Special Report

Command performance

AS LEADERS IN PERFORMANCE-BASED STANDARDS (PBS), THE MOTIVATION OF THE SMEDLEY’S TEAM REMAINS THE SAME: ACHIEVE INNOVATIVE SOLUTIONS THAT ANTICIPATE, MEET, AND SUPERSEDE REAL ISSUES FACED BY THE INDUSTRY.

Since its establishment in 1931, Smedley’s Engineers has always worked hard to expand its services and expertise, as well as its reach to support our industry right across the nation. Being the first end-to-end PBS consultancy couldn’t have been possible without the diversity and specialised skillset of Smedley’s workforce. Managing Director, Robert Smedley says, “Our team members are in touch with the industry, with close to 100 years in combined heavy vehicle experience, and a mix of backgrounds including heavy transport businesses, truck manufacturers, trailer builders and OEM component suppliers. “ While most PBS consultancies only have narrow industry experience, the dedicated team at Smedley’s Engineers have backgrounds from right across the industry, providing the experience and know-how required to identify and resolve issues for their clients. Some instrumental members of the Smedley’s Engineers team talk about their experience, particularly with PBS and the benefits of super single tyres.

ANDREJ BUCKO, SENIOR ENGINEER

A graduate of Monash University in 2011, Andrej Bucko joined Smedley’s as a Senior Engineer in 2018 after almost a decade at ARRB where he honed his skills in the field of vehicle dynamics. Andrej is an accredited PBS assessor at Smedley’s Engineers. Throughout his career, he has completed hundreds of PBS assessments and has also developed vehicle simulation models.

DAVID CLARK, SENIOR ENGINEER

With both an engineering degree and business management qualifications to his name, David has been at the forefront of cutting-edge engineering since 2012. Growing up around the trucks and machinery of his family’s transport business, he later began his career in the F1 & Special Builds division of one of the world’s leading

Andrej Bucko.

high-performance automotive cooling specialists. In 2015, he moved across to the heavy vehicle industry as a mechanical engineer. His extensive experience in brake, noise and roll-over testing has driven his enthusiasm to find new innovations in vehicle performance, and he feeds off the excitement, expectation and pressure that comes with applying and assessing new technology. His passion for developing vehicle components that enhance safety, output and efficiency has now been matched by his drive to build strong relationships with his customers and work with them to achieve their desired outcomes.

Visy 33m A-double PerformanceBased Standards combination.

David Clark. Dion Simms.

Jackson Heil.

DION SIMMS, SENIOR ENGINEER

Dion Simms is an Automotive Engineer with a background in OEM passenger vehicle architecture and motorsport. His career has included roles at Volvo Polestar Racing and Ford Motors, but a keen interest in heavy machinery saw him join the Smedley’s team in early 2021: “I came into this project to coordinate the physical testing and to conduct the data logging and reality capture.”

JACKSON HEIL, SENIOR ENGINEER

Jackson Heil has been in demand as an innovative mechanical engineer since graduating from Swinburne University in 2013. With a background in heavy vehicle manufacturing, Jackson joined the Smedley’s team in 2018, passionate about the technical side of the industry and all the ‘behind-thescenes’ elements of design, innovation, and manufacturing to meet PBS requirements.

Ron Finemore Transport high productivity vehicle. He is involved in PBS certification and access space, communicating with the manufacturer, the operator, and the road manager to make the on-road stuff happen.

ON THE ROAD AGAIN WITH SMEDLEY’S

Currently and for over the last two years, one of the big goals for the team at Smedley’s Engineers is getting super single tyres broadly into PBS at higher masses. Super single tyres through PBS at masses equivalent to dual tyres are a game-changer in the industry, resulting in higher payloads, better fuel efficiency, improved tyre life and decreased tyre costs, as well as better environmental outcomes. Robert Smedley says, “This is one of the single biggest things the government and industry can do to reduce carbon emissions in a long-haul country like Australia, and it could be done right now.” Earlier this year, Truck Industry Council (TIC) and the Australian Road Research Board (ARRB) engaged in pavement wear testing on new ultra-wide tyres (super singles). TIC stated that test results would provide the scientific evidence required to develop a case for increasing mass limits for heavy trucks and trailer axles fitted with wide-base single tyres. Robert Smedley worked closely with Chris Loose in getting the funding proposal to happen, as part of this, Smedley’s provided data to support the safety benefits that were used in the submission for the funding. Glen Fulton, Logistics Fleet and Equipment Manager at Visy, previously spoke with Trailer in late 2020 about an order of 30m PBS A-double combinations, a unique design. He said these trailers were specifically designed to carry an awkward commodity: paper reels, which, when loaded, stand at three metres high and weigh three tonnes each. He also mentioned this design was a challenge due to the need to meet static roll threshold or high-speed off-transient manoeuvre test requirements for PBS. Moving to super singles significantly improved the performance of the A-doubles which typically get much lower payload heights than B-doubles. In 2020, this was also the first time a Concessional Mass Limit (CML) of 17 tonnes had been approved for

A unique trailer design for carrying an awkward commodity, paper reels.

