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Dear IFRTT Forum subscriber It appears to have become traditional for these newsletters to comment on the weather.  Here in the southern hemisphere we are just beginning our winter so most readers will be entering their summer.  In Auckland we have just had the warmest May on record with average temperatures over 2°C above normal.  It is still relatively warm with daytime highs around 17-18°C.  Not good for the ski field operators or the skiers but the rest of us aren’t too unhappy. Last year I told you about a Rule change here that provided for vehicles that are larger and heavier than allowed by the dimensions and mass limits to be allowed to operate under permit on routes that could accommodate them.  In implementing this Rule change the government’s regulatory agency has used a hybrid performance-based standards approach.  Over-dimension vehicles at standard weights have been permitted general access to... Read More

Dear IFRTT Forum subscriber, Training, education, capacity building, expertise etc. are generally lacking in various sectors in most Developing Countries, and South Africa is no exception.  In addition, a large proportion of heavy vehicles in such countries operate at unacceptable levels of fitness.  I recently attended my third “Brake & Tyre Watch” in Bloemfontein, a private initiative by a local trucking magazine, Fleetwatch, in an attempt to address the above two problems in the road freight industry. The first day consisted of lectures by industry experts, particularly with regards brakes and tyres, to approximately 60 traffic police officers.  The second day consisted of on-the-job training at a vehicle testing centre, where heavy vehicles were thoroughly checked by experts together with groups of officers.  Of the 26 trucks checked, 22 were served with discontinuation notices and a further three charged for brake- or tyre-related offences and subsequently released.  To date, over... Read More

Dear IFRTT Forum subscriber, Greetings and best wishes for the New Year from the antipodes. In the past this forum has been used to discuss technical issues of interest to, at least, some of the subscribers.  In recent times, apart from the monthly newsletters, it has become primarily a bulletin board for advertising conferences, courses and jobs.  While this function is important and useful I think it is a shame that the forum’s role in promoting discussions and exchanges of ideas has declined.  So to try to promote some revival of the discussion function I thought I would present a few ideas on an issue that subscribers may agree or disagree with in the hope that you will express your views in responses via the forum. Current concerns about climate change are driving substantial efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and the most obvious step is to improve fuel efficiency. ... Read More

Dear IFRTT Forum subscriber, During the first week of November I spent a most enjoyable week in Berlin (what a majestic and interesting city!) attending the 5th meeting of the ISO/PC 241 committee, which had the task of reviewing the comments on Committee Draft 2 of ISO 39001, Road Traffic Safety Management Systems.  This is a new ISO standard (due to be published by early 2013) that will be relevant to all organisations that have an impact on road safety.  This includes road authorities (planners, designers and operators), vehicle manufacturers, consignors (shippers), consignees (receivers of freight), freight and passenger transport operators and emergency response organisations.  As in the case of ISO 9001 and ISO 14001, the standard is generic, and organisations will be responsible for identifying and monitoring their own intermediate safety outcome factors in addition to the final safety outcome factors (deaths and serious injuries).  The Editorial Committee is... Read More

Dear IFRTT Forum subscriber, an European update. The weather is in its pre-hibernating and somewhat unruly stage and the birches are saying “see you next year” by glowing like unpolished gold. On the other hand, the economy has a springtime smell, at least in Northern Europe. A small and export-dependant country like Sweden (it is sometimes better to be in a small boat even on the high seas) survived the crisis surprisingly well and truck and bus manufacturers are re-hiring and increasing R&D efforts. There are indications that Germany might start trials on longer, if not heavier, vehicle combinations. This is good news, but I will believe when I see it. The EU Transport Commissioner is still saying no to cross-border operation of modular concept vehicles. He does this on grounds of his (secret) legal interpretation of the W&D Directive. In the long run the “consenting adults” principle cannot be stopped.... Read More

Dear IFRTT Forum subscriber, the snow is fairly deep in the middle and northern parts of Sweden, this brightens up your day and you are able to listen to the different temperature and humidity dependant sounds from stepping on it, my favourite being the “potato-flour” squeal when compressed. Slowly, we get accustomed to telling ourselves that anything above minus 10 degrees centigrade is reasonably mild enough to get started in the morning to get to work and preferable to the plus 40 degrees reported from Melbourne. This seems fairly analogous to the European transport policy debate, squeals have been heard in the past. The European Commission is later this year due to present the next White Paper on Transport Policy for the 2011 to 2020 period. Policy statements like this sometimes tend to crash with realities, but that is probably partly the intent. Unemployment rate is still increasing as well... Read More