observation aligns with data garnered by the NTC which suggests a 46 per cent reduced crash rate can be attributed to the use of PBS-approved

Of the common criticisms of the PBS Scheme, excessive time taken to grant approvals has been arguably the most prevalent. However, Les is adamant that big strides have been made in this area, particularly over the last three years, and will continue to be made moving forward.

“We have made a lot of internal process changes and improvements to help make the approval process more efficient. In terms of the design and vehicle approvals, we are monitoring our response times to ensure expediency,” Les says. “We have also introduced the PBS pre-advised design approval process.

“For instance, more than 70 per cent of the PBS design applications are now handled under the pre-advised process which means that the NHVR is able to approve the combinations for these specific designs within two to three business days.”

Les points out that this is a huge

“The fact that the PBS uptake rate is still increasing, rather than reducing in line with the drop in new vehicle registrations, shows that the industry is supporting PBS and selecting these PBS vehicle options when available.”

Les Bruzsa National Heavy Vehicle Regulator Chief Engineer

heavy vehicles.

The split between the four PBS levels (L1, L2, L3 and L4) of different PBS combinations is also a point of interest.

“L1 accounts for 16 per cent while 42 per cent is L2 and 35 per cent has dual L1 and L2 approval, the latter being vehicles approved for two different levels,” Les explains. “Adding these figures together means that around 93 per cent of the PBS fleet are the shorter combinations in the general access vehicle and B-double classes, with 56 per cent coming in under 20m overall length and largely comprising truck and four-axle dog combinations.”

He adds that this should allay any fears that some road managers may have had that PBS would be responsible for putting ‘monster’ trucks on the road.

improvement compared with just a few years ago when this same approval process took 20 to 25 business days.

“I think the industry really appreciates this process improvement and is generally trusting the NHVR to be responsive and to deliver reliable and quick services to the industry,” he says.

In sum, from the comprehensive rundown Les Bruzsa provides, it appears that trucking operators and the NHVR are working more co-operatively than ever before to achieve the best PBS outcomes.

It seems that the industry has recognised that selecting pre-advised designs is a sure-fire way to ensure a speedy approvals process which, in turn, enables operators to get the most productive combinations quickly on the road and earning them better profits. p r i m em over m a g . c o m . a u

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PBS SHOWC ASE

STAYING AHEAD CURVE OF THE

The growing acceptance of Performance-Based Standards (PBS) among Australian trucking operators has elevated the demand for engineering services to develop and certify the increasingly innovative combinations. Smedley’s Engineers is ramping up its operations to meet the market demand.

A

s the industry continues to gain more confidence in the PBS system and the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator (NHVR) that controls it, more innovative larger PBS combinations are hitting the roads around Australia.

While the relatively straightforward designs and route access requirements have made truck and four- or five-axle dog tipper combinations the breadand-butter of the PBS Scheme since its inception, new larger combinations like quad-quad B-doubles, split axle group tri or quad semi-trailers and over 30m A-doubles are becoming more popular.

According to Robert Smedley, the Managing Director of Melbournebased Smedley’s Engineers, these three combinations are starting to cause more interest in terms of productivity benefits among operators.

“We’re seeing in the split quad semis as much payload mass although not quite the payload height of standard 54

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B-doubles,” Robert says. Innovative combinations such as these are not as easy to get on the road compared with truck and dog combinations where access requirements are still rather complicated, particularly in Victoria. ERH Refrigerated Transport is a Victorian based company that runs a number of split-quad semitrailers.

Robert says this is a good example of how an organisation such as Smedley’s Engineers – that covers everything including access permits, assessment and certification in-house – can make the whole process much less complicated and achieve better outcomes for operators than if they tried to organise everything themselves.

“We have a lot of experience with the

“We have a lot of experience with the access requirements of PBS and are able to manage the whole PBS process every step of the way in a very streamlined manner.”

Robert Smedley Smedley’s Engineers, Managing Director

“The NSW and QLD permits came in within one month but the Victorian permits took well over six months to be granted, which meant it took a lot of effort on our part to get these combinations on the road,” he says.

access requirements of PBS and are able to manage the whole PBS process every step of the way in a very streamlined manner,” Robert says.

In line with many businesses connected with road transport, Smedley’s Engineers

POWER ED BY

ERH

PBS equipment: ERH operates split quadaxle semi-trailer fridge vans with 28-pallet cargo capacity. A tri-axle group at the rear is complemented by a single selfsteerable axle located forward of the tri.

Weight bearing: The mass allowance for the split quad group under PBS is 32.5t, whereas the standard spacing quad axle group is allowed 27t under PBS. GCM: 55 tonnes.

Approved routes: The combinations run on eastern seaboard routes linking Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane and are gazetted to service customer sites in each of the three capitals.

PBS Timeline: ERH pioneered the quad axle semi for fridge vans in 2013 and has done the same for the split quad semi this year.

Approvals: In-principle approval was received quite quickly from the NHVR early this year but after the trailers were built VicRoads would only grant a GCM of 46t reportedly due to bridge capacity limits. It took around ten months from receiving in-principle approval by NHVR to gaining approval for 55t from VicRoads for the safer and more productive semis.

Gains: Split quad refrigerated semi offers similar GCM to B-double without the environmental impact and cost of a second fridge plant. Double stacking beams in van enable 1.2t

per pallet space to maximise payload capacity for temperaturecontrolled freight.

Running gear: Prime movers are a combination of Kenworth K200 and Mercedes-Benz Actros cab-overs along with Kenworth T610 conventionals. Trailers are manufactured by FTE using BPW axles. Navman telematics are used to comply with Intelligent Access Program and also for Electronic Work Diaries, fault reporting and two-way communication with drivers.

Commentary: “Smedley’s Engineers provides a quality service that ticks all the boxes in taking the split quad semi from concept to reality,” – Rupert Smith ERH Managing Director

RON FINEMORE TRANSPORT

PBS Equipment: 30m Quad Quad B-Double.

