HVIA marks regulator’s recent 10,000-milestone announcement at just the start
Heavy Vehicle Industry Australia (HVIA) says 10,000 performance based standards (PBS) vehicles is “just the beginning” after this week’s milestone vehicle approval.
Responding to the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator’s (NHVR’s) announcement, HVIA chief executive Todd Hacking says the achievement reflects safety and productivity outcomes worthy of celebration.
“The PBS scheme is a unique initiative that enables design, engineering and manufacturing innovation that is the envy of the world,” Hacking says.
Look back at the NHVR PBS announcement, here
HVIA spotlights the PBS Marketplace Report published by the National Transport Commission (NTC) in 2017 which demonstrated the safety and productivity benefits of the PBS scheme.
At the time there were around 5,000 PBS vehicles on the road.
“Accelerating the uptake of PBS to 10,000 vehicles in the last three years is an admirable milestone, however it is only the beginning of our quest for a safer more productive fleet,” Hacking adds.
The 2017 report demonstrated that PBS vehicles allow greater payloads per vehicle, resulting in fewer vehicles movements than would be required with conventional vehicles.
The report noted that the use of PBS vehicles produced around 25 per cent productivity gains, resulted in substantial saving in road maintenance and also generated fuel savings resulting in lower carbon emissions.
“HVIA applauds the NHVR’s efforts to streamline the approval of common PBS designs over the last few years, however, we need to pick up the pace of reform to the system.”