Newsletters

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... 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... 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... 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... 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... 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... 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... 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... 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... 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... Read More