Christopher de Saxe

December newsletter from Immediate Past President, Loes Aarts, and new President Gavin Hill Dear HVTT Forum family My two terms as President of the International Forum for Heavy Vehicle Transport & Technology are now over. My presidency was marked by the farewell to the founding fathers of the HVTT Forum, the evolution from the International Forum for Road Transport Technology (IFRTT) to the International Forum for Heavy Vehicle Transport & Technology (HVTT Forum), COVID-19, and the further convergence of road, vehicles and logistics as one system. Bringing together different disciplines to achieve synergy in order to make road freight transport more efficient, safer and more sustainable is the foundation of the organization. With great enthusiasm, the founding fathers built an international community from which later generations continue to reap the benefits to this day. It was very important to me to rejuvenate and renew the organization in such a way... Read More

Dear friends of the HVTT Forum, On October 28, 2014 I made my debut as presenter of a paper at HVTT13 in San Luis, Argentina. I did not really know what to expect from HVTT and I had originally planned to attend only that one day. However, the warm reception from the organizers and from participants made me stay the whole week. The program was packed with interesting and useful information. This was a community that I wanted to be part of. The “love at first sight” was reciprocated and I was elected to the board and was even made vice president, Asia. The board gave me a clear and simple task: get China and more countries in Asia involved in the HVTT community. We agreed that one of the next HVTT should be held in China. HVTT14 was held in New Zealand with the first representative from the Chinese... Read More

Dear HVTT Forum family  I’m writing to you from Sydney, Australia, where we’re experiencing a warm beginning to Spring (more on this later).  With only a handful of weeks to go before Technology Convergence 2023 – the joint conference of the 17th International Symposium for Heavy Vehicle Transport & Technology (HVTT17) and the  9th International Conference on Weigh-In-Motion (ICWIM9) – you’ll need to forgive me for making it a focus of this newsletter.  The final countdown to Technology Convergence 2023 Technology Convergence 2023 is now only five weeks away!  After two years of planning and behind-the-scene activities, we’re on the cusp of hosting a global conference which will showcase the latest research, knowledge, and developments aimed at advancing the management of heavy vehicles, roads and freight.  As you’ll recall, the decision to hold HVTT17 and ICWIM9 together into a single conference leverages the strong and long-standing relationships between the International... Read More

Only a couple of months and HVTT17 starts! OMG! Well done to the organizers, your patience with all of us authors and attendees hopefully will be rewarded…   Figure 1 – Road Sign in La Puna    Well, it has been a bumpy road since last HVTT and I am looking forward to meeting you all. In this particular newsletter, I would like to write about lithium mining in South America´s “lithium triangle” and how multinational companies´ sustainable reporting requirements on their global supply chains may be just the right trigger to motivate local transport companies in the use of safe and productive heavy vehicle transport technologies and systems. By the way, it is the subject that I shall be presenting in Brisbane as well.   Lithium has become a key element in the transition of the global economy from fossil fuel to renewable energy. The World Economic Forum wrote in January... Read More

Dear HVTT Forum subscriber, The opening paragraph of Jonathan Regehr’s June newsletter made me think again of the desperate situation in which we find ourselves here in South Africa (and many other Developing nations) regarding road fatalities and serious injuries in general and, more specifically, for the HVTT community, such statistics involving heavy vehicles. The statistics are frightening and yet the majority of the population has become accustomed to the situation except for brief periods when a serious crash with a relatively high number of fatalities and serious injuries is publicised in the media. Shortly after receiving Jonathan’s newsletter at the end of June, a crash involving a heavy vehicle and a minibus taxi occurred on the night of 2 July on a national highway in the Eastern Cape province resulting in 15 fatalities, including a two-year-old child and a two-month-old baby. It is alleged that the driver hit a... Read More

Dear HVTT subscriber, I start this month’s newsletter on a somber note. On June 16, 2023, a crash between a tractor-semitrailer and a 25-passenger bus claimed the lives of 16 people. The crash occurred at an at-grade intersection of the Trans Canada Highway and a two-lane undivided rural road, west of Winnipeg, Manitoba. As the tragic details of the crash emerge, may we as a community of professionals involved in heavy vehicle transport be reminded to prioritize safety in all we do. *** Inspired by Karel Kural’s approach to last month’s newsletter, which featured developments from across Europe, this month’s newsletter highlights input provided by a few truck-enthused researchers in Canada—from east to west. New Brunswick: Dr. Julien Lépine, Université Laval and the HVTT Forum’s current Secretary, noted that province’s recent involvement in a pilot project that allows 60.5-ft (18.4-m) semi-trailers as part of a tractor semi-trailer combination, rather than the conventional 53-ft... Read More

Dear HVTT Forum members, This month, I would like to offer an exciting newsletter, reporting on the positive developments from Europe. Thanks to Franziska Schmidt (FRA), Chris de Saxe (UK), and Thomas Asp (SWE) I compiled very interesting  newsletter from various parts of Europe where you can read about the continuous progress on implementation High-Capacity Vehicles in the Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark, France, Spain, and United Kingdom. Starting from the north, the Swedish government has recently decided to permit the use of 34.5-meter-long vehicle combinations within the country. However, it should be noted that comprehensive regulations for both infrastructure and vehicles are still being developed and will not be finalized until the end of this year. Consequently, the deployment of these vehicles on the roads will not take place before the completion of the regulations. Under this new policy, approximately 4000 kilometers of state roads will be opened for these longer vehicle combinations.... Read More

Dear members of the HVTT community, It feels almost unreal. All traces of the previously so rigorous Chinese Covid regime are completely gone. Society is back to normal. It will take years until we know which policies around the world were more efficient in combating the pandemic outbreak. One serious effect of the Chinese strict control was that very few foreigners visited China in the past 3,5 years. The media reporting in the West focused on negative issues, which left many with the impression that China was standing still or even stagnating. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Although the economy took a severe beating last year, in the progress has continued unabated. Innovation, new regulations, modification of regulations, distorting business models and so on have all developed uninterrupted. It is sometimes said that the speed of one year in China corresponds to three years in the West. If... Read More

Dear HVTT Forum Newsletter subscribers, We are pleased to bring you news about the upcoming HVTT17/ICWIM9 Joint Symposium in Brisbane! It promises to be a beautiful and rich program with more than 100 submitted papers. For people from outside Australia who want to participate in the symposium, now is the time to make preparations for travel and accommodation. The symposium starts on Monday 6 November and lasts until Friday 10 November. Detailed information can be found on our website www.hvttforum.org/hvtt17-icwim9/, for example suggested hotels, about ticket prices or if you need an official invitation. The organizing committee in Australia is also hard at work creating its own website. Tickets can be purchased via this symposium website. As soon as it is ready, we will inform you about it via our website. The deadline for submitting the full papers is March 31. For those who need more time, the deadline has... Read More

With freezing cold in North America and scorching heat in South America, why not travel to Central America! Central America acts as a major connector for cargo ships travelling from Asia on their way to Europe and to the Eastern USA. The Panama Canal provides a direct thruway particularly to container vessels, with the largest NeoPanamax vessel to cross in 2022 of 16,285 TEU (TEU is the unit of a 20-foot container). With the continuous increase in international trade, the idea of a dry canal (in Spanish “canal seco”) as an alternative to the Panama Canal has been developing from concept to potential reality in Central American countries since the late 90s. A canal seco usually involves the setting of a high-capacity rail connection between two ports, or a highway corridor. It is politically and economically attractive, because in comparison, it is faster to build than to construct a transoceanic... Read More