After analysing the way some new technologies work a global expert in road transport has concluded there is no future for hydrogen fuel cell trucks, if the goal is sustainability. Recent years have seen an explosion of interest in alternatives to diesel engines to power trucks with a number of well hyped projects using electric or fuel cell power hitting the headlines.
With the announcement by PwC Australia this week of the Trade Community System, blockchain comes to Australian freight. This is a first in the freight transport industry and is claimed to have to the potential to drive productivity improvements in the movement of containers. Read more
The boom continues with record April truck sales reported by the Truck Industry Council. Strong demand, especially in the heavy duty sector of the Australian truck market. The strong demand has seen the the result for April 2018 was an all-time sales record for the month, eclipsing the previous best April mark set back in 2008, just before Australia was hit by the effects of the Global Financial Crisis. Read more
This week Diesel News decided to take a tour of the trucking Twitterverse and finding more electric trucks, autonomous driving and the MEGATRANS2018 event. Read more
It’s all over the Twitterverse today, VW to buy Navistar, car headlights warning and a trailblazing female road train truckie.
A takeover of the International brand by Volkswagen is looking likely, and VW are also in talks with Hino over a technology and marketing sharing deal: Read more
What’s going on in the Twitterverse? Well, there’s government funding for those helping out with drought affected farmers, an industry panel will discuss the obstacles to reform and Ben Maguire gets assessed.
The latest announcement from the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator has seen simpler PBS expanded. The NHVR has added additional PBS Truck and Dog combinations to heavy vehicles classes for Performance Based Standards (PBS) pre-advised approval. Read more
A second parts distribution centre sees Paccar increase capacity in its Parts Division. The new PDC in the Brisbane logistics hub of Berrinba, south-west of Brisbane, is a move to reduce delivery times to dealers and boost parts availability to customers in its retail network.
A new portal that streamlines finding, inspecting and leasing warehouse space for tenants may be the Uber of warehousing. At the same time the system amplifies property visibility for landlords, helping them to source tenants and lease space cheaper and faster.
The disruption that brought lower costs, better competition and more choice to traditional industry sectors like taxis and transport, power and gas, and holiday rentals may have an effect on Australia’s freight, logistics and warehousing industry with the recent launch of uTenant.
The brainchild of entrepreneur and former commercial leasing agent Matt Sampson, uTenant puts tenants and landlords in direct contact and provides a confidential, transparent, cost- and time-effective alternative to the old way of leasing space.
“With uTenant, we have reimagined how industrial warehouse space is leased, providing significant advantages and savings for the two most important parties to the transaction – the tenant and the landlord,” said Sampson. “uTenant is intended to disrupt the commercial leasing industry like Uber has for taxis and Airbnb has for holiday accommodation.
“For tenants, the web-based portal will curate a list of available properties based on their specific size, location and preferred term of lease amongst other things, and connect them with landlords to arrange inspections, negotiate terms and sign a lease.”
uTenant is free for tenants, and because it is confidential there is no risk of their names and warehousing requirements being disclosed to the market and competing agents, which could reveal sensitive information to their competitors.
How the service works:
As well as being able to deal directly with tenants and potential tenants, landlords using uTenant save time and money on their marketing costs through the streamlined listing process.
“Paying to mass market and advertise property is just promoting and giving exposure to the real estate agencies and driving revenue for the advertising platforms,” said Sampson. “These costs are a thing of the past for uTenant landlords because their properties will be directly targeted and visible to an engaged audience of tenants that are actively looking for space.”
Welcome back to the trucking twitterverse, in the lead up the Easter Holiday. Flooded roads in Queensland, increased restrictions on some loads are in force this weekend, workplace culture, recruiting and retaining staff under discussion and a potential female record for the Guinness Book of Records.