Handy hints on roadside breakdowns from the ATA/ Paccar Technical and Maintenance Conference
By Steve Skinner | November 20, 2013
A session at the recent annual Technical and Maintenance Conference (TMC) examined how to minimise the dangers and reduce the stress for all involved in a roadside breakdown.
Keynote speakers were Wally Cox and Lance Fisher, both former winners of the Australian Trucking Association’s (ATA) Craig Roseneder Award, and Simon Skazlic, last year’s winner of the ATA’s Don Watson Memorial Award.
As a former tow truck driver and workshop operator in the Wimmera, Cox recommends it is usually better to send a tow truck straight out instead of a breakdown utility.
He says “nine times out of 10” a breakdown mechanic will conclude he can’t fix the truck on the spot. For example, Cox says half of the problems are electrical, so the driver will have to book a tow truck anyway.
Cox says it saves time and money, and is safer, to organise a tow in the first place.
Lance Fisher, from east coast bulk tanker operator John L Pierce, pointed out that dangerous goods add an extra level of difficulty to any breakdown. For instance, his company’s policy is not to drop loaded tanker trailers anywhere.
And he says tow operators don’t always want the work.
“There’s a lot of people now that as soon as you mention you’ve got a bitumen tanker or coal tar tanks or a fuel tanker, they will say ‘sorry mate’ because they won’t get involved with dangerous goods,” he says.
Simon Skazlic looks after compliance at K&S Freighters and is one of the prime movers behind the recently released booklet, Truck Emergency Breakdown and Roadside Safety.
Skazlic emphasized the importance – especially at night – of placing emergency warning triangles a long way back to give approaching traffic maximum notice that something is wrong ahead.
The rule of thumb is to start them twice the speed limit in metres in zones under 80km/h and two and a half times in metres for 80km/h and above.
For example, in a 100km/h area the driver would start the triangles 250 metres back – about 250 steps.
Check out the December issue of ATN for the full story on the TMC breakdown session. Click here to secure your copy.