GCM: 77.5 tonnes.

Approved routes: PBS Level 2 routes throughout the eastern seaboard.

Gains: 4m of extra deck length, and 11t of extra mass over the standard 26m B-Double, and achieves the same sorts of access.

Running gear: Mercedes and Volvo prime movers are currently approved for use. One unique feature is that this is a double drop, and still only uses 2 x steer axles, one on each trailer. This increases the stability of the vehicle, increases the payload height, and decreases the running costs. Being a B-double it has more deck length than a 30m a-double.

Smedley commentary: “For operations on the eastern seaboard, where volume is the goal, then this is the unit to go for.” p r i m em over m a g . c o m . a u

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PBS SHOWC ASE

has actually seen a marked increase in its workload this year, as opposed to other industries that have been plagued by the detrimental effects of COVID. “When COVID first hit there was a lot of uncertainty because no one really knew what was going to happen and whether or not road transport would be deemed an essential service,” Robert says. “Especially from a consultancy point of view and in regard to vehicle inspections and certifications there was a period of a month or two where we weren’t sure which way it was going to go.

Nevertheless, we kept ourselves busy, but our revenue for that two-month period was probably the lowest we’d seen for about two years.”

Robert says after the stimulus packages were announced by the Federal Government the

NOLAN’S

rate of enquiry and subsequent business growth quickly bounced back and has stayed buoyant ever since.

“We have seen a 40 to 50 per cent growth in the amount of work coming in this year and in the month of October we employed three new engineers, bringing our total number of engineers to ten,” he says. “Even with three additional engineers, we are still struggling to catch up with the backlog of work, meaning we will probably need to employ another engineer before too long.”

Robert mentions that being a member of ARTSA-i means he’s across all the new truck registration data which shows there’s been a significant slump in new truck sales this year. He contends that the rise in workload his company has seen this year in the face of a downturn in new

PBS Equipment: PBS four axle Quad trailer, FTE Split Quad Axle + Volvo FH16, PBS A-Double + Prime Mover Weight bearing: FTE Quad Axle 26 pallet mass limit 50.5t; Tri-axle 22 pallet mass limit 85.5t.

Approved routes: PBS Quad: Queensland, NSW, Victoria and SA – as per state approved road networks and conditions plus point-to-point nominated routes such as markets and Nolan’s Depot access. PBS A-double: Queensland, NSW, Victoria – as per state approved road networks and conditions plus point to point nominated routes.

Gains: An ability to move a greater volume of produce/ product per combination within the same time frame. Less vehicle movements for greater volume and less running costs per pallet space movements. For every three PBS A-Double movements there is one less B-Double trip.

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heavy vehicle sales indicates that PBS uptake is well and truly on the rise.

“New vehicle registrations are down but PBS approved vehicles now make up an increasingly larger proportion of the overall truck market and this is a trend we expect will continue,” Robert says.

“Further to this,” he adds, “we believe our market share in terms of PBS approvals and certification work has increased markedly this year because we as a business are a lot busier this year compared with 2019.”

Robert concludes that the growth and operations of Smedley’s Engineers is being carefully monitored to ensure the high standards of customer service the company is known for are maintained as employee numbers grow to meet the increased demand.

Increased productivity extends into use of greater safety features with ABS and EBS. Less equipment wear and tear and maintenance per pallet space another key byproduct.

Approvals: Smedley has assisted with achieving a shorter route access approval times by submitting an application for a Notification of PBS In-Principle Access Support during the build stage. During the build and approval stage Nolan’s are reliant on efficient time frames from all parties for a time effective and seamless approval.

Running gear: FTE Quad Axle (4 axle) + Kenworth T610 SAR 26 pallet; FTE Split Quad Axle + Volvo FH16; 2 x FTE Tri Axle 22 pallet and Kenworth T610 SAR or T409 SAR; 2 x FTE Tri Axle 22 pallet + Volvo FH16.

Commentary: “Smedleys knowledge, advice, experience and contacts in the industry has assisted with recommendations on the route access and submission to the NHVR for road access permits,” Flea Nolan, Nolan’s Transport Director.

POWER ED BY

VISY LOGISTICS

PBS equipment: Vawdrey 30m A-double combination features 11 axles – two tri-axle semi-trailers linked by a tandem-axle converter dolly.

GCM: Approved to operate at 81.5 tonnes. Important features for Visy are internal payload height and low tare weight of trailers which maximises capacity in the paper reel carrying operation.

Approved routes: The A-doubles are operating on eastern seaboard interstate routes connecting Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane. Depot-to-depot operation including to customer sites subject to access requirements for the combinations.

PBS timeline: The first units were unveiled in August after 12 months of planning. Visy expects to have 50 A-doubles onroad by the end of 2021.

Approvals: Smedley’s Engineers was responsible for design certification and gaining the relevant road access permits.

“This is the first time,” notes Robert Smedley, “a Concessional Mass Limit (CML) of 17 tonnes has been approved for PBS operation of a tandem axle dolly with standard 385/65R22.5 (low profile) super-single tyres.”

Gains: Productivity improvements of between 20 and 25 per cent over a standard B-double. A key product carried by Visy Logistics, for which specific engineering and design elements of the new A-doubles were imperative, is large reels of paper that are transported on their ends; when loaded they stand almost three metres high and weigh three tonnes apiece.

Running gear: The prime movers, which are mostly Volvo, feature state-of-the-art Guardian fatigue management solutions by Seeing Machines and all-around visibility camera systems for the drivers. The unique design features ensure all requirements of PBS were met in carrying the reels of paper include European-sourced wide-track axles fitted with super single wheel and tyre packages for enhanced stability.

Operational requirements: Each driver completes a specialised and comprehensive DECA training program to familiarise them with the new A-double combinations and the technology before their first journey.

