WHAT ARE WE WAITING FOR?
W
ell what a year it has been, and we thought 2020 was a doozy! It’s fair to say that 2021 has been an even bigger disaster than 2020 and it seems we aren’t quite out of the woods yet. Despite all that the Australian truck industry is incredibly buoyant, recording near record sales ( or even actual record sales, the figures weren’t finalised by the time we went to press). Tell people outside the business that the industry is near record levels, and at first they look askance. But then when you outline the realities, such as consumer demand, online shopping, the construction boom and so many other factors, they start nodding with a look of newfound awareness on their faces. The only reason for the record not being broken will be down to the global shortage of components, and in particular silicon chips. Truck makers tell you that order books are full and backed up until well into 2022, and that if only they could get more trucks the numbers would be up. Is it sustainable? Well we don’t know, a long time ago we gave up on reading the crystal ball, so it is difficult to say. However with the order book so full and buyers having to wait as long as they are being forced to, then at the very least, we will have another year of sunshine in which to make more hay. So with the industry enjoying such strong demand is it the time for the Federal Government to finally mandate a Euro 6 equivalent standard in order to lift the standard of the entire industry? The reality is that most of the major OEMs are now selling either a totally Euro 6 line up or a majority of their ranges are compliant. So if you look at the ones with an all Euro 6 offering you get Scania, Mercedes Benz, MAN, Iveco, DAF and a bunch of others. All of these brands have been selling up gangbusters, so there is clearly no resistance to the technology. If you look back to when Euro 5 was coming, the argument against it
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was the added cost and issues that would come from the more complex technology, neither of which presented a challenge or a hurdle to growing sales and demand. So quite frankly, there can’t be an argument mounted against Euro 6 when it is already selling strongly, despite any government mandate forcing it. So why mandate it when it is already happening naturally? Well that’s fine, but we need a level playing ground and we need to lift everyone up to the same standard and we need to make our trucks even cleaner to ensure we don’t kill this big ball we all have to exist on. It wouldn’t be as though we are forcing the issue with makers that aren’t offering full Euro 6 line ups. They all have access to it and they are forced to sell only that standard in other parts of the world. Paccar offers Kenworth’s for sale here with Euro 6, even though non Euro 6 Kenworths are also sold, but it has access to its own Euro 6 MX engines as well as Euro 6 Cummins powerplants. Similarly Mack uses what are Volvo engines despite the badging on the cam cover, so Euro 6 is no great stretch for that brand and many of its trucks already comply. So come on fellas, pull the digits out and mandate it. We have been waiting for the certainty it will bring for way too long. We are becoming the laughingstock of the developed world and we need to fix this anomaly sooner rather than later. Speaking of global standards, then don’t even start us on vehicle widths. Our rules mean that our trucks are more expensive because widths have to be tweaked down to meet our anachronistic dimension rules. The European and US rules allow a 2.6 metre maximum width for trucks and buses. Australian rules impose a 2.5 metre max width. That 100 mm difference is no safety issue, it has been recommended to happen for years by Austroads, the research organisation operated by the Commonwealth and state transport department. The ATA and the industry has consistently made the case that 2.6 metre
wide trucks should have been considered but the government continues to avoid the issue and delay it to the distant future. It’s not as if our roads are narrower. Australian standards mean that lanes on our roads are generally 3.5 metres wide and sometimes down to 3.3 metres, so that is not an issue. Besides if you’ve driven in Europe or in the UK then you’ll know lane space is not overly abundant. Come on Canberra, you keep saying we lead the world in a whole range of things, it’s time to just match the rest of the world and make it easier, better and less expensive to own and operate trucks in Australia. Enough of that lets talk about this issue. We have a bunch of interesting yarns for you to consume over the holidays, starting with the mighty Scania 770hp V8, which we road test on a tough run up the hills from Melbourne to Bendigo and back. This ‘Grunter’ is now the highest power on road prime mover available in this country and is an extremely impressive bit of kit. Along with that we have a first road test of JAC’s E55 electric light duty truck that the Chinese maker is hoping will leapfrog the issues the brand suffered when it unsuccessfully launched its diesel trucks here a decade ago, and jump straight to a zero emission future. We road test Hino’s new flagship 700 Series heavy duty model, taking two examples for a drive and we also take a close look at Isuzu’s recently updated market leading N Series models, with the hope we can road test these very soon. There is also a road test of Iveco’s new E6 Daily van and light truck. We have some operator stories that give an insight into how others run their fleets and in our Light Commercial section we road test Toyota’s 70th Anniversary LandCruiser 70 series, which for a few foibles is a surprisingly endearing and likeable piece of machinery. All that and a whole lot more, so enjoy the read and here is to a much better 2022. JON THOMSON
