Trucking industry campaigner Rod Hannifey has hit a major milestone this week with his Truckright Industry Vehicle. The heavily sign written B-Double truck and trailer set smashed the 1 million km mark earlier this week, hauling freight from Dubbo to Brisbane, Melbourne and beyond.
The Truckright Industry Vehicle provides an important service, promoting the positive aspects of the road transport industry. The truck operates as a full time working truck, as part of the Rod Pilon Transport fleet out of Dubbo as well as attending industry events around the country.
“We had all these magnificent trucks on our roads promoting all manner of goods, from vineyards to dog food, but not one truck was promoting the good work of the transport industry,” said Hannifey. “The industry seems to get a lot of bad press, so I wanted to put something out there in front of the public that was positive.
“I try and take the truck and attend one public event per month, I’ve also had the CEOs of NRMA and VicRoads ride with me, along with politicians and journalists so that they can get a better understanding of some of the challenges that truck drivers face.”
The B-double acts as a mobile billboard alerting road users as to the importance of the road transport industry to Australia’s wealth and prosperity. The back of the trailer features the ‘Truckies’ Top 10 Tips’ for sharing the road, with one tip being promoted each month, these tips and other safety information can be found on the Truckright website.
After five years on the road with the current set up, Hannifey is thinking about a replacement vehicle in the future, a new truck planned for 2016.
“There’s been strong interest from sponsors to get involved with the next vehicle, it’s very encouraging,” said Hannifey. “As a full-time driver I do 200,000 km a year, I have seven children and then I have to balance this with the Truckright work, it can really be challenging, but the cause is very worthwhile.”
The prime mover features Narva lighting from the replacement headlamps, step lights and Daytime Running Lights to the bull bar-mounted HID driving lights and L.E.D marker lamps also on the bull bar.
“Over five years, we’ve only had a couple of minor failures, a couple of the marker lamps we have on the bull bar have dropped an L.E.D, but these are right on the bottom of the bar and get a flogging from kangaroos,” said Hannifey. “The Kenworth operates an EBSS (Electronic Brake Safety Systems) package, which means that the brake lights are also operated by the engine brakes, so they’re on a lot of the time compared to a normal truck, we haven’t even had a single diode fail.”
Well done Rod! Good luck for the next million kms and keep up the good work!