News & Opinion
VicRoads has introduced new High Productivity Freight Vehicle (HPFV) networks to accommodate 30-metre A-double combinations that have been approved under the Performance Based Standards (PBS) scheme. Increased demand for these combinations led to VicRoads developing the networks with the aim of providing a smoother path to road access, without the need for individual route assessments…. Read more »
Two recent heavy vehicle policy developments offer productivity improvements and other benefits for truck and dog operators, but there are numerous conditions that operators need to understand. The new policies are described below. Please contact Advantia if you would like to take advantage of these opportunities. ‘SPECTS’ policy for the construction industry in urban New… Read more »
Quad axle semi-traliers and longer B-doubles with quad axles offer significant productivity benefits over standard combinations, and are an economically attractive high-productivity vehicle. Under the PBS scheme, they can be demonstrated to offer better levels of safety than conventional heavy vehicles. Recognising their potential, the industry has for many years sought access approval for these… Read more »
When the Performance Based Standards (PBS) Scheme was first conceived about 15 years ago, it was thought that one day some PBS trucks would become so abundantly popular that they would be written into the regulations to become as-of-right configurations. In effect, the PBS Scheme would have been the petri dish that spawned them, road-tested… Read more »
For the past four years, heavy vehicles have been prohibited from using the right-hand lane of two sections of Melbourne’s freeway network: the Princes Freeway between Kororoit Creek Road and Avalon Road (39 km), and the Eastern Freeway between Springvale Road and Hoddle Street (18 km). According to VicRoads, these exclusion lanes are “aimed at… Read more »
A not-so-subtle change has crept into PBS with the introduction of the Heavy Vehicle National Law, and the deathly silence around it is staggering. According to the PBS Network Classification Guidelines approved by Ministers in 2007, Level 1 road access means General Access, “subject to a 50 tonne gross mass limit, posted local restrictions and… Read more »
Something about the PBS approval process doesn’t sit well with me and must be changed immediately. Under the rules, a qualified engineer who is accredited as a PBS Assessor uses specialised software to determine that a heavy vehicle meets the standards. If it does, they submit an application to the NHVR. The NHVR then submits… Read more »
When the idea of PBS was first given serious thought in Australia more than a decade ago, regulators started to have heart palpitations at the thought of losing control of mass and dimensions, not knowing what sorts of weird and wacky heavy vehicles were likely to emerge. After more than two years of operation of… Read more »
