Road pricing reform, mandatory telematics, support for strong national trucking administration and the bigger option for Moorebank as an intermodal hub are amongst the Australian Logistics Council’s (ALC) leading outcomes sought from the NSW Government.
The ALC recommendations are part of its submission to the State’s Long Term Transport Master Plan deliberations.
By Rob McKay | May 14, 2012
Road pricing reform, mandatory telematics, support for strong national trucking administration and the bigger option for Moorebank as an intermodal hub are amongst the Australian Logistics Council’s (ALC) leading outcomes sought from the NSW Government.
The ALC recommendations are part of its submission to the State’s Long Term Transport Master Plan deliberations.
The submission also calls for a new approach to pricing that it wants put before the Council of Australian Governments.
“NSW should advocate in COAG for a National Road Transport Agreement to establish objectives, outcomes, outputs and incentives to guide governments in the use and supply of road infrastructure, with a single institution nominated to lead road tax reform,” it says.
The ALC believes that trucking industry support for road pricing reform is contingent on four key points.
That it:
- delivers improved productivity through better access to key routes
- does not distort the heavy vehicle industry and the charges are transparent and justified
- is accompanied by a rigorous compliance and enforcement regime to ensure that everyone pay their own way – no more and no less
- includes mechanisms that allow jurisdictions to determine what the efficient cost of providing, maintaining and operating roads for use by heavy vehicles actually is.
“However, support will turn on the quality of the mechanism proposed to replace the present system,” the ALC says.
“ALC looks forward to discussing this matter further after the release of the COAG responses to the National Ports Strategy and the CRRP Feasibility Study in the context of the upcoming NSW Legislative Assembly inquiry into road access pricing.”
ALC wants NSW to ensure the proposed National Heavy Vehicle Regulator (NHVR) has both the resources and ability to “administer the scheme in a uniform manner without an over-reliance on staff from other agencies acting under delegations made by the Regulator”.
It is looking for the Heavy Vehicle National Law to be implemented “without derogation” and the “uniform application of suitable ‘local productivity initiatives’ throughout Australia”.
The ALC argues that, in the Port Botany port precinct, higher productivity vehicles should be able to operate to 109 tonnes GVM, where bridges do not present weight restrictions.
On telematics, the ALC seeks NSW support for heavy vehicles to be required to employ telematics technology for road safety reasons.
Transport Certification Australia backs the ALC’s stance, with the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) the main ingredient.
“Critical to developing a successful long term Master Plan, on the best way to deliver transport services and infrastructure over the next 20 years, will be the effective use of GNSS-based telematics,” TCA CEO Chris Koniditsiotis says.
“As a technology, GNSS based telematics has proven that it holds enormous potential for improving productivity, safety and environmental outcomes for industry, government and the broader community.”
Koniditsiotis insists telematics offers huge potential as a planning and business management tool for the entire supply chain.
“In particular it can help improve predictability for timing of deliveries/journeys, allows operators to better respond to and communicate on road conditions – such as how congestion or roadworks will affect their schedule -and assist with planning breaks for drivers all the way through to planning movements and timing to optimise efficiency,” he says.
“Experience also shows that GNSS based telematics can greatly help the supply chain to better manage risk, especially when it comes to speed, route compliance, hours of operation and mass.
“To do that successfully, the technology and business systems must meet standards for reliability and tamper evidence, so that all road users can be assured that the technology is working properly.’
He believes the success of telematics now hinges not so much on the technology but on government’s getting the policy settings right.
“Recent incidents involving speed limiter devices, indicates that the full benefits of technology will not materialise without appropriate standards verified through independent, government backed, certification and ongoing audit,” Koniditsiotis says.
“Telematics also brings significant opportunities for infrastructure planners by providing them with aggregated data for planning purposes.
“Telematics can tell planners how many vehicles use a particular road, when peak traffic times are and average speed.
“A major challenge faced by the transport industry is the expense and clutter of having to install multiple pieces of equipment into vehicles, each with a stand-alone function.
“To avoid this, the Master Plan can assist industry by supporting the establishment of a national telematics framework, through which all GNNS services can be integrated in a single In-Vehicle Unit.”