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National fleet age a government responsibility says HVIA

Albanese sees modernisation action as part of general road safety strategy

 

Industry elements looking for a change in approach to Australia’s ageing truck fleet with a change in government are likely to see it only as part of a range of road safety measures, the federal opposition has signalled.

The flagging of federal Labor’s view comes as the Heavy Vehicle Industry Australia (HVIA) throws its weight behind the measure advocated again last month by the Truck Industry Council (TIC) but which received a less-than-urgent response from federal transport minister Barnaby Joyce.

“After decades of decline, the upward trend in road fatalities including those involving heavy vehicles, demands a comprehensive response from all levels of government,” Labor transport spokesman Anthony Albanese tells ATN.

“Reducing the age of truck fleets is one measure, but we also need to support safe rates, invest in infrastructure upgrades including rest stops, and maximise the use of technology that improves safety.”

The HVIA made its support plain in a submission to the Infrastructure Department’s regulatory impact statement (RIS) on mandating stability control for heavy vehicles, which backs the Australian Trucking Association (ATA) response.

HVIA’s submission goes further to highlight the disincentives for trucking operators to update their fleet to include vehicles with improved safety technology.

National policy and government relations manager Greg Forbes says that if Government is focused on improving uptake rates of new vehicles through other regulation changes and incentives, the net benefits will be further improved and occur much sooner.

“There are a significant number of ways that Government can also influence fleet purchases ranging from changing taxation policy, to removing constraints on access for vehicles fitted with the latest technology,” Forbes says.

“To accelerate the take up rate of new safety technologies it is important that operators are encouraged to buy new vehicles.

“Current statistics suggest, however, that the rate of purchase of new vehicles is slowing, resulting in an aging of the fleet.

“Indirectly, the current regulatory environment has created strong disincentives for operators to purchase a new vehicle based on available load capacity.

“Even though there may be fuel savings, additional safety and productivity features available to the operator, purchasing a new vehicle is not an attractive proposition to a significant number of operators.

“Updates to vehicle technology has resulted in increases in heavy vehicle tare mass over the last 20 years when considering identically specified vehicles.

“The increase in tare mass would lead to lower productivity due to reduced load carrying capacity.”

HVIA has highlighted an independent study the ATA included in a submission to the Business Tax Working Group in 2012, critical of the Australian Taxation Office’s decision to increase the effective life of trucks and trailers from five years to 15 in 2005.

“HVIA supports the view that current tax policy is a factor in operators choosing to defer the purchasing of new trucks,” Forbes adds.

“Addressing the deteriorating average age of the heavy vehicles has to be a matter of priority.

“Unless government address some of these current indirect factors — mandating the new braking standards will not see the majority of heavy vehicles with ABS [anti-lock braking system], ESC [electronic stability control] and/or RSC [roll stability control] until after the 2030 to 2035 time frame.

“Even a small reduction of average age will see an improvement in ABS penetration, as many OEM’s began fitting ABS as standard equipment from around 2008 on.”

 

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