Smedley commentary: “This is an absolute game-changer for the industry and along with the wide-track axles and suspension – which haven’t previously been used on trailers in Australia – enabled us to achieve the unprecedented level of stability that was required for the high payload height loads.”

p r i m em over m a g . c o m . a u

57

PERSONALITY

RE ADY TO

RUMBLE Daniel Whitehead, President and CEO of Daimler Truck and Bus Australia Pacific reflects on a disrupted 2020 and looks ahead to a hectic 2021.

In such an unconventional year for original equipment manufacturers, Daimler Truck & Bus Australia Pacific, despite inherent challenges in the market, has delivered a product offering as compelling as any. The range of heavy Daniel Whitehead.

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commercial vehicles launched across its three brands is, for serious fleets and freight carriers, deserving of serious consideration.

PM: Looking back at 2020 with its global challenges, were there any highlights?

DW: Product was definitely the highlight for us. The new Cascadia on the Freightliner side, the Actros 5 on the Mercedes-Benz side with features like MirrorCam, and on the Fuso side lots of them: Rosa bus, Canter, Fighter medium duty and the Shogun. Product introductions aren’t a decision that was made the week before and are years in the making. We don’t sell trucks, our dealers do. Our job is to give them a product they can sell.

PM: For an American style truck the Cascadia has plenty of safety features.

Is that what the local market wants?

DW: We really haven’t had to make any compromise on that truck. It’s taken a little bit longer and it would have been easier to get it in its most basic form.

Mercedes-Benz has always been at the leading edge of safety and technology and that is just the reputation of the brand. If we didn’t have that on the other Daimler brands it’s hypocritical to advertise we are the safest brand in Australia but our sister brand is not. I think we now have a pretty homogenous safety set across all the brands. We have the safest, or at least the equal of any, European truck. We definitely have the safest American bonneted truck on the market and Fuso is, at least with eCanter, I would say the safest small

truck in the market. The Shogun is the safest heavy Japanese truck as well, so we can now sit here with hand on heart and say we have got all of our range of products at that pointy end of the market in terms of safety. It means that the dealers are not being hypocritical or contradicting themselves when they try to sell one truck on safety and one on price or something else. That continuity, especially when it’s the same engines and transmissions, makes sense that we can have the same safety systems right across the board. Operators such as Toll, Linfox, and Finemore’s won’t compromise on safety so that gives us a pretty good base to work from. Features and benefits will beat price in the long run every time.

PM: Can we expect the sharing of technology across Daimler brands to continue?

DW: I think Daimler is probably ahead of the other major global trucking groups in terms of the efficiency of their global platform. From an economics perspective, it makes sense although it can take time to implement. If the technology is good in one, I’m sure it will make its way across the others if it makes sense. I’ve got confidence in the cohesion and the co-ordination between the Daimler global brands and the sharing of the technologies. Massive amounts of money is being invested in electrification, autonomous technology and now hydrogen power and you can’t afford to spend that money three times so I think we’re going to see even more collaboration across the Daimler world.

For example, Daimler now has one electrification group, one autonomous group, one hydrogen fuel cell group.

We have to find a way of economically spending the money required to get these technologies to consumers.

PM: Despite the local market being down, how have you managed to maintain or even improve some market shares?

DW: With Fuso we have done particularly well in Light Duty off the back of the new Canter being an upgraded product that

they think it is the right thing to do. They should get more credit, whether that be moral or fiscal, for taking those steps and dragging everyone else along.

Whitehead posits that Daimler has the safest trucks across all three of its brands in the market.

has the features and benefits and safety that matter to people. Freightliner has been a transition with the end of Argosy which was the brand’s biggest seller, and the start of Cascadia. Certainly, COVID hasn’t helped in terms of production and shipping from America. Freightliner’s stable market share has been a good result in a really tough year. With Cascadia’s significant fuel savings and the feedback from the drivers it is only a matter of time, and bums in seats, before that truck gets to where it really should be. Mercedes-Benz has stabilised this year but order intake is already very promising and positive for 2021. The Mercedes-Benz product, at the moment, is fantastic and the Actros 5 is basically a whole new truck with Predictive Powertrain Control, MirrorCam and all the other cool technologies.

PM: Are emission standards becoming more relevant than merely a badge on the side of the truck?

DW: These last few years Daimler has incorporated some massive improvements in engines and transmissions, and fuel and emissions reductions. I don’t think we make enough noise about just how green these trucks are compared to what they used to be and compared to the competition.

I think it’s only going to be a matter of time before there are financial benefits for investing in greener technology. Some of the early adopters like Linfox went to Euro 6 long before it was even legislated and they pay for that technology because

PM: What are you looking forward to in 2021?

DW: You should always learn from a crisis and we talk here about how good it will be getting back out on the road and visiting dealers and customers.

We’ve dispensed with a lot of the peripheral noise and we now know that people can get on with what they are doing and don’t need to be micromanaged and we can use our time to go and meet customers, meet dealers, and meet the people who have invested money into our network, our brand and our products.

PM: Will we see more of the next wave of technology flow into Australia over the next few years?

DW: We’ll be getting production models of the eCanter next year and we’re looking at getting the hydrogen fuel cell Fuso into Australia as well.

We’ll definitely see a lot more of the technology around remote diagnosis which is why I’m really glad that we are on the same platform as the USA with Cascadia and the same platform as Germany with Actros. I think with whatever changes we have seen over the last ten or 20 years will happen again at the same level in the next two to three years. If we’re not on the same platform, we’ll just be left behind. That’s where we have positioned ourselves compared to our competitors for the next five years or so in terms of product development.

PM: Has anything good come from the COVID situation?

DW: COVID has given road transport the opportunity to be seen as more than just truckies. When there was no toilet paper there was suddenly a real recognition and understanding in the community of how much stuff gets moved around the country and what happens when it doesn’t, and that was a real positive for the industry’s image. p r i m em over m a g . c o m . a u

59

PRIME MOVERS & SHAKERS

BEST PLANS LAID

Kim Bennett performs a key role in the development of PACCAR’s Australian manufactured trucks.

