PBS

There are Always More Road Blocks

For the trucking industry there are always more road blocks appearing to stymie the ongoing drive for improved productivity and safety. Every time we think we are making some real progress another problem pops up and appears almost insuperable. No wonder many in the trucking industry are constantly feeling under pressure and frustrated. The latest example which I have come across is the use of PBS vehicles to haul timber in the bottom right hand corner of South Australia. Just as we thought we were getting to the point where access issues were being addressed, more issues are created to hold back development.
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Call For Tougher PBS Rules

The Heavy Vehicle Industry Association is calling for a higher level of safety measures to be introduced as standard across all new Performance Based Standards (PBS) approvals. The announcement was made after a recent HVIA Manufacturers’ Council approved a draft policy to be submitted by the association.
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Fatigue and Safety - Talking Turkey About Trucking

Culture Change

Sitting beside the Warrego Highway in Queensland, out on the Darling Downs, can give you a picture of the progress in productivity possible from reform. These roads have been gazetted as Type 1 Road Train routes for many years. However, in the past, with a double road train option available, many of the trucks heading west would be semis and B-doubles. The practicality of hauling trailers up and down the Toowoomba Range and assembling and disassembling combinations in inadequate parking bays, meant only large loads travelling a very long distance bothered to go to the trouble.
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Bring on the Quads

Trucking operators could achieve higher operating masses without the paperwork and expense of PBS. A new proposal by the National Transport Commission takes a pragmatic problem solving approach to getting higher productivity trucks on the road. The announcement suggests operators could increase the payload of certain heavy vehicle combinations by up to 16 per cent on some routes by allowing quad axle groups in place of current triaxles.
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Getting PBS to work

The Australian trucking industry has been very patient with the Performance Based Standards (PBS) system for some time. A new discussion paper released by the National Transport Commission is looking at ways to extend the benefits, in terms of increased payload capacity, to non-PBS vehicles with the same specification. The Discussion Paper aims to get industry and regulator feedback on how this extension of productivity benefits could be achieved and see PBS achieve the kind of improved outcomes promised when it was initially set up.
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