PROMISES, PROMISES, PROMISES

It’s all very well to come up with promises, but the most important thing is to keep them. PowerTorque looks at how well some promises from exactly 20 year ago have been kept, aided by a couple of those involved over the years.

The promises made were by, what was then in 2002, the National Road Transport Commission (now the National Transport Commission [NTC]) about how the Performance Based Standards (PBS) system was supposed to play out over the next twenty years.

This text is from an article which I published, in my role as the editor of the Commercial Vehicle Industry Association of Australia (CVIAA) Technical Directory, has haunted me down the years. It was written for the NTC by someone in the organisation as a taster of what the PBS would look and feel like after it was implemented.

At that point in time, the idea of a PBS had been discussed for many years and was just starting to look like it would eventually get up in the next few years, and it did. For many in the industry the scheme has been a disappointment, it has achieved some of its aims, but has not radically improved productivity across the board.

PowerTorque reprints the snippets of the original story here as it appeared back in early 2002. We asked Marcus Coleman, Tiger Spider Managing Director and Bob Woodward, Australian Trucking Association Chief Engineer, to assess the accuracy of the opinions.

Performance-based standards (PBS) wins the day for Deckard Transport

The year is 2010. Deckard Transport has held the contract to collect milk from a 100km radius of an isolated dairy community for six years, and the pressure is on. Principal, Rick Deckard, hasn’t had a rate increase in four years, but is reluctant to push the issue given the number of bigger operators keen to get their hands on his work.

Marcus: “In 2007 Australian Transport Ministers through the Australian Transport Council agreed to proceed with the PBS Scheme implemented through the NHVR,” says Marcus. “By 2010 there were probably around 30-50 PBS Designs Approved by the PBS Review Panel. A further 10-20 were carried over from the Interim Review Panel Scheme which operated from 2004 to 2006.

The early designs included various flavours of truck and dogs in Victoria, mainly truck and quad dogs along with A-doubles and longer semitrailers in Queensland.”

He’s heard about PBS, read about it, and knows a heavy haulage operator in the next town who has a trailer set up to operate under the new system. He needs to replace one of his ageing prime movers and semi-trailers and kicks around the possibility that perhaps he can squeeze a bit more productivity out of his five truck semi-trailer fleet using PBS.

Marcus: “Five prime movers and five semi-trailers could now be turned over into 2 x A-double and a single semi-trailer,” says Marcus. “However, it is curious that the operator is not operating B-doubles already. That implies that access for B-doubles is limited therefore a PBS Level 1 combination is required to get access.”

Most of the farms Deckard Transport picks up from are at the end of bush tracks that test man and machinery, but he’s always wondered about the handful located on well-formed roads that have wide driveways and plenty of room to tum around.

He spends weeks studying the route map of his pick ups, highlighting those farms that he suspects could cope with a heavier combination. He does his maths on the extra capacity the trailers could carry, and calculates that another 4,000 litres would eradicate the need to run an additional prime mover and trailer. A slightly larger barrel and an extra steerable axle to take up the extra weight might just do the trick.

Marcus: “It shouldn’t take weeks of analysis to work-out the productivity benefits of PBS. Nevertheless, in 2010 there we no route maps,” says Marcus. “The situation has changed now, but unfortunately, aside from truck and dogs there is little prospect that farm gate access would be possible without significant work to get permits on the specific routes.”

Marcus: “The ‘No success no Fee’ model would require the PBS consultants to have a considerably larger fee to offset the risk that the application was unsuccessful. It is possible to guarantee success when it comes to vehicle design and assessment, but very challenging when it comes to road access. Road managers reserve the right roll-back access, even after it has been previously approved. The devil is in the detail with that claim and operators should be wary of people offering guarantees when it comes to PBS Access.”

Marcus: “All PBS vehicles must be assessed by computer simulation” says Marcus. “Nevertheless, the process is not so far removed from what happens today. Often preliminary designs prepared by trailer OEMs need to be tweaked once the assessment is completed.”

He ponders ringing that heavy haulage operator to ask him how he went about PBS, but sees a small advertisement in ATN: ‘A. Jones & Associates, Consulting Engineers, PBS a specialty.’ Principal Alf Jones is helpful and makes positive noises about the proposal…

Rick arranges for Alf to spend half a day in the cab with his best driver on a route that takes in a few of the larger farms. Satisfied that a PBS application is realistic, Alf agrees to take on Deckard’s work. “No success, no fee,” he tells a visibly relieved Rick.

Alf returns to his office and begins designing the new trailer, working closely with the trailer manufacturer. Hendry Engineering has a long history of manufacturing stainless steel heavy transport equipment, and Alf is a regular client.

He proposes a quad-axle 29,000 litre capacity, stainless steel semi trailer milk tanker, and wants Hendry to submit a preliminary design proposal, which it does. Alf studies the proposal and rings Rick.

Meanwhile, Hendry has come up with a hiccup. Because the extra capacity of the tanker means the centre of gravity is higher, the proposed combination might be susceptible to rollover. Alf subjects the vehicle to computer-based modelling that indeed shows that with the truck on a 100 circular path at 60km/h, rollover occurs at less than 0.35g. The trailer’s centre-of-gravity needs to be lowered slightly to ensure the proposed combination meets the required performance measure.

Alf approaches the local council to enquire about a bridge located on one of the proposed routes. Would there be a problem if a combination heavier

than the rest of the Deckard Transport fleet were to use it?

