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NEWS
Some large multi-trailer combinations are currently banned on motorways close to Melbourne
Aussie HPMVs welcome on new motorway
HIGH-PRODUCTIVITY TRUCK COMBINATIONS WILL
be welcome on one of Australia’s new toll roads – the decision made to accommodate them on a new $AUS16.5billion Melbourne motorway.
A-doubles, 30 metres long and weighing up to 85.5 tonnes, have been banned from many Victorian roads because of their size, but the new highway linking Melbourne’s M80 Ring Road and the Eastern Freeway will be built to suit them, authorities have decided.
e motorways it links will be widened and their bridges strengthened to also accommodate the HPMVs – the North East Link Authority saying giving them access to Melbourne’s northeast will “unlock enormous potential to move more freight e ciently between the southeast and the north, and also interstate.”
It will also cut the number of trucks on roads because larger loads would be carried by a single vehicle, rather than several smaller trucks, the report found.
Trucks weighing more than 68.5t have been restricted from driving along many Melbourne motorways and the trucking industry has been calling for more road access for bigger trucks, able to carry two 40-foot shipping containers, to cope with the growing tra c in 40ft containers moving through the Port of Melbourne.
A 2015 research paper by National Truck Accident Research Centre chair Dr Kim Hassall, showed that the larger trucks were involved in 64% less serious and major accidents in Australia per 100 million kilometres, in comparison to standard truck combinations.
Victorian Transport Association chief Peter Anderson says that the next- generation trucks are the “safest trucks on the road” – equipped with electronic stability control and state-of-the-art braking, plus GPS tracking to ensure they only travel on permitted routes.
“It’s a win for the industry and the community,” he says. T&D
Brit emissions system cheaters targeted
BRITAIN’S ROAD HAULAGE
Association has lashed out at “rogue” transport operators who have tampered with emissions control systems on their trucks.
A television documentary, entitled “Britain’s Diesel Scandal,” aired last month – showing footage shot in an undercover investigation, in which truck computers are reprogrammed to “cheat” the exhaust emissions systems.
e selective catalytic reduction (SCR) systems were rendered ine ective by the interference – thus saving the operators around $7700 in lters, according to the Channel 4 Dispatches programme.
e British government’s former Chief
Scienti c Adviser Professor Sir David King, said “hauliers that have cheated on the system have blood on their hands. People are dying because of NOx levels in our country.” Harmful nitrogen oxides (NOx) are said to be linked to more than 23,000 premature deaths a year in Britain.
In the wake of the programme the RHA said it “unreservedly condemns any attempts by road haulage rms to break the law or to cheat emissions standards.”
RHA chief executive Richard Burnett said: “ ere is growing evidence from our members that technical problems have arisen concerning the emission equipment on some HGVs.
“ is has led to frustration for some haulage
rms – who have resorted to inappropriate solutions, which are, of course, wrong.”
e RHA wants to see an “urgent, collaborative investigation”by government agencies “to establish exactly which vehicles are being modi ed, and why.
“As soon as the information becomes available we can begin to e ectively address the problem. In addition, this will help and support those operators who are having di culty with the emission systems of some lorries.”
Burnett said that “it’s a regrettable fact that all business sectors will have rogue traders – but these are in the minority and should not be regarded as representative of the vast majority...” T&D
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