August 2018 Newsletter
Greetings from the wintry south,
As I hear and see the news of European and Japanese heat waves and wild fires in North America and Scandinavia, in Auckland it is currently 15° C and cloudy which is reasonably typical for this time of the year.
I am looking forward to HVTT15 in just under two months’ time. The organising committee has put together a great programme. If you haven’t been getting the newsletters, you can get more information on the conference programme from the web-site www.hvtt15.com . Early bird registration at a discounted rate is still available until August 15th .
In New Zealand the process of developing a performance-based standards (PBS) regime that is specific to the New Zealand road transport environment is progressing. PBS has been used for informing size and weight regulation and for assessing non-standard vehicles for permits operations since the late 1980s but the performance measures used have been based on those developed in other jurisdictions such as Canada and Australia where the road environment is different. The draft new standards are still largely based on these international performance measures but the pass/fail criteria have been modified to match local conditions. The New Zealand Transport Agency is now working on finalising the standards and setting up the processes for how they will be implemented. To this end they have established an industry advisory group involving all of the key stakeholders. Further details on this process can be found at https://www.nzta.govt.nz/assets/Commercial-Driving/docs/20180208-pbs-q-and-a.pdf
In the meantime the existing high productivity motor vehicle (HPMV) regime continues to operate. These vehicles are larger and heavier than the standard legal vehicles (typically 23m and 50 tonnes compared to 20m and 44-46 tonnes) and operate under permit. Higher weights are possible on approved routes. HPMVs are built using pro-forma design templates which specify a dimensional envelope that ensures adequate performance. The new PBS requirements will require some revision of the pro-forma designs but existing vehicles will be grand-fathered.
I hope to see many of you in Rotterdam.
Regards,
John de Pont
President, IFRTT