K

im Bennett occupies the position of Design Engineer in the New Product Development department at PACCAR’s Bayswater facility in Victoria.

Kim looks after the design team working on new product and model releases, mainly with the Kenworth brand. Kim will follow a new model from early concept through to design release and ultimately the start of its production.

Her career choice has followed upon her academic abilities.

“Throughout school I was always good

at maths and physics and science and without really knowing what I wanted to do beyond school, I figured an engineering type of application probably suited my strengths,” Kim says. “That’s where I started and now I really enjoy where I’m at.”

Having completed the work experience component of her Mechanical Engineering degree with PACCAR Australia, she was, after her three month placement hooked on the idea of a career in trucks. Upon graduation at university Kim was offered a position in PACCAR’s four-year long graduate program. Kim’s

From the vantage of a Kenworth T360 interior.

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enthusiasm for her chosen industry remains high to the current day.

“I loved the company, the people, and the product that’s being produced and the fact that it involves Australian manufacturing was an added bonus,” she says.

Kim’s progression at PACCAR has led her to challenging roles such as being the design manager in the development of the Kenworth T360 where her job was to oversee the truck’s designs and the development of those designs with an eye on customer requirements within the scope of that project.

“A key part of the project phase that I really enjoy is actually meeting customers and going out to their place of work and seeing first-hand what it is they need from a product and then bringing that information back to the design team,” she says.

A balance must be developed across the sometimes conflicting considerations such as styling, serviceability, production requirements, and the ultimate cost of the truck. There is also significant consultation with the many outside suppliers.

“All those sorts of things compete against each other and we’ll work through that to try to determine the best possible outcome,” she says.

Kenworth is renowned for a large proportion of its trucks being custom

Kim Bennett.

builds and that presents some particular challenges. Custom truck manufacturing involves a more labour intensive process in evaluating different variations and influences at the design stage.

“Obviously if we could build the same truck, using the same cookie cutter mould, we would simplify a lot of things and take some of the cost out but we recognise that one of the strengths of Kenworth, as a brand, is being able to customise our designs,” Kim says. “We make sure we have captured all of those vital factors before we commit to creating something that we can’t back out of. This has become especially crucial now that we are moving towards more highly tooled components and designs involving manufacturing processes such as injection moulding.”

Every design function is performed inhouse. Kim will work with groups such as the chassis engineering team, or the cab section team to ensure the variations from standard are assessed and included.

“I rely heavily on the engineering sections doing the day to day work to customise those trucks and make sure I know where all these variations are

coming from,” she says.

Naturally, Kim is very tight-lipped regarding current and future developments at PACCAR but concedes there is an increasing focus on incorporating higher levels of technology.

“We have started to do that with the rollout of the T610 and the T3 and T4 models which have lots of new technologies in them and that’s kind of the evolution we are continuing on with,” she says. “What’s driving the adoption of technology and change is they are what our customers are asking for. Their contracts now often include matters involving the realm of safety and are dictating that every truck shall have certain features.”

There is a certain challenge in integrating the technological requirements with maintaining Kenworth’s solid reputation for durability, reliability and general serviceability.

“We try and tread a careful line and we don’t want to be a product where you need to take it in to the dealership to change a light globe,” Kim says.

Even seemingly simple changes to a truck’s

design can leave the engineers confronted with a multitude of implications which require considerable innovative thought to arrive at a suitable solution. The evolution of the T360 model was no different. Kim cites an example.

“We spent a lot of time on the T360 because we wanted to introduce a lift axle which we knew was something that was being done in the aftermarket. It was a process which took a lot of time and a lot of cost to our customer,” she recalls.

“We knew this would be something we could streamline but with all of the variations in the chassis, the axles and the suspension configurations, it did take some time to work out where we would install components, route cables and hoses and everything like that to try to capture a design that suited a high proportion of customers and would go smoothly down the production line.”

The very nature of Kim Bennett’s and her team’s efforts translate into extensive lead times and it can sometimes take years for what begins as a concept for a truck, to it rolling off the production line and ready for work. p r i m em over m a g . c o m . a u

61

INSIGHT | VICTORIAN TRANSPORT ASSOCIATION INSTITUTE

Keeping the cooling system cool PETER HART

T

he table shows an energy balance for a commercial diesel engine based upon tests. The cooling system must absorb a whopping 38 per cent of the power flow coming from the fuel. So how can you check the condition of the cooling system? This article focuses on the coolant.

The cooling system should keep the diesel engine at an optimum temperature so that the engine achieves a long life and the fuel economy can be optimised. Under Australian longdistance conditions, the ideal operating temperature of the coolant returning from the engine is about 102°C. It gets cooled by the radiator. The oil will be hotter.

When it returns to the sump the engine oil is probably 110°C+. It gets cooled by the sump and on some engine oil cooler

Localised cavitation damage on a pump impeller.

62

de c e mbe r 2020 2018

bundles. The return fuel also plays its part by cooling the injectors. It is probably at 60-70°C coming out of the engine. It gets cooled by the fuel tank. If the engine has an EGR system, there may also be an EGR cooler that puts additional heat into the coolant.

Most of the cooling occurs in the radiator. There will be a thermostat in the radiator path to get the engine to working temperature quickly. The thermostat starts to open when the coolant temperature it experiences is in the range 80-90°C. There are two types of thermostats,’ blockers’ and ‘bypass’. If the thermostat sticks open, then the engine will run cold when the engine operates under low power. The oil will be cold and more viscous, so the lubrication is substandard. The fuel burns slower and this results in oil and fuel deposits in the cylinders. The engine runs dirtier. In an extreme situation, the engine might bind.

If the thermostat sticks closed, then the radiator is closed off and the engine will overheat. Thermostats are reliable but can fail when the truck has done more than 1,000,000km, so changing it is a preventative maintenance.

