Post by Chips on Apr 30, 2008 10:05:40 GMT 9.5
Lessons we can learn from the Europeans on truck safety
April 30, 2008
I have once again had to endure driving on the Pacific Highway with its varying speed limits and having to share the road with B-doubles driving at more than 120kmh. How can they safely do this? Whatever happened to the 100kmh limit for heavy vehicles?
Having just returned from northern Europe, I am once again struck with the limits imposed on the transport industry there. It is not uncommon to share the road with juggernauts that are left or right-hand drive in England or in France. Notwithstanding, these big vehicles rigidly observe the 90kmh speed limit while other vehicles can travel around them at 130kmh.
My observation, supported by inquiries, was that none of these truck drivers would think of going over the 90 limit yet I rarely saw a police vehicle.
I was told of a truck driver who refused to travel the last 200metres to deliver his load because he was due for a rest break. Apparently the trucks are monitored for speed and rest breaks by some GPS enforcement system, which strictly limits the distance travelled.
Yet in Australia heavy vehicles are allowed to travel at extremely unsafe speeds on the goat track that continues to be part of the Pacific Highway. Truck drivers can continue to flaunt the rest breaks by only being required to manually fill in their log books.
In Europe it is also illegal for trucks to have the noisy compression brakes known as Jake's brakes. They can only be fitted with a more expensive compression brake. The exhaust system must pass under the prime mover and discharge downwards onto the roadway, not left as a large noisy stack pipe above the cabin, as in Australia.
The time has long since past for reform of the Australian trucking industry. For some reason governments have allowed it to operate with few regulations and little enforcement of the regulations.
One has to presume that the state Labor governments in particular have been beholden to the fleet owners and the Transport Workers Union at the cost of the Australian motoring public. The result has been horrific and unnecessary accidents involving or caused by trucks, with inordinate loss of life and property.
Perhaps now, with a reformist central government, an opportunity has arisen to seize the moment.
It has long been known by the trucking industry that there is an exponential increase in fuel consumption for vehicles travelling between 90 and 120kmh. This is also true of tyre and brake wear.
If government intervened and enforced a 90kmh speed limit for all heavy vehicles the result would be a level playing field for the industry. Trucking firms would no longer have to compete on unrealistic and dangerous timetables in order to attract custom. Couple this with GPS-enforced rest breaks and Australia would not only be a safer place, but the transport industry would enjoy huge savings in costs, which ultimately must benefit the consumer.
Allan Cowley Byron Bay
1. Australia's roads are a lot quieter than those in Europe.
2. Many European tucks are fitted with Tachographs which record time distances and speeds.
3. In UK Log books have to be filled out in triplicate, one copy or the driver, one for the company and the final one for the Ministry of Transport.
4. Most accidents involving trucks are caused by car drivers who do not make allowance for their size or their stopping distance.
5. A guy as nervous as you are should either not be driving or move to Europe.
April 30, 2008
I have once again had to endure driving on the Pacific Highway with its varying speed limits and having to share the road with B-doubles driving at more than 120kmh. How can they safely do this? Whatever happened to the 100kmh limit for heavy vehicles?
Having just returned from northern Europe, I am once again struck with the limits imposed on the transport industry there. It is not uncommon to share the road with juggernauts that are left or right-hand drive in England or in France. Notwithstanding, these big vehicles rigidly observe the 90kmh speed limit while other vehicles can travel around them at 130kmh.
My observation, supported by inquiries, was that none of these truck drivers would think of going over the 90 limit yet I rarely saw a police vehicle.
I was told of a truck driver who refused to travel the last 200metres to deliver his load because he was due for a rest break. Apparently the trucks are monitored for speed and rest breaks by some GPS enforcement system, which strictly limits the distance travelled.
Yet in Australia heavy vehicles are allowed to travel at extremely unsafe speeds on the goat track that continues to be part of the Pacific Highway. Truck drivers can continue to flaunt the rest breaks by only being required to manually fill in their log books.
In Europe it is also illegal for trucks to have the noisy compression brakes known as Jake's brakes. They can only be fitted with a more expensive compression brake. The exhaust system must pass under the prime mover and discharge downwards onto the roadway, not left as a large noisy stack pipe above the cabin, as in Australia.
The time has long since past for reform of the Australian trucking industry. For some reason governments have allowed it to operate with few regulations and little enforcement of the regulations.
One has to presume that the state Labor governments in particular have been beholden to the fleet owners and the Transport Workers Union at the cost of the Australian motoring public. The result has been horrific and unnecessary accidents involving or caused by trucks, with inordinate loss of life and property.
Perhaps now, with a reformist central government, an opportunity has arisen to seize the moment.
It has long been known by the trucking industry that there is an exponential increase in fuel consumption for vehicles travelling between 90 and 120kmh. This is also true of tyre and brake wear.
If government intervened and enforced a 90kmh speed limit for all heavy vehicles the result would be a level playing field for the industry. Trucking firms would no longer have to compete on unrealistic and dangerous timetables in order to attract custom. Couple this with GPS-enforced rest breaks and Australia would not only be a safer place, but the transport industry would enjoy huge savings in costs, which ultimately must benefit the consumer.
Allan Cowley Byron Bay
1. Australia's roads are a lot quieter than those in Europe.
2. Many European tucks are fitted with Tachographs which record time distances and speeds.
3. In UK Log books have to be filled out in triplicate, one copy or the driver, one for the company and the final one for the Ministry of Transport.
4. Most accidents involving trucks are caused by car drivers who do not make allowance for their size or their stopping distance.
5. A guy as nervous as you are should either not be driving or move to Europe.