At an event during the Brisbane Truck Show weekend, Volvo Trucks showcased its concept FH XXL cab to an invited audience.
“We are extremely excited to be introducing the FH XXL cab concept here in Australia,” said Mitch Peden, Vice President of Volvo Truck Australia. “As always, we have been listening closely to our customers and there has been a strong and clear demand for this product.”
The big concept cab is 200mm longer than the current XL Globetrotter cab and, if introduced, would see the return of the bigger bunk in a European prime mover.
“Showcasing the FH XXL cab signals our intention to bring this project to commercial reality,” said Peden. “There have been some obvious challenges to developing a product that is considered niche in the global product portfolio. However the fact that we are able to showcase a concept cab today shows that we are committed to bringing this product to market while also underlining the importance of the Australian market and customers within Volvo Trucks’ global operations.”
Eagle Parade
Blacktown City Council paraded six special-edition Dennis Eagle waste collection trucks at the Blacktown Festival on the weekend, each outfitted with a unique charity-aligned livery designed to raise awareness for the Amy Gillett Foundation, the Black Dog Institute, Keep NSW Beautiful, Cancer Council NSW, Diabetes NSW and ACT and Redkite.
Triple Road Signs
A new Queensland University of Technology study, published in Transportation Research, looked at the impact of placing up to three signs on a freeway gantry and found driving performance is not affected and drivers are able to respond safely to an emergency situation.
“Therefore, there is a need for well-designed road signs to assist drivers,” said, Co-author Dr Gregoire Larue from QUT’s Centre for Accident Research & Road Safely – Queensland (CARRS-Q). “The practical (due to limited space) and cost-effective solution is often to co-locate signs along highways.”
As part of the study, 35 drivers were exposed to multiple signs with varying messages, while driving in the CARRS-Q driving simulator. Participants completed three simulated drives and were shown similar information during each drive, including a directional sign, a variable messaging sign and a variable speed limit sign.
“In each scenario the three signs were positioned at one, two or three locations along a freeway with a speed limit of 100km/h. What we found was that overall there was no impact of co-locating signs on general driving performance and drivers were able to correctly choose their destination whether there were single or multiple signs displayed at the one location.”