CVIAQ wants 36.5m B-triples to be given access to the road train network
By Brad Gardner | September 29, 2011
The National Transport Commission is being urged to go further in its push for a national access scheme for 35-metre B-triples, with calls for a dual strategy recognising 36.5-metre rigs.
The Commercial Vehicle Industry Association of Queensland’s (CVIAQ) written response to the NTC’s B-triple proposalwants a longer version of B-triples given permission to operate on the type 1 road train network, in line with the NTC recommendation for the 35-metre combinations.
The CVIAQ’s technical and regulatory officer, John Samson, says the group’s membership supports the NTC’s proposal but is concerned it might limit total productivity gains available to operators.
“The limitations placed on the operation of B-triples by the 35m restriction will in some cases render them less efficient than the A-double presently operating on those routes and certainly less efficient than the 36.5m B-triples now operating in some States,” Samson writes.
“With the adoption of a dual strategy with no change to the existing NTC proposal and the addition of the use of 36.5m B-triples on Type 1 Road Train Routes only, we can regain the lost opportunity to achieve productivity and safety gains.”
Samson argues that granting the same access conditions to both combinations will give road train operators an incentive to switch over to B-triples and lead to higher productivity gains.
He says no new capital investment is required in giving the industry an extra 1.5 metres in length because the vehicles are already operating on some road train routes.
The NTC wants B-triples given access to the road train network as part of a first step in opening up the inter-capital eastern seaboard to the vehicles.
It estimates a national access scheme will slash CO2 emissions by 1.1 million tonnes, reduce truck numbers by at least 1000, prevent 25 fatalities and generate $1.1 billion in savings between 2011 and 2030.
The NTC says a restrictive and inconsistent approach from the states and territories has limited B-triples to intrastate work. It says reform can usher in “a quantum leap in productivity and safety”.
“Not since the broad introduction of B-doubles has Australia had a similar opportunity to impact so positively on the road transport industry’s triple bottom line,” it says.