The council says there would, and places a restriction on the new combination using the bridge. The council’s director of engineering services also wants safeguards to ensure the proposed combination cannot inadvertently or deliberately use the bridge.

Alf tells Rick the new truck and trailer will need to be fitted with GPS tracking to ensure it sticks to the specified route. Rick is philo¬sophical about the small extra expense, and gives Alf the okay.

Alf visits Rick’s local dealer to ensure the prime mover meets the specification. He also ensures a GPS tracking unit and onboard monitor have been installed, and attaches a plate to the truck detailing the parameters of the truck’s permit to operate under PBS.

He carries out a similar task with the trailer, and tells Rick the two units are ready for registration. Rick picks up the truck and trailer and takes them to the nearest state road authority for registration, where an inspector runs his eye over the plates attached to the truck and trailer, and registers the vehicle without hesitation. Rick attaches the new registration plates, climbs into the cab, and heads home.

Marcus: “In practice the local councils have hardly ever required GPS Tracking to protect certain bridges,” says Marcus. “They also would not have the resources to enforce the operation anyway. Nevertheless, the story is illustrative of what now happens in practice and certainly GPS tracking has been critical to win over support from road managers.” Marcus: “Plates have never been used to show PBS compliance” says Marcus. “Registration has generally never been an issue for PBS. But this fails to explain the Vehicle Approvals, Certification Inspection and Road Access Permits process through the NHVR, State and Local Road Managers. Perhaps this is an optimistic view of how the scheme would work. Nevertheless, in some ways, for some vehicles the process is simpler. PBS truck and dogs get as of right access without a permit and the Vehicle Approval and Certification, if handled by the truck or trailer OEM, assessors and certifiers can be hidden from the operator.”

TWENTY YEARS LATER The scheme has been dogged by state-against-state issues, ill-prepared local government and an ongoing battle to get the simplest of access issues sorted out.

“The approach of relying on PBS to improve trucking industry productivity has failed,” says Bob. “PBS has not proven suitable for the significant part of the road freight task that does not have predictable freight volumes and does not provide sufficient lead time for PBS approval.

“Operators can go through the lengthy, expensive, approval process for a new vehicle and then be denied road access. Not all PBS vehicles have access where it has been granted for equivalent combinations.

“The productivity of the transport, postal and warehousing sector has fallen steadily since 2014. Individual productivity gains for selected operators are not translating into industry wide productivity improvement.”

There have been a few star turns where the scheme has changed a freight task radically. One of these is the A-doubles hauling freight from the Darling Downs to Brisbane Port

Marcus Coleman, Tiger Spider Managing Director.

in Queensland and the proliferation of higher mass truck and dog combinations in NSW and Victoria.

“Like all predictions the time-frame was wrong and the details were a little off,” says Marcus. “In some ways the

Bob Woodward, Australian Trucking Association Chief Engineer.

PBS Scheme has failed to live up to the case, which is described here, in other ways it has far exceeded the benefits and scope of what is described.

“Certainly, an additional 4000L is not nothing, but many PBS combinations could far exceed this outcome. For example, a truck and quad-dog tanker could potentially have increased the payload by closer to 10,000 litres with less access constraints that the quadsemi. Truck and dogs don’t require GPS Tracking or permits.

“A-Doubles and various flavours of milk tankers in particularly could offer up to 100 per cent increase in productivity and various innovations in that industry have seen 26m A-doubles with PBS Level 1 performance. VicRoads has now released a bulk liquid network which includes special access for milk tankers. However, the wins have been hard-fought and it was a full 10 years later than predicted that these networks were released.”

The recent Heavy Vehicle National Law review and issues paper noted that the PBS scheme was intended to be a testing ground, where new vehicles would transition to the prescriptive fleet. However, the issues paper highlighted that this has not been achieved, with no PBS vehicles having been transitioned into the prescriptive heavy vehicle fleet.”

“The ATA has consistently argued that the ultimate aim of the PBS scheme should not be ever increasing numbers of PBS vehicles, but increased productivity and safety of the wider fleet,” says Bob. “Proven PBS combinations should be transitioned to the prescriptive fleet. PBS road access by notice should be dramatically improved.

“Governments need to look beyond PBS and implement a modular High Productivity Freight Vehicle framework and network by notice. In contrast to PBS vehicles, a modular HPFV can be broken down into complying smaller combinations.

“Governments need to progress a heavy vehicle fleet which is safer and makes better use of modular HPFV combinations, such as a modular 35 metre A-double and B-triples. Productivity reform must be about more than PBS.”

Unsurprisingly, Marcus has a more positive outlook and in he sees incremental improvements over time, flowing through.

“The NHVR began in 2014 and whilst the progress of reform both from the NHVR and PBS is up and down with miss-starts and hold-ups, the overall progress is positive and the gains are being steadily accumulated upon over time,” says Marcus.” There are appropriate frameworks in place to support assessment and investment in bridges, networks expand constantly, and the vehicle designs and capacity of the industry to support PBS has also increased considerably. Progress is real and tangible and there is no reason to expect that this won’t continue and accelerate in the future.”

It may just be a coincidence but a couple of the names in this fictional story from the NTC are very familiar. In 2002 Communications for the NRTC was handled by Dave Jones and an engineer by the name of Barry Hendry was working for VicRoads, but heavily engaged in the PBS process. Probably just a coincidence.