Newsletter

Dear IFRTT Forum subscriber One last pinprick of the winter is expected this week. But you can see the birds are getting ready for springtime. In Europe, weights and dimensions of trucks are regulated in the guideline 96/53 although there are attempts in some countries to increase productivity. However in a country such as Germany, this is a sensitive subject. On January 17th, I was invited to attend a presentation of the research program on the Long-truck trial in Germany. At that time 35 of these 25.25m/40T combinations were in operation. The trial started in January 2012 and will end on 31 December 2016. The research program is extensive. Several universities are involved, all with their own research plans. Some transport companies were complaining about the burden of participating in all these studies. Several impacts of the project are being studied in terms of: truck traffic volumes, traffic safety, tunnel... Read More

Dear IFRTT Forum subscriber A very successful HVTT12 conference in Stockholm has come and gone, and preparations for HVTT13 in October 2014 in San Luis, Argentina, are well underway.  As you have already been informed, the HVTT12 papers are available on the IFRTT website, www.road-transport-technology.org. In my first IFRTT newsletter in July 2010, I gave an account of the excessive delay our family experienced at the Botswana border post during a road trip to Namibia. In particular, I mentioned the negative impact such delays experienced by heavy vehicles have on regional road transport efficiency.  Since then, there has been some progress – the first one-stop border post at Chirundu, between Zambia and Zimbabwe opened in late 2010 – but generally speaking the situation has not improved much.  To cite an example, the average time and cost for importing and exporting containers in the SADC and COMESA regions are 35 days... Read More

Greetings from the South, Daylight saving finished here last weekend which is a clear message that summer has finished.  The way the weather has been this year many locals are wondering whether summer ever started.  The temperatures are still quite mild – low 20s (that’s Celsius for the North American) but it hasn’t been consistently settled or sunny all summer – just like the world economy. A major event that we have had here recently is that on March 25th at 5am the give way rules changed.  Interestingly for us older people they have changed back to being substantially the same as what they were before the previous change to the rules which occurred in 1977.   The rules that have just been superseded were based on a philosophy that the vehicle with the most difficult turn (most potential conflicts) should have the right of way.  Although this sounds good in... Read More

Greetings from a warm and sunny South Africa! Christmas in the southern hemisphere is associated with summer holidays, which in South Africa means that from the beginning of December (when schools close) hundreds of thousands of people head for the coast and the beaches or to visit their families, particularly from the densely populated Johannesburg-Pretoria area.  Unfortunately, this also brings serious fatal crashes, particularly when passenger vehicles are involved. Almost two weeks ago I drove from Pretoria to Durban (650 km) with my two teenage children to visit their Grandma. We left at 05:45 and I heard on the 06:00 news that there had been a serious crash at 02:00 on the Jhb-Durban highway involving a truck and a mini-bus taxi. The driver of the taxi had either fallen asleep or lost concentration for some seconds, resulting in the taxi crossing the painted median into the two oncoming lanes. The... Read More

Greetings from the South, As you northerners now enter your winter we are approaching summer.  Here Christmas is a time for summer holidays, going to beach and eating barbecued food outside with a beer.  However, many, if not most, of us trace at least some of our ethnic origins back to Europe and so we still have Santa Claus travelling in a sled towed by reindeer – someone may like to calculate his carbon footprint. Our colleagues in Sweden are now well underway with the preparations for HVTT12 which will be held in Stockholm from September 16 – 19 next year.  The deadline for extended abstracts has been extended to Dec 1st, 2011 so you have just under two weeks to prepare your submission.  Full details on the conference and the abstract submission process can be found at the conference web-site http://hvttconference.com. As you can see from the name this... Read More

Dear IFRTT Form subscriber We are in the middle of spring and the African sun is already helping to us to prepare for another hot summer. Fortunately we have had good spring rains in many parts of the country.  But many South African eyes are pointed further south – at the Rugby World Cup currently taking place in New Zealand.  One of the critical matches takes place on Sunday when South Africa plays Australia in the semi-finals. The South African government is currently proposing the introduction of a CO2 tax of somewhere between US$10 and US$25 per ton of CO2 emitted by road vehicles. Should this proposed regulation be implemented, there will be a renewed drive in the road freight industry to improve efficiency through obvious means such as better vehicle maintenance as well as less obvious approaches such as the Performance-Based Standards (PBS)/Smart Truck programme, which is in a... Read More

Dear IFRTT Forum subscriber,   Welcome to the 12th Heavy Vehicle Transport Technology symposium in Stockholm 16-19 September 2012! The aim is to provide a forum for discussions and the exchange of ideas amongst legislators, road administrators, academics and consultants, vehicle manufacturers and suppliers, transport organizations and transporters. We are expecting delegates from all continents, with over 50 technical papers for presentation and discussion. The HVTT12 theme is “Setting Future Standards” with seven sub-themes: Vehicle-Infrastructure Interaction Road Safety Energy and Carbon Footprint Implementing ITS Innovative and High Productivity Vehicles The Transport Task: policies, logistics and co-modality Road Network Performance Extended abstracts are to be submitted by Nov 1st 2011. Detailed information about the submission procedure will follow shortly. Proceedings from all previous HVTT symposia can be found at road-transport-technology.org The first EU proposal for Heavy Duty Vehicle fuel consumption and CO2 generation measurement is due in 2012 and the European Commission... Read More

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