PBS operation of a tandem axle dolly with standard 385/65R22.5 (low profile) supersingle tyres. At the time, this was a game-changer for the industry, along with wide-track axles and suspensions which hadn’t previously been used on trailers in Australia. This enabled the team at Smedley’s Engineers to achieve an unprecedented level of stability required for high payload height loads. Since then, the team has been able to achieve 27 tonnes on quads with super singles and has more recently been involved in testing to get 22.5-tonne on tri-axle groups fitted with super singles. Reflecting on the consultation process between Smedley’s Engineers and Visy, Smedley’s engineer Jackson Heil describes it as being just like any other project. “Generally, we will speak with the customer about what they want to begin with and where they want to transport their freight,” he says. “It’s from this point we look into what type of combination is best going to fit their needs while delivering the best outcome on road networks around the country. Once we compile our recommendations, we discuss everything and move forward with the customer and manufacturer to deliver the PBS outcome they are after.” In terms of super single testing and validation, Robert and the Smedley’s team found the super singles surprisingly performed worse in Low-Speed Swept-Path (LSSP) when modelled in the computer simulation. “This led us to do field testing to see if this was the case in reality, and it was.”, he says. “Lots of PBS assessors in the past have ‘wrongly’ assumed that super singles got the same LSSP results as duals, but they don’t. We were initially surprised when this was verified in the field tests. We are happy to say, though, that we’ve developed a solution in conjunction with Hendrickson and MaxiTRANS that overcomes this issue.” Andrej explains the difference in LSSP occurs when super singles are fitted to self-steer axles. He says, “The steer axles don’t turn as well with singles as with duals. So, swept path was an issue with the Ron Finemore combination but not Visy, which did not have self-steer axles. Additionally, we expect that the amount of difference between duals and singles in swept path will be dependent on the make and model of self-steer axle so a solution will have to be calibrated individually to a specific self-steer axle model.” Dion notes how it’s easy to assume that, at low speed, tyre dynamics are inactive and different configurations will not have a significant impact on swept path outcomes. He says, “The kinematic geometry of the same self-steer axle fitted with duals or fitted with super singles does differ and that kinematics really matter when you’re pushing for the best outcome for a given level of road network. After seeing the results vary in response to the parameters in our test schedule, I know I came away with a reinforced respect for the quality of the ADAMS modelling we’re producing, and I wasn’t alone. PBS is seen as simulation centric. It was valuable to close the loop and see those simulations reflected in real-world results.” Andrej explains how the Visy A-double combination carried indivisible loads which provided a unique challenge. “Typically, if a vehicle fails SRT or HSTO the solution is to lower payload height until a vehicle passes those standards.”, he says. “However, as the load is indivisible this was not an option. Super single tyres combined with wide axle track width, wide suspension hanger track and high roll stiffness suspension allowed us to meet the required load height.” Getting tyre data is also sometimes an issue. Andrej says, “Not many manufacturers perform the tests necessary for assessors to model super single tyres so there is a lack of data, especially compared to more common sizes like 11R22.5. However, the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator have announced that the PBS system will be moving to a standard or ‘generic’ tyre where a single dataset will be used for a specific tyre size. Therefore, make/model restrictions for super singles could become irrelevant.” Since these vehicles have rolled out, Smedley’s Engineers have observed improvements to heavy vehicle route access. Jackson says, “As the road networks slowly improve, we have started to see better access being granted which has opened up other lanes for the 30m A-double that couldn’t be done to begin with.”

For more information about the Smedley’s Engineers team, PBS and super single tyres, visit www.smedleys.co

An interview with The Quad Father

LES BRUZSA IS THE CHIEF ENGINEER AT THE NATIONAL HEAVY VEHICLE REGULATOR (NHVR) AND PLAYS A VITAL ROLE IN THE ONGOING DEVELOPMENT OF THE PERFORMANCE-BASED STANDARDS (PBS) SCHEME.