Coolant for heavy-duty diesel engines is typically a 50/50 solution of glycol with water. Glycol comes in two types, which are Ethylene Glycol and Propylene Glycol. These chemicals stop the coolant from freezing when the vehicle is parked during winter and boiling under high power conditions. Ethylene Glycol, which is the most common base for truck coolant, has good thermal properties so the heat can be efficiently transferred from the engine to the radiator. EG tastes bittersweet and causes inebriation.

EG is toxic; it is also odourless. Wash coolant off if it gets spilt on you! EG will also burn as a powder if it is spilt on an exhaust pipe. The standard for coolant is Australian Standard AS2104:2004 and specifies two types, which are Type A (glycol + corrosion inhibitor) and Type B (corrosion inhibitor only).

Ethylene Glycol coolant is usually died green-yellow but beware, colour is not a reliable indicator of the chemical type of coolant. Propylene Glycol is also used on Australian diesel engines. The best advice is to use a coolant type recommended by the engine manufacturer.

A typical diesel coolant has a boiling temperature of 128° C and a freezing temperature of -37° C. The pH is 8-9.

In Australia coolant is needed for the coolant system to operate at high temperatures and pressures. The cooling system is closed so pressure rises when the engine gets hot. Typically, the radiator cap will release pressure to protect the radiator at about 1 atmosphere gauge pressure (~100kPa). The cooling system is a ripe environment for metal corrosion.

Uniform corrosion is caused by chemical or electrochemical reaction that results in deterioration of the entire exposed metal. It can be caused by acid formation, combustion gas leaks, excessive flow velocities aeration or contamination.

Diesel coolant must contain corrosion inhibitors. They are called SCA (Supplemental Coolant Additives). SCAs get consumed and need to be topped up.

Pitting and Cavitation is caused by collapse of low-pressure bubbles due to mechanical forces or restriction of flow.

The result is formulation of a small hole or cavity at one location in the metal.

ARTSA TECHNIC AL COLUMN

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Output Energy

% of Energy in Fuel

Power Out for 600 Net Engine Horsepower

Net mechanical flywheel power

29%

174 Hp (130 kW)

Coolant

38%

228 Hp (170 kW)

Exhaust gas

31%

186 Hp (139 kW)

Cooling air

1.8%

10.8 Hp (8.1 kW)

Return fuel

0.2%

1.2 Hp (0.9 kW)

Total Energy / Power

100%

600 Hp (447.4 kW)

Cavitation can be caused by mechanical vibration on a cylinder wall or cooling system temperature or pressure below design levels. Cylinder linings are vulnerable. Poor SCA concentration is a risk factor for cavitation. The photo shows cavitation corrosion of a pump impeller. Note how the cavitation damage is localised. Cylinder liners can be also attacked by stray electrical currents flowing through the coolant. Calcium and magnesium scale build-up inhibits heat transfer and chlorine in the water decarburises iron and softens it. Coolant is often supplied concentrated and needs to be mixed with water before use. Using chlorinated water introduces the chlorine additive, which is undesirable.

Crevice corrosion occurs at a place where there is a stagnant micro-environment such as under gaskets, washers or clamps.

Acid conditions or a depletion of oxygen can lead to clevis corrosion. Galvanic corrosion occurs when two different metals are located together in a corrosive electrolyte. The anode metals deteriorate fast and the cathodic metal is protected.

Galvanic corrosion should be avoided by correct design, but imbalanced coolant is a significant risk factor. Electrolysis occurs when stray electrical current flows through the coolant because of bad electrical connections in the grounding system. The cooling system is the likely path for stray current. Aluminium is the

most likely target of electrolysis.

Additive and inhibitor packages are essential to suppress cavitation, scale build-up, rust and acid formation.

The key components are: Silicon is a corrosion inhibitor for aluminium.

Phosphate is used for iron corrosion protection and pH control. Boron is also used with Phosphorous to protect the iron and keep the pH in the range 8-9.

Molybdenum is used to protect solder, iron and aluminium surfaces. Nitrite is a key protection inhibitor as it forms a cavitation resistant layer on liner sleeves.

Coolant analysis will report the Nitrite level with 800ppm a desirable number.

Heavy duty diesel engine cooling systems commonly have a coolant filter.

This filters out particles of scale and imperfections. It is also loaded with corrosion inhibitor chemicals that are continuously absorbed as the coolant flows through to complement the SDA dosing. This is usually described as delivery of supplemental coolant extenders. There is a balance point with additives so it is sensible to follow the engine manufacturer’s coolant specification. Otherwise there is a danger that the nitrate level in the coolant could be too high or too low, with adverse consequences for the liners in a wet cylinder system.

Glycol concentration can be measured using a refractometer, which is an optical

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instrument. A sample of the coolant is put into the refractometer and the reading is used with a conversion scale to measure the glycol concentration. It works for both Ethylene Glycol and Propylene Glycol. The instrument does not measure the SDA concentration. It is assumed that if the glycol level is adequate then so will be the SDA level. Coolant test strip kits are also useful for measuring the pH and the glycol concentration. A pH below 8 is a serious risk for metal corrosion in the cooling system. 8-9 is desirable.

Every workshop needs to be able to assess the quality of the coolant. The first step is visual inspection. Look for: Foam, as it hinders heat transfer and probably indicates the SCA level is low.

Colour indicates whether there is iron contamination in the coolant. Use a colour chart to compare the coolant against a fresh sample. Oil and Fuel floating on the water can be an indication if a hole exists that is linking the oil path or fuel path with the coolant path. Urgent investigation is necessary as the engine is at risk. Suspended particles in a sample of the coolant should be resolved. Magnetic particles indicate corrosion attack of iron components is occurring. Non-magnetic particles may indicate the coolant dosing is incorrect. Suspended particles are associated with the risk of plugging of cooling system passages, which restricts heat transfer. Smell the coolant. It should not smell like ammonia, burnt, fuel, ‘mechanical’, or volatiles. The nose is a useful instrument for coolant analysis!

