International Trucks, Safety, Innovation, Top Technicians and an Electric Truck

There are Awards and Dealerships this week for International Trucks, Safety, Innovation, Top Technicians and an Electric Truck

Iveco has announced five more dealerships to oversee the sales, service and parts support for the reintroduced International truck range in Australia. The latest appointments include Black Truck Sales and Honeycombes Sales & Service in Queensland, Sydney Truck & Machinery Centre in New South Wales, Bendigo Truck Centre in Victoria and Purcher International in Western Australia.

These join an initial group of 11 outlets, further increasing coverage for potential Inter owners, and as with the original appointments, the new dealerships are all current Iveco dealers as well as authorised Cummins service outlets.

Safety Innovation Award

The National Heavy Vehicle Regulator (NHVR)/the Australian Livestock and Rural Transporters Association (ALRTA) Safety Innovation Award is a joint government-industry initiative that recognises and rewards rural road transport operators who have identified Heavy Vehicle National Law (HVNL) related safety risks and implemented successful, innovative control measures.

The award will be announced at the Livestock and Rural Transporters Association of Victoria (LRTAV) conference on 11 August in Torquay, Victoria.

The finalists for the award are:

Athol Carter, Frasers Transport, QLD

Undertook a complete organisational safety review and implemented processes and training to improve operations where safety improvement opportunities were identified.

Dean Clarke, Hopkins Transport, NSW

Instilled an emphasis on correctly and consistently performing safe operating procedures through the roll out of an organisation-wide program.

Graham Hoare, Martin Group, NSW

Introduced lower speeds set in speed limiter and a GPS-based alert system for speeding. Achieved 90 per cent less speed occurrence since introduction of new systems.

Marcus Watson, Marley’s Transport, WA

Installed seeing machines to fleet vehicles identified as high risk. This influenced safer driving behaviour and reduced driver fatigue and loss of concentration on the road.

Peter Callanan, Shanahan’s Livestock Transport, VIC

Improved carrier-customer communications and expectations to more safely and better manage livestock loads and driver rest.

Ron Harvey, Dennis Transport, SA

Undertook extensive review into safety risks to improve safety procedures. Introduced measures to counter identified risks such as live fatigue feeds, GPS vehicle tracking, speed controls and safety refresher training.

Master Technician

Penske Power Systems has awarded Scott Simpson as the Detroit Master Technician for 2017. A technician from Penske Power Systems’ Hunter Valley branch, Simpson was the winner of the annual skills test which sees the best Detroit technicians from around the business compete for the spoils.

Simpson edged out five other finalists in the final round on Friday which included major diagnostic and troubleshooting tasks, assessed by a panel of judges. The in-house competition is open to all Penske Detroit Guild members in Australia and New Zealand and offers technicians an opportunity to demonstrate their skills and be recognised as the leading Detroit technician.

Electric Truck

Fuso is to start production of the world’s first all-electric light-duty truck, the Fuso eCanter. The production plant was recently opened in Tramagal, Portugal, where all eCanters for the European and US markets will be produced in line with the conventional Fuso Canter truck.

The eCanter has a range of 100km and a load capacity of two to three tonnes, depending on body and application. The vehicle’s electric powertrain contains six high-voltage lithium-ion battery packs rated at 420V and 13.8kWh each.

New Communication

A new DIN-Size five-watt UH9050 UHF CB mobile radio has been launched by Uniden. Designed with a contemporary style, the radio is powered with 12/24 voltage, which is suitable for any vehicle type.

The Uniden UH9050 includes features such as Smart Mic, Master Scan and a built-in scanner, making it more than just a radio. Smart Mic works in the speaker microphone and allows users to push a button to switch between 100 user-programmed channels, the voice enhancer, call tone and Selcall.