It has been a week of beginnings and endings, rewarding hard work and coming up with new smart solutions to an age-old problem.
Young Driver of the Year for 2022
The Livestock, Bulk and Rural Carriers Association conference in Wagga Wagga saw James Papworth named as SafeWork Young Driver of the Year. James, 26, is described as humble and earnest, and is an outstanding young heavy vehicle driver from Holbrook NSW.
A truck mechanic by trade, James gained solid experience working on both trucks and farm machinery while studying in the Northern Territory (NT) for two years. During his time in the NT James combined his time building cattle yards, transporting cattle and heavy machinery as well as successfully completing a Certificate Ill in Agriculture.
James started with Martins Stock Haulage after obtaining his MC licence in 2019, a role he continues in today. Read more about James here. https://powertorque.com.au/a-valued-team-member-at-martins/
The LBRCA also congratulated the other two finalists Zoe Bunning and Hayden Young.
Vale Fred Borg
This week the trucking industry was digesting the news of the passing of Fred Borg He was one of the group of trucking operators in Shepparton in the late eighties who began the organisation known as the National Transport Federation
The NTF quickly became a fiery national association and represented the interests of the smaller operators, which were growing fast at that time, and were under pressure from large national operators, unions and regulators.
Later the NTF joined with other trucking industry associations around the country to create, what would become, the Australian Trucking Association. Then in the mid-nineties the NTF became a part of the organisation now known as NatRoad.
Fred passed away on 23 May 2022.
New Branch for Penske
Penske Australia is opening the doors new location, its second Brisbane branch.
Located at Lytton, adjacent to the Port of Brisbane and Brisbane Airport operations, the new Lytton branch will represent the Western Star Trucks, MAN Truck & Bus, Dennis Eagle, Detroit, and Allison Transmission brands.
“Our growing customer base in south-east Queensland gave us an opportunity to explore locations for a second facility in addition to our current Wacol branch,” said John Delany, general manager – eastern region, Penske Australia. “It was quickly evident that Lytton was an ideal location to bookend Brisbane and extend our coverage of customers in the north and east.”
The facility will have 450 m2 of office space, a 2,650 m2 workshop, and a 250 m2 warehouse across the 11,100 m2 site, the facility includes 19 workshop bays, an overhead crane gantry, and a brake and suspension tester.
“Our team is working hard to ensure that when the doors open to our customers on Monday, we will be ready to provide our renowned Penske customer service excellence,” said Matt Oldham, Branch Manager, Lytton, Penske Australia. “Newly furnished with high performing equipment, we are keen to receive our on-highway customers and their assets.”
Modular System for Building Trucks
The Traton Group is going to be gradually introducing a common modular system for trucks and buses for all its brands. The modular system has been part of the Scania Truck design philosophy for some time, and is now being developed across all of the Traton brands, including Scania, MAN, Volkswagen Truck & Bus and Navistar.
They will all be based on the Modular System. The new system enables the efficient and cross-brand development, procurement, production and simple integration of various vehicle components into the respective models of the brands via standardised Group interfaces.
The aim is for all Traton brands to use more common components and parts, mainly within the powertrain, cab, software platforms, and chassis.
“Improved collaboration in the Group based on an intelligent application of modularisation will also enable efficiency gains and cushion the investments needed and higher costs of future technologies such as electric drivetrains and autonomous driving,” said Christian Levin, CEO of Traton. “With our Traton Modular System, we can solve the eternal dilemma in our industry: combining scale with a made-to-measure approach.”