The cooling system is critical. Be critical of the coolant chemistry and contamination levels. Make observations, smell the coolant and use test strips to check acidity.

Dr. Peter Hart, ARTSA p r i m em over m a g . c o m . a u

63

INSIGHT | VICTORIAN TRANSPORT ASSOCIATION

SAL PETROCCITTO

T

he Performance Based Standards (PBS) scheme continues to go from strength to strength.

Since, its introduction in 2007 PBS has transformed the movement of freight in Australia, putting safer, more productive vehicles on our roads and encouraging innovative approaches to the significant transport task.

By the end of October there were more than 11,300 approved PBS combinations in Australia, with even the COVID pandemic having minimal impact on the enthusiastic industry uptake of PBS vehicles.

The success of the scheme is such that we expect to reach 12,000 PBS combinations over the next few months, a number which had initially been projected to be reached by 2030.

This momentum has established Australia as a clear, international leader in innovative vehicle design with jurisdictions in Europe, the United States and South Africa seeking out the NHVR’s expertise to implement similar schemes to aid their own freight tasks.

To ensure this success continues, the NHVR is delivering a program of improvements to the scheme so that it remains forward-thinking and useful to the industry as technology continues to develop.

We are approaching this through enhancements to the technical aspects, 64

de c e mbe r 2020 2018

Where to next for PBS? improving the efficiency of the scheme as well as supporting efforts to extend network access to PBS vehicles on freight routes.

We are currently reviewing the PBS standards beginning with the frontal swing, pavement horizontal loading and braking standards. A key early outcome of the review was an amendment to the frontal swing standard earlier this year, allowing for greater flexibility for PBS vehicle designs.

By increasing the frontal swing performance measures from 0.7m to

National Law, also presents significant opportunities to improve and streamline the scheme.

Key to the review is how we migrate mature PBS designs and combinations into the prescriptive fleet. This will not only improve the efficiency of our prescriptive fleet, but also creates bandwidth for those within the PBS scheme to focus on the next generation of innovation.

For example, the truck and dog continues to be the most popular PBS combination, with most applications

This momentum has established Australia as a clear, international leader in innovative vehicle design with jurisdictions in Europe, the United States and South Africa seeking out the NHVR’s expertise to implement similar schemes to aid their own freight tasks.

0.85m we were able to address industry concerns and reduce the need for PBS vehicles to obtain frontal swing exemptions, especially A-Double and truck and dog combinations.

The PBS Tyre Review is also ongoing, with on-road testing delayed due to border restrictions hopefully getting underway early in the New Year.

The current review of the Heavy Vehicle

being very similar. We know that industry would benefit from an integration of these combinations to the prescriptive fleet.

The other question considered by the HVNL review is technology. The time is right to look at how we can look at integrating new technological advances within the PBS standards. All this work leads us towards what we are calling

NATIONAL HEAVY VEHICLE REGULATOR | INSIGHT

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Fonterra PBS approved A-double milk tanker.

PBS 2.0, the NHVR’s vision for the next generation of PBS that learns from the journey so far and reforms the scheme to support innovation, safety and productivity.

The other key part of our approach to encourage uptake of PBS vehicles is through enhancing access across freight routes.

Our Strategic Local Government Asset Assessment Project (SLGAAP) is working to support councils across the country with engineering and access assistance on these key routes.

Through SLGAAP, local governments will be able to better understand

their existing assets and support more access requests for a range of vehicles, including PBS. After successfully piloting the approach, with twelve councils this year, we recently sought nominations of assets from councils for Round 1 of the project and received an overwhelmingly positive response.

It shows that the appetite is there from local governments who can see the productivity, amenity and safety benefits PBS can bring.

In the coming months, the results from the Pilot and Round 1 asset assessments will be available to local government road managers as well as industry,

informing route planning and related permit application processes.

The PBS scheme is something the NHVR takes great pride in. As it matures we are seeing more and more how it has already fundamentally changed the way we move freight in this country while delivering significant safety and productivity benefits.

I look forward to continuing to work with the industry to improve and grow the scheme, for the benefit of all road users and our broader economy.

Sal Petroccitto, CEO, NVHR p r i m em over m a g . c o m . a u

65

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KIRK CONINGHAM

G

overnments and industry came together during the COVID-19 crisis in ways that few could have ever imagined let alone predicted. Empty supermarket shelves panicked the nation and the cry was heard to quickly consult and collaborate with industry to ensure essential supply for all Australian consumers. The outcome for our industry was that freight continued to cross state borders and into communities. Where others grappled with enduring obstacles, the freight industry worked incredibly closely with governments to, quite literally, continue to deliver.

Welcome to COVID normal.

The supply chain industry is now in a greatly enhanced position. It has achieved high levels of trust and quality relationships with governments, extending across a broader range of Federal and State departments (including Home Affairs and Treasury) to table once difficult and long-drawn-out discussions.

ALC is now calling on government to hold on to this new COVID normal and establish a formal process to collaborate with industry at the beginning of the policy development process — not the end.

The standard government process to addressing a problem or opportunity is to develop policy, implement that policy

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Welcome to COVID normal through regulation and/or legislation, then give industry the opportunity to address it through a Regulatory Impact Statement. COVID turned this on its head as the deep experience and understanding of industry was engaged from the beginning. Helping address the problem or the opportunity and working together to deliver sensible solutions.

When meaningful collaboration is the start of the process, as demonstrated throughout COVID, benefits fall to everyone.

Take the curfews example. The problem was too much noise, the early solution was to ban delivery at certain times or restrict access, particularly around residential areas.

Fast forward to 2020. If governments and Industry consulted on the same problem today the sensible resolution wouldn’t require regulation or legislation that ultimately costs the economy dearly. Modern demands would be met with modern remedies. These could include the use of much quieter electric vehicles and changing regulations on noisy reversing alarms by engaging new and widely available technologies like reversing cameras and proximity sensors. Sensible industry led solutions, recommended by industry experts.

