News & Opinion
Q: How long is an A-double? A: Well, it depends… An A-double is any heavy vehicle combination featuring a prime mover towing two semi-trailers that are connected to each other by a converter dolly. ‘A’ signifies a converter dolly coupling, as opposed to ‘B’ which signifies a direct piggy-back fifth-wheel coupling, as in a B-double…. Read more »
I saw this interesting article posted on LinkedIn by NTI’s Adam Gibson and thought I’d share it here. I wholeheartedly agree with Adam’s conclusion. Just a quick article here, I was doing some other analysis and by coincidence ended up with the datasets for the Australian road freight task and employment data open at the… Read more »
Recently the National Transport Commission (NTC) publicly announced that Federal Transport Ministers had approved the NTC’s recommendations for improving the Performance Based Standards (PBS) Scheme. The PBS Scheme has enjoyed significant success since 2007 when it was first implemented. NTC Chief Paul Retter stated, “PBS scheme vehicles offer between 15 and 30 per cent more… Read more »
When was the last time you did a road trip between Melbourne and Sydney? If you work in the heavy vehicle industry, I’m sure for some the experience is relatively common. Mine was in early 2013 as part of a project with VicRoads, Roads and Maritime Services and Transport for New South Wales to investigate… Read more »
One statement that seems to pop up more than any other in my conversations with Australia’s road authorities goes something like this: “Parts of our 26-metre B-double network don’t meet all of the minimum geometric requirements for Level 2A classification under the PBS Network Classification Guidelines.” This is usually followed by commentary about insufficient lane… Read more »
Advantia is pleased to announce the appointment of former VicRoads staffer Victor Trumper as Senior Consultant. While some in the industry may not know Victor, many will be familiar with the high-profile outcomes of his work while employed by VicRoads. Of most importance to Advantia’s clients are the Victorian High Productivity Freight Vehicle (HPFV) networks… Read more »
The National Heavy Vehicle Regulator (NHVR) has just announced that as of 29 January 2018, the Performance Based Standards (PBS) pre-advised system of fast-tracking new Design Approval applications has been expanded. Advantia has previously written about why the pre-advised system has been hugely beneficial for reducing turn-around times in processing certain types of PBS Design… Read more »
Earlier this month the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator (NHVR) released new figures on growth of the Performance Based Standards (PBS) Scheme. The statistics speak volumes on how PBS is fast becoming the preferred framework under which new Australian heavy vehicles operate. In 2017, 20-25 per cent of all new heavy vehicles were PBS approved. In… Read more »
Advantia has previously written about how the equivalency of PBS Level 1 and General Access was broken as a result of implementing the Heavy Vehicle National Law. Australian transport ministers recently approved PBS Level 1 combinations up to 42.5 tonnes GCM for automatic General Access, pending Queensland parliamentary approval of the new legislation. This is… Read more »
The National Transport Commission (NTC) recently published a discussion paper titled “Assessing the effectiveness of the PBS marketplace.” The purpose of the discussion paper was to determine if the PBS Scheme was meeting the original policy intent, to evaluate the effectiveness of the approval processes and to suggest any improvements that could help benefit all… Read more »