In 2006 the National Transport Commission (NTC) estimated that Performance-Based Standards would account for 12,000 vehicles by 2030. At the end of September 2021 the PBS fleet had reached 13,262 combinations, which is significantly more than those early projections. In terms of exponential growth, Les says the industry is recognising the safety and productivity benefits of PBS combinations. “At the same time, we’re working with stakeholders to resolve access issues, and that means there is even greater demand for PBS vehicles,” he says. “We had consistent growth over the years and when Covid-19 started we expected it was going to slow down but it hasn’t. The industry is very active and by end of September this year we had approved 1,634 combinations. 2019 was a fantastic year for the industry with a record breaking 1,750 approvals. Encouragingly, in the first ten months of this year, we’ve already surpassed that number.” In addition to productivity, there are other benefits to PBS. “From the NHVR’s perspective that’s extremely important,” Les says. “The National Transport Insurance report earlier this year demonstrated that PBS vehicles have 60 per cent fewer crashes. B-doubles were recognised over the years as a very safe combinations, but if we look at the safety performance of PBS A-doubles, their crash rate is around half of the B-doubles. So, we have a new PBS combination which is a little bit longer and probably a little bit heavier, but it delivers all those safety benefits.” To lock step with industry trends and advances in technology, Les says it is important that PBS is reviewed and updated to current standards. “Industry is moving extremely quickly and new technologies are being developed all the time,” he says. “We now have an opportunity to look at some of the current technologies and how they improve performance and consider them in the PBS assessment and approval process, and it is why we are putting so much emphasis on the review of the standards. The NHVR is running a number of projects where we are trying to establish how much performance improvement these new and different technologies can deliver to heavy vehicle combinations. Road managers and authorities can sell the concepts of different vehicles to the public more easily if they can

The uptake of high productivity equipment has continued to rise despite Covid-19.

demonstrate that these vehicles are safer and fitted with the latest technologies. That’s a critical selling point about the technologies these vehicles will have which would mitigate the risk of crashes with pedestrians and other vulnerable road-users. PBS is continuously evolving and we are always looking at ways we can tailor the scheme and include all the technological enhancements.” Of the most popular semi-trailer types, truck and dog, Les says, still represent the biggest group in terms of the PBS facility but other trends are emerging. “Within the truck and dog combination type we now have a much wider variety of truck and dog combinations,” he says. “While in the early days we only had threeaxle trucks, with three- or four-axle dogs, currently you see a wider range of different axle configuration options, so we’ve got the three-axle trucks, four-axle trucks, five-axle trucks, and three-axle dogs, four-axle dogs, five-axle dogs and even six-axle dogs. And we are currently looking at a five-axle tristeer truck. “Trucks and dogs are still there and then you’ve got the prime mover semis which is probably the second biggest group, then the B-doubles and the A-doubles. Sometimes access is driving the popularity of certain combinations. For instance, in Victoria A-doubles are now more popular than the prime mover semis and we receive more applications for A-doubles because Victoria has opened networks for high productivity PBS vehicles. That means industry is currently shifting towards these combinations. We are seeing the same trend in Queensland as well, because of the port operation and the opening of the Toowoomba Bypass. “In NSW, again, the A-doubles are very close to the prime mover semis and what we see in prime mover semis is not just the longer ones, it’s more the split axle configurations. Obviously, any potential changes in vehicle dimensions, especially width, are going to drive some of these developments. The NHVR is releasing a number of PBS Notices this year which will provide eligible PBS vehicles immediate access to certain networks. The level of access certainty is very important for the industry and will enhance further the uptake of PBS combinations. Popularity in the PBS high productivity scheme from a manufacturing standpoint has seen a shift in the market. Les says where there was once a niche market, now almost all current truck makers are represented in the national PBS fleet. “Australia currently has around 100,000 combinations – truck and dogs, prime mover semis, B-doubles, road trains and the fact that around 13 per cent of them are now PBS approved combinations is a significant achievement. There are other components in truck and trailer manufacture that are considered when looking at PBS. “It can be many components such as suspension, tyres and even couplings like fifth wheels, kingpins and drawbars,” Les says. “We are currently looking at the different ratings for different couplings, especially for some of these larger combinations. There is a key movement around the world toward more efficient tyres with reduced rolling resistance that can lead to reduced fuel consumption and reduced greenhouse gases. We are researching the tyre situation here in Australia with the use of super singles and examining the impacts of current weight penalties operators might be experiencing for certain applications.” Other countries are beginning to look at systems such as PBS. Les explains different regions have looked at the Australian program to determine which elements they can best utilise. “Different regions have different motivations,” he says. “In Europe, for example, it’s mainly the environmental impacts and CO2 emissions that’s driving the interest. Many places have driver shortages so a more efficient road transport system can deal with some of those problems. Internationally, Australia is still the leader in PBS and there is no other country which has a fully comprehensive performance-based regulation for the management of heavy vehicles. Now we’ve got the data to demonstrate the safety and productivity benefits of PBS. In terms of the PBS fleet we have saved 2.7 billion truck kilometres since the beginning. That accounts for reduced environmental impacts, exposures for accidents and a reduced impact on the infrastructure as well as benefits for operational efficiencies.”

Test track.