The new COVID normal approach has

delivered other benefits. It has exposed government decision-makers to the professionalism, ‘can do’ attitudes and high-calibre people that are fundamental to our industry. This has justifiably, and dramatically, increased the trust of senior bureaucrats, political leaders and governments in our industry.

Through this mechanism we can move beyond old-school default positions including those that unhelpfully and immediately prioritise the movement of people over freight. What the COVID experience has shown us is that there are many circumstances in which the movement of people is far less critical than the movement of freight.

We must bank the trust dividend and ensure open conversations and collaboration across ministries and governments extend into the future.

As has been amply demonstrated throughout this crisis, we achieve great things working together. COVID normal is here to stay. The benefits, hard won during the most difficult of times, must be preserved and put to work as Australia grows its way out of a recession with the full and essential support of the supply chain industry.

Kirk Coningham CEO, ALC

p r i m em over m a g . c o m . a u

67

INSIGHT | TRUCK VICTORIAN INDUSTRY TRANSPORT COUNCIL ASSOCIATION

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Time for action, not more talk

TONY MCMULLAN PETER ANDERSON

T

he Australian Federal Government has a mandate to align with international regulations wherever practical — in particular European regulations.

This is part of an overarching global harmonisation strategy that is aimed at reducing Australian specific laws and rules, enabling trade to be accomplished between our country and international markets. This is a two-way street, allowing products from Australia to be exported more efficiently and allowing us to import goods that have been developed to international regulations, rather than to Australian specific laws. The end result is the ability for our exporters to play on the world stage and more choice for Australian consumers. In the new vehicle space, this international harmonisation is achieved by a piece of regulation known as the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe Agreement for World Harmonisation of Vehicle Regulations — 1958, known within government and industry circles simply as ‘the ’58 Agreement’, of which Australia has been a signatory since the year 2000. Under our ‘58 Agreement obligations, Australia adopts European safety and environmental vehicle regulations where appropriate and typically within two, to four years, after implementation in Europe. A notable exception to this practice is Australia’s non adoption of the Euro VI emission standard for heavy vehicles. This regulation came into effect from 2014 in Europe. Japan 68

de c e mbe r 2020

adopted this regulation in 2015, while the USA led the world, moving to an equivalent emission standard, US-EPA10, way back in 2010. Recent announcements

by Mexico, China and India, will see these countries all adopt Euro VI, or equivalent standards, well before Australia, who is yet to set an introduction date.

In late October this year, the federal Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Communications released its Draft Regulation Impact Statement (RIS) for public information and comment, the first step in the process for the adoption of better exhaust emission standards.

While it appears that our regulators are finally moving on the issue of improving Australian air quality, all is not what it seems. For those with a long memory, this is the not the first attempt at implementing Euro VI that the Australian Government has undertaken. Back in late 2015, the then Abbott Government announced, with much fanfare, ‘a whole of government approach’ to the introduction of new vehicle emission standards. A year later, in late 2016, a Draft RIS was released that outlined the benefits of moving to cleaner vehicles. Nothing eventuated from that process.

Over five years and three prime ministers’ later, we find ourselves back at the start of the process, with the October 2020 RIS making an even more compelling case for cleaner heavy vehicle emission standards. As time has marched on since 2015/2016, so to has the body of evidence supporting cleaner vehicle emissions. The current Draft RIS details that 57 per cent of particulate matter (PM) emissions from vehicles in Australia, come from heavy diesel engines. PM is a known contributor to asthma attacks and global medical studies directly link PM with increased

risk of cancer in humans. The Draft RIS contains the results of a financial analysis

by Bureau of Infrastructure and Transport Research Economics in Canberra, that found there would be a direct benefit of $6,672 million by 2050 to the health and wellbeing of the Australian community if Euro VI was adopted. This would have an indirect benefit to governments by reducing pressure on the public health system with the majority of health benefits accruing in metropolitan areas, where the number of people and average level of exposure to noxious emissions from road vehicles is greater. The Australian Bureau of Statistics estimates that 71 per cent of the population resides in major cities and another 18 per cent in inner regional areas, meaning that around 89 per cent of the Australian population would potentially benefit directly from improved air quality.

In 2015 the Truck Industry Council (TIC) strongly supported the introduction of Euro VI and alternative emission standards from Japan and the USA, for Australia.

That TIC position has not wavered. We continue to call upon our regulators to introduce Euro VI and alternative standards, by 2023/2024 and not further delay the timing until 2027/2028, as is currently recommended in the latest Draft RIS. A copy of the Euro VI Draft RIS can be found at: https://www.infrastructure. gov.au/vehicles/environment/forum/ files/light-vehicle-emission-standards-forcleaner-air.pdf with submissions closing by 26 February 2021. I urge industry to support the adoption of Euro VI, sooner rather than later, and in doing so, deliver health benefits for Australians. Now is the time for action, not more talk.

Tony McMullan CEO, Truck Industry Council

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Resilience, flexibility, optimism as 2020 ends

PETER ANDERSON

I

t’s difficult to believe ten months have passed since early March, when the VTA hosted its annual conference with over 200 VTA members at Phillip Island. Little did we know it would be the last time we would be gathering in person for an event of any significant size and scale — thanking our lucky stars that we just managed to pull off the conference before COVID-19 border closures and capacity restrictions forced the cancellation of major events for the remainder of the year.

We saw signs early on at that event that the resilience, flexibility and optimism from transport operators that would be needed to survive 2020 was already apparent in spades.

Our industry was one of the first to recognise the supply chain threats posed by coronavirus and the uncertainties it would create for consumers, with our very first joint communique from the VTA and state-based transport associations anticipating disruptions and urging patience from consumers. That set the tone for the VTA’s advocacy for policy settings and support from legislators and regulators to assist our members and freight operators through the pandemic, and for reassuring consumers that the freight industry would service their needs and ensure ample supplies of food, medicine and other essential goods.

