Trucks

Safety, Supply, Shifting and Celebrating

This week sees a number of announcements from around the truck and trucking industry, which can be summarised as including safety, supply, shifting and celebrating. Read more

Looking Overseas to Recruit Truck Technicians

As part of its long-term strategic plan to address the national shortage of skilled heavy vehicle mechanics Hino Australia has been looking overseas to recruit truck technicians. The truck maker has welcomed 15 experienced technicians from the Philippines, while also commencing a second round of international recruitment. Read more

Another New Electric Truck Brand Goes Into Production

New UK truck factories are as rare as hen teeth, but PowerTorque’s European Correspondent, Will Shiers, was pleased to visit one in south east England earlier this year as another new electric truck brand goes into production. Read more

Driving Down the Safety Highway

High levels of electronic safety systems are now becoming the normality in all new truck launches as we continue driving down the safety highway. Tim Giles drives the latest model to check out the state-of-the-art technology in the new Isuzu N Series range. Read more

Coles Go Electric With Linfox and Fuso

The fleet of electric trucks now working on the streets of Australia continues to grow as Coles go electric with Linfox and Fuso. Read more

Road Train Platoon in Action

This video is an opportunity to see a road train platoon in action in the Pilbara. The trucks belong to Mineral Resources (MRL)which is claiming a world-first success with a road train platoon hauling a cumulative 900 tonnes of iron ore.

The trials were announced last year and seem to have quickly borne fruit with a successful platoon hauling product on the company’s haul roads.

The company claims it will only need to have a driver in the first road train when the system is up and running. However, it is clear from the video that the process is not far enough down the development process to not have a driver sitting in the cabins of the second and third in line, there is still a driver in the driver’s seat, they just aren’t holding the steering wheel.

According to the Australian Mining website, MRL has partnered with autonomy specialist Hexagon on the project, integrating Hexagon’s drive-by-wire technology with an autonomous management system to orchestrate vehicle movement.

MRL mining services chief executive Mike Grey is quoted by the website as having said automating a road train platoon of this size had never been achieved before and he was delighted his company was leading the world with this ground-breaking innovation.

“It’s been an exciting journey over the past year and we’ve now achieved a world-first platoon of three autonomous road trains, which is a game changer for us,” said Grey. “It’s an extremely proud moment to see our autonomous project grow from desktop concept to iron ore reality so quickly.”

The project has been undertaken in partnership with Hexagon, with a view to ‘live’ introduction to enable pit-to-port capabilities at Mineral Resources’ Ashburton hub project.

The autonomous road trains are planned to be used in platoons of four, with a driver occupying the front vehicle. They will not be travelling on public roads.

“As we get ready for the Ashburton Hub Iron Ore Project and look to unlock stranded tonnes of iron ore, our autonomous road trains will be the vital link between the pit and the port,” said Grey, when talking to Australian mining. “As the first of its kind in the world, it opens up new opportunities for us, as we can trial the technology ourselves before offering it to our Tier 1 customers.”

Performance Data Tracking in Real Time

Hino Connect is an integrated telematics system that combines key performance data tracking in real time, remote diagnosis of vehicle faults and 24/7 alerts delivered to the truck’s owner and their Hino Connect specialist for priority repairs and service support. Read more