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New side under-run protection construction guide

ATA technical advisory procedure aims to promote vehicle swept path safety and likely fuel savings

December 14, 2012

The Australian Trucking Association has released a heavy vehicle side under-run protection (SUP) construction guide, with a view to promoting safety and a possible reduction in fuel use.

The new technical advisory procedure (TAP) is aimed at mitigating the risk to others that a
vehicle’s swept path poses and promoting
compliance with United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) regulations.

The UNECE’s Transport Division looks after World Forum for Harmonization of Vehicle Regulations initiatives.

“The purpose of this advisory is to encourage the use of side under-run protection devices by making it easier for trailer builders and operators to find best practice technical information about how to build them,” ATA National Policy Manager David Coonan says.

Such devices “can improve safety for these road users as well as potentially reducing fuel consumption”, Coonan adds.

The advisory procedure provides designs and installation diagrams for the construction of SUP devices compatible with most trailer designs, the ATA says.

“The designs include options to use steel, aluminium or fibre composite construction materials.

“The fibre composite panel material design is low weight and may be designed to improve dynamic airflows around trailers offering potential to achieve safety and efficiency gains.

The TAP provides trailer and truck body builders with off the shelf designs that do not need individual engineering assessment of the primary devices.

While the outer surface of the device should, so far as possible, be continuous from front to rear, ther is some flexibility, with equipment such as tool boxes, are accepted as complying, provided they are within lateral positioning requirements.

The advisory can be found here.

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