Through consistent advocacy, the VTA and other industry groups kept our industry open and working, servicing

record consumer demand prompted by unwarranted fear of shortages. Practical efforts to keep supply chains functional were suggested including the removal of curfews on heavy vehicles and efforts to keep clearways unobstructed to allow operators and their drivers to keep up with the freight task.

In the early days of the pandemic when supermarkets struggled to keep up with demand, measures like this were credited with normalcy returning to national supply chains as consumers adjusted to forced lockdowns.

Federal and state ministers and their bureaucracies are to be congratulated for listening to what our industry needed to help keep supply chains moving, particularly Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack and Victorian Ports and Freight Minister Melissa Horne, who helped fast-track decisions by removing red-tape to allow freight and logistics companies to service their customers.

As it became apparent we were going to have to live with coronavirus for many months to come, our efforts quickly turned to how freight operators could best be supported in order to maintain an ample pool of safe and healthy drivers. Operators were trailblazers of COVID Safety Plans to keep workers and their workplaces clean and hygienic.

Advocacy from the VTA and our affiliates ensured freight and logistics employees were recognised as essential workers, safeguarding their employment and the sector’s capacity to service the economy through lockdowns. State and Commonwealth governments have done their bit with financial support and incentives to promote investment in people and equipment.

As a Victorian-based advocacy group,

COVID-19 has impacted the VTA and our Melbourne and Victorian members particularly hard through 16 weeks of harsh lockdowns and trading restrictions. Notwithstanding this, our members have remained overwhelmingly positive, with consecutive VTA COVID Insights surveys showing overwhelming optimism for a strong business recovery.

This is outstanding validation of our industry’s efforts to adjust to service customer needs.

Looking to the future, our Insights report showed half of operators agree or strongly agree that COVID-19 will generate even bigger volumes of freight, and that more than half (55 per cent) agree or strongly agree domestic and international trade will increase in the coming months.

After a year of chaos and turmoil, these results are especially encouraging, as are findings that two-thirds of respondents would invest in their businesses by purchasing new capital equipment, and by hiring new staff (31 per cent) or leave staffing levels unchanged (31 per cent).

For this optimism to continue it is essential that border crossing restrictions with Victoria and other jurisdictions be removed as quickly as possible so that national supply chains can fully support the re-opening of our state and national economies. Let us all hope that the free and unfettered movement of people and goods can resume in 2021, albeit in a new, COVID Safe, normal.

From all of us at the VTA, thank you for your support during this difficult year, and we wish you a safe Christmas and the most prosperous New Year in 2021.

Peter Anderson CEO, VTA p r i m em over m a g . c o m . a u

69

PETER SHIELDS’ NUMBER CRUNCH

Moonlight Mile through 30 June 2022.

“This is a game changer that will unlock investment in upgraded truck fleets,” says Australian Trucking Association Chair David Smith. “It will support jobs and put newer, safer and greener trucks on the road.”

Demand for road transport and additional commercial vehicles will also be fuelled by the Government’s $110 billion infrastructure plans. As 2021 approaches, the cost of investing in new vehicles has been further reduced due to historically low interest rates for finance.

The Australian new truck market continued along its path to recovery as the country emerges from various state border closures and a degree of economic confidence returns. According to the statistics compiled by the Truck Industry Council, 2,483 new prime movers and cab-chassis were sold during October, 154 units more than in the previous month of September but still 120 units less than in October last year. Heavy Van sales continued to strengthen, despite October’s total of 528 being just one unit less than in September, yet compared with October 2019 results the category sold an additional 49 units (+10.2 per cent).

The year-to-date (YTD) total for all trucks was 22,746 which was 3,604 less that at the end of October in 2019 (-13.7 per cent) yet shows a one per cent improvement from the YTD at the end of September. The Heavy Van category’s YTD of 5,078 was just 204 less than at the same point last year (-3.9 per cent).

Light Duty trucks achieved 930 sales during October, just four more than in October 2019, taking the YTD for the category to 8,934 which is 563 less than at the end of October 2019 (-5.9 per cent).

Medium Duty trucks added 536 during October. This equates to 58 less than in the previous October (-9.8 per cent) just as the YTD accrual stands at 5,372 at the end of the month, some 895 less than for the first ten months of last year (-14.3 per cent).

The Heavy Duty truck category showed 1,013 new units during October, 66 less than in the previous October (-6.1 per cent) and the YTD total of 8,440 was 2,146 less than at the end of October in 2019 (-20.3 per cent). However, the October total was up 108 units over September (+11.9 per cent) which in turn was 84 units more than in August (+10.2 per cent) indicating a strong trend entering the last few months of the year.

The Federal Government’s introduction of the temporary full expensing for taxation purposes of new, and some used assets for businesses with a turnover of up to $5 billion, will enable the write-off of the full value of any new eligible asset purchased for business purposes including trucks and trailers. This factor of the Government’s economic stimulus package has been extended 70

de c e mbe r 2020

Oct-20

% Change

ISUZU

726

6833

HINO

402

4206

FUSO

309

2824

KENWORTH

230

1546

VOLVO

146

1527

IVECO

112

1086

MERCEDES-BENZ

160

1013

SCANIA

90

724

MACK

44

576

UD TRUCKS

44

490

FIAT

41

392

DAF

41

384

MAN

26

288

FREIGHTLINER

26

203

WESTERN STAR

19

200

RENAULT

27

152

HYUNDAI

18

104

FORD

6

67

DENNIS EAGLE

4

46

INTERNATIONAL

9

44

VOLKSWAGEN

3

41

CAB CHASSIS/PRIME

2483

22746

M-B VANS

138

1802

RENAULT VANS

103

994

VOLKSWAGEN VANS

150

991

FORD VANS

86

802

IVECO VANS

19

245

FIAT VANS

32

244

VANS

528

5078

TOTAL

3011

27824

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