December 2020 Newsletter
Dear HVTT Forum subscribers, It is about nine months since I wrote my last newsletter. Nine months, since we all globally experience the new way of life and the working due to COVID-19 pandemic. Sadly, the situation here in Europe does not improved significantly over the time, perhaps the opposite. The time we bought very expensively during the first lockdown on the spring was somehow carelessly spend over the relaxed summer, and now at the beginning of winter many of the European countries find themselves in second hard lockdown. The only robust solution on the long-term horizon appears to be the mass vaccination which will start in coming weeks in many European states. So, I wish that in my next newsletter COVID-19 will not be a topic anymore and we can share again only the developments on the weather and Heavy Vehicle Transport Technology. Speaking of weather, I must say... Read More
November 2020 Newsletter
Dear friends of the HVTT Forum, Covid-19 has brought difficult times to all of us. No one has gone unaffected. As challenging as it is we still need to find ways to cope and to move on. That is also true for the Chinese organizing committee for the postponed HVTT16 in Qingdao. With this newsletter I would like to give an update on the preparations for the 2021 HVTT16, which will take place 7-9 September in Qingdao. Our assumption is that this will be a physical meeting, but we are also prepared to accommodate online participation. We will arrange this symposium in a hybrid format, where online, in person, live and recorded presentations meet in real time. The event will also be recorded for those not present to be able to watch at any time. The aim is to have real time sessions during those hours where people across global... Read More
New PBS/prescriptive legislation for high performance vehicles in Uruguay
Signed by the President of the Republic of Uruguay on November 12th, the Decree N°303/2020 of the Ministry of Transport and Public Works (MTOP) authorising the circulation of High Performance Road Heavy Vehicles (Vehículos de transporte de cargas de Alto Desempeño, VAD in Spanish). was published yesterday and can be accessed, in Spanish, here. In time, I hope to translate it into English and share it with you. The legislation is the result of a joint work between consultants with professional independence and proven international experience in Performance-Based Standards (PBS) and prescriptive legislation, local authorities with technical and legislative knowledge, a responsible business sector and a strong political will for the advancement of the development and implementation of a sustainable road transport legislation. Collaboration from the Inter-American Development Bank was key too. I have written a little about how this work was progressing in my September 2019 newsletter, and the... Read More
HVTT16 – Supplementary call for papers
Greetings all, As you are probably aware, because of Covid-19 our 16th biennial symposium, HVTT16, has had to be postponed until September 4-7th, 2021. Because of the ongoing uncertainty regarding international travel, the symposium will be held in a hybrid form with both in-person and on-line attendance options available. All the abstracts that have been submitted to date will be considered for the symposium (most authors have been notified of the status of their submission) but, because of the postponement we are opening the symposium for additional submissions. The supplementary Call for Papers is can be downloaded here: Supplementary call for papers_HVTT16 Please note that even if you do not think that you will be able to attend the symposium in-person, the on-line option means that you will still be able to present your paper and participate in the symposium. Regards, John de Pont Scientific Chair, HVTT16
September 2020 Newsletter
Greetings from the Southern Hemisphere, Weather Report It is traditional in these newsletters to give a local weather report. In New Zealand we have just moved into spring. Daylight saving came into effect here last weekend. The winter has been very mild here but in the last two weeks we have had a couple of storms. These have been just a few days of rain and high winds but one of them has had a significant impact on our transport infrastructure. Auckland, where I live, is New Zealand’s largest city and lies on an isthmus. At the narrowest points, the distance between the west and east coast is less than three kms. The main North-South highway crosses the harbour on an eight-lane bridge which carries 170,000 vehicles a day. Two weeks ago during a storm, peak wind gusts of up to 127 km/h caused two trucks to be blown over... Read More
HVTT16 announcement
Dear friends of the HVTT Forum community, As we are all too painfully aware, the COVID-19 pandemic has made physical meetings and intercontinental travel very limited. The question is when intercontinental travel will be possible again and will be experienced as safe and trusted. For example, the Australian airline Qantas has canceled all its international flights until June 2021. Also the Olympic Games in Tokyo have been delayed until July 23 – August 8, 2021. We can only hope that in a year the situation will be different than now and that we will be able to meet each other again physically. We believe that it will be of great interest to everyone who is engaged in heavy vehicle transport & technology to visit China and to see the progress in the Chinese transport and logistics systems with fascinating innovations in a broad range of areas. Therefore it has been... Read More
June 2020 Newsletter
The impact of COVID 19 on road transportation in South America Hello to all, I write to you while working from home in Buenos Aires, a city about to enter its 100th day of quarantine. Weather-wise, we are supposed to be almost in winter, but I am still in a T-shirt. In my previous newsletter, I explained that many countries in the region underwent elections at the last quarter of 2019, then changed president between December and January. But January and February are summer holidays so mid-March was the time to start business. We were all getting ready when… the COVID19 virus started to spread badly, and we saw borders totally closed, leaving people and goods stranded on the way, until further decisions were made. The figure shows the different countries shut down, with the darker red representing more severe restrictions. Transport companies and truck drivers stepped up to the... Read More
April 2020 Newsletter
Dear HVTT Forum Subscribers, Postponement of HVTT16 In case you missed the announcement in a previous email, the HVTT16 Symposium that was planned to be held in Qingdao, China in October 2020 has been postponed. A new date will be determined and it is planned that this will be announced by the organisers on 15 July. Effect of panic-buying on the Australian supply chain The Australian road freight industry and regulating bodies have risen to the challenge of COVID-19. The industry has been a star performer amid the unprecedented panic-buying that cleared supermarket shelves to an extent many of us have never seen in our lifetimes. Citizens were assured that the lack of goods on the shelves was not so much a matter of ‘running out’ as it was a signal that our supply chain was stretched to its limit due to the spike in demand. The industry worked hard... Read More
March 2020 Newsletter
Dear HVTT Forum Subscribers, I hope this newsletter finds all of you and your families in good shape in these unusual times. Life here in Europe has changed significantly for most of us because of Covid pandemic. Schools and universities are mostly closed and education is being practiced as e-learning. People are encouraged to limit social contact and, if the profession allows, to work from home. To a certain extent it is rather pleasant as one has more time to spend with the family, though combining normal work duties with role of home teacher, especially for small children, requires some patience. Teleconferencing represents a special category of tools which became ‘’our daily bread’’ on a large scale. Personally, I do not find it that inconvenient as it keeps you focused on the topic, on the other hand it can develop into a rather high adrenaline event due to the unexpected... Read More
January 2020 Newsletter
Dear IFRTT subscriber It seems that every time I start to write an IFRTT newsletter there is an international crisis reaching the daily headlines. Currently the Coronavirus is of great concern – besides the rapidly increasing number of daily fatalities & infections and the impact on the economies of several countries, China in particular, there is the uncertainty of when (surely not “and if”) the virus will be brought under control. The devastating fires in Australia are also tragic from a number of perspectives. The weather in South Africa seems to be reasonably well-behaved at present; dam levels across the country are not critical but remain a concern at approximately 50%. Perhaps it is not the focus on water security but the focus on the importance of sustainability in transport that remains arguably low. An excerpt from the draft Green Transport Strategy for South Africa: “The Department of Transport is... Read More