Trucking Twitterverse Unchained

Trucking Twitterverse Unchained

This week Diesel News brings you the trucking Twitterverse unchained, with bulletins from around the country. We have the NSW Police and their charm offensive, making real progress, there’s a new truck show on the calendar and it doesn’t look like the West Gate Tunnel in Melbourne is going to happen any time soon. The series of ‘Coffee with a Cop’ events being held at truck stops can be nothing but a good thing, taking the heat out of a relationship which can get a little fraught, between truckies and Traffic Police:
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Resistance to EWDs

In a show of resistance to EWDs, and in its submission to the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator, the Australian Trucking Association says it does not support the rollout of voluntary electronic work diaries as proposed.
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Ramping Up the Safety Agenda

Recent events have seen a number of people ramping up the safety agenda, but it shouldn’t need severe criticism from elsewhere to get us fired up. The trucking industry needs to stand together as a single unit on these kinds of issues and present a strong and practical front, backed up by good PR, there is no room for error. It all started with the road crash statistics from last year. Although relatively low in number, the percentage jump in deaths from accidents involving trucks in NSW was something the anti-trucking  lobby could hang their arguments on.
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Highway Hero Honoured – Darell Wilson

There was another true highway hero honoured when the Bridgestone Bandag Highway Guardian Award was bestowed upon Darell Wilson, recognising his swift action to avoid a major accident on the M5 motorway. Suez employee Darell was praised by the trucking community and general public earlier this year for his actions to avoid a bus full of school children pulling out in-front of his truck on one of Sydney’s busiest arterial roads in June, and has been presented with the Bridgestone Bandag Highway Guardian award. Darell intentionally turned his semi-trailer towards a concrete barrier and jack-knifed in order to wash off speed and avoid the bus as it pulled out into oncoming traffic.
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View of the Future

Brendan Richards outlined his view of the future at the Trucking Australia conference in Darwin. For generations, the trucking industry has managed and embraced change, but what is catching us all by surprise is the increasing pace of that change. “Globalisation is a significant issue in the way it reacts with the economy. By 2050, it’s expected China will be the world’s largest economy. By 2025, the Asia-Pacific region will make up something like 50 per cent of economic activity globally. There’s a huge shift in economic power coming towards the Asian region.
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Top Apprentice, Telematics, Payment Times and SA Access

This week Diesel News is featuring stories about a Top Apprentice, Telematics, Payment Times and SA Access. A survey into the trucking industry’s use of telematics shows 94 per cent of operators surveyed plan to invest heavily in hardware and technologies for their business in the next year. The figures come from the 2017 Telematics Benchmark Report: Australian Transport Edition survey published by Teletrac Navman.
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Who Does What?

People outside or new to the trucking industry often ask why there are so many industry associations and who does what. The answer can often be quite complex and the history of trucking’s relationship with governments, both state and federal, needs to illustrate where they all came from.
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Road and Container Charging Plus Portal and Road Trains

This week we are talking about Road and Container Charging Plus Portal and Road Trains in Diesel News. A new road-charging regime will be found for the trucking industry, after a decision by the Transport and Infrastructure Council (TIC) of state and federal transport ministers. The plan is to thoroughly examine the costs and benefits of implementation of independent price regulation and a forward looking cost base, slated to come in 2018–19. The council agreed to freeze heavy vehicle charges at 2017–18 levels for a further two years, to a mixed reaction from industry associations.
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NSW Independence, Overcharging and Freight Restrictions

This week the news has included NSW Independence, Overcharging and Freight Restrictions, as well as a revamped Access Portal, all here in Diesel News. Road Freight NSW has announced it will become an independent organisation from January 1 2018. It is currently a subsidiary of the Australian Trucking Association (ATA), after beginning as ATA NSW in 2007.   Road Freight NSW says it will now work independently to campaign on policies affecting the NSW transport sector, primarily heavy vehicle safety, the regulatory regimes stifling business growth and the unwarranted surcharges, like stevedores’ port taxes, being imposed on carriers.
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Award Winners, Freight Routes, FIRS and Primary Producers

This week’s headlines from Diesel News include Award Winners, Freight Routes, FIRS and Primary Producers. This video is of Les Bruzsa’s acceptance speech after receiving the Australian Trucking Association Industry Achievement Award for leading continuous improvement in heavy vehicle regulation and standards. Also presented at the dinner as part of the 2017 Australian Trucking Association (ATA)/Australian Road Transport Suppliers’ Association (ARTSA) Technical and Maintenance Conference (TMC), Mark Collins from Frasers Livestock Transport received the 2017 Craig Roseneder Award, which recognises technical and maintenance excellence and celebrates the professionalism of men and women who work behind the scenes in the trucking industry’s workshops.
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