A man who was thrown 20 metres from a Melbourne freeway bridge after his truck slammed into a barrier remains in a critical condition in hospital.
The crash yesterday left the 39-year-old man's truck dangling over the edge of the Bolte Bridge.
Police believe the crash happened when a car failed to safely change lanes in front of the truck.
The car clipped the side of the truck during the lane change, spun around and came to a rest on the freeway directly in front of the fast-moving truck.
A police spokeswoman says the truck then swerved to avoid hitting the car, hit a barrier, veered across four lanes and hit a barrier on the other side of the road.
The truck driver was ejected from the vehicle and fell 20 meters onto a street below the bridge.
The car driver, a 25-year-old a man, was also injured in the crash.
Source: Sky NEWS
Only 6 percent of the women that participated in a survey that aims to address the lack of knowledge about females in the sector are truck drivers.
Some 29,000 women working in the transport industry responded to the Women Working in Transport – a Snapshot survey compiled by Transport Women Australia (TWA).
Nearly half of them work in administration, followed by 13.2 percent in operation, 11.9 percent in engineering and the rest in other positions.
Half of the participants come from the private sector, with companies with more than 501 employees making up the bulk of responses.
The results were released today at the Brisbane Truck Show.
TWA Chair Pam McMillan told ATN she was disappointed to see only 4.6 percent of women under the age of 25, saying more needs to be done to attract young workers.
“It surprised me that we haven’t got those young people coming in because we have been talking about the skills shortage for quite a while,” McMillan says.
The majority of women are aged between 36-45 years, with only 1 percent older than 66 years.
With responses totalling 100 pages, what stood out were comments regarding gender equality in the industry.
McMillan says many reported being treated differently, leading her to say there “a fair bit of discrimination” in the industry.
“We have a long way to go,” she says.
Half of the respondents come from New South Wales, followed by Victoria (19.9 percent) and Queensland (18.5 percent).
More than 80 percent of them were in full time roles.
Most of the women earn between $56,000 to $80,000, with around 8 percent paid more than $151,000.
The rest of the results will be released at the Trucking Australia conference in June.
Source: ATN
Toll Express’s Melbourne yard will be used to launch an annual police campaign targeting unsafe practices in the heavy vehicle sector.
Victoria Police Superintendent Neville Taylor will use the Altona North facility in Melbourne to kick off Operation Austrans, which involves police agencies across Australia and New Zealand.
Toll says it is pleased to support Operation Austrans and that the business takes its chain of responsibility obligations seriously.
“At Toll we believe that everyone has the right to go home safely and that no task is so important it can’t be done safely,” Toll Corporate Affairs Director Andrew Ethell says.
“Unfortunately too many people in our line of business have experienced the trauma and personal impacts associated with motor vehicle incidents. Therefore, we welcome the commitment by agencies present at today’s launch to ensuring the road is safe for all users, including our partners in the road transport industry.”
Police last year pinged drivers for a number of offences, including speeding, failing to wear a seatbelt, unlicensed driving, drink and drug driving and not complying with fatigue management obligations.
Source: Owner Driver
Transport equipment company Three Way Works has launched the new tyre Super Air-Seal designed for operators in the commercial transport sector. According to Three Way Works, the tyre sealant can increase tyre life by up to 20 per cent and reduce fuel costs by maintaining correct tyre pressures.
“As the tyre rotates, the product spreads evenly over the inside surface. The moment a penetration occurs, the air pressure in the tyre forces millions of fibre particles and fillers suspended either in ethylene or propylene glycol to interlock, which plugs the hole in the tread area preventing any further air loss within one or two revolutions of the wheel,” the company said.
“This action is so rapid that the driver may not know a puncture has happened. Depending on the grade of sealant used, holes up to 30mm can be repaired using this technology.”
Source: Prime Movers
FRIENDLY truckie Guri Sandhu was born in India and has been in Australia for 17 years.
For the past decade the 32-year-old Guri has been an Aussie truckie and loves it.
We saw him at the Bohle Little Acre BP Roadhouse on April 16 near the Western Star 4800FX he drives for Townsville based MHKJ Transport.
"I am taking scaffolding from Townsville to Mount Isa and get all around Australia," he said.
His hobbies include driving a 4WD on bush tracks and his favourite roadhouse is the BP at Archerfield.
Being an Indian you would expect Guri to be a cricket fan.
"No, I don't follow cricket at all," he said.
When this writer told Guri he was the only Indian he had seen in recent times who had not mentioned the four-nil drubbing his country gave Australia in the cricket Test, he had a wide grin on his face
Source: Big Rigs
Thieves in Western Australia apparently felt that 'things go better with Coke' when they set out to steal a truck from a Kalgoorlie trucking company.
Police say the theives broke in by smashing a window at the Kalgoorlie Freightlines yard on Williams Street.
They grabbed keys from the office and took off in a Mercedes truck bearing Coca Cola logos and insignia, crashing through a set of metal gates to make their escape, causing considerable damage.
Detectives have asked for public assistance in locating the vehicle, described as carrying the Coke signs and with the registration plates 1DOZ129.
They ask anyone who sees the vehicle to call police on 131 444 or Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000
Source: bigpondnews
The board of Silk Logistics has decided to consider offers for the whole or parts of Silk and appointed Canterbury Partners to assist in the sale. According to sources there are more that one interested buyers already, and so the company expects the sale to be finalised during late 2013.
Silk Logistics Group is majority owned by Gresham Private Equity, which is majority owned by Wesfarmers.
The Silk Logistics Group was formed by the amalgamation of four transport and warehousing companies: Bunker Freight Lines, Kagan Logistics, WA Freight Group, and Hoffmann Transport.
The Silk Logistics Group has 1,100 employees, 600 trailers, and warehouses in each state, covering over 250,000m2 of warehousing space.
Source: T&L
A new tax office ruling issued this month will allow trucking businesses to claim back 100 per cent of the tax on the fuel used in truck sleeper cab air conditioners. According to the Australian Trucking Association (ATA), trucking businesses could save up to $300 per truck per year.
ATA Chief Executive Stuart St Clair said the tax office ruling agreed with the ATA’s view that the fuel used in sleeper cab air conditioners was not for travelling. “The ATA argued in February that the fuel used in a sleeper cab air conditioner is used to cool the sleeper cab while the truck is stationary, its engine is off and the driver is resting,” he said.
“We pointed out that it is not used ‘for travelling,’ which is now the crucial test for deciding if the fuel used in a truck is subject to the road user charge."
In its ruling, the tax office has come down in support of the ATA’s position. As a result, trucking businesses can now claim back all the tax on the fuel used in these air conditioners: a fuel tax credit of 38.143 cents per litre.
"In contrast, trucking businesses can only claim 12.643 cents per litre in fuel tax credits on the fuel they use ‘for travelling.’ This rate is expected to fall even further on 1 July 2013, due to the yearly adjustment of the road user charge," St Clair said.
A sleeper cab air conditioner is a small air conditioning unit that cools the sleeper cab of a long distance truck while it is stationary, the truck engine is off and the driver is resting. It is typically powered by a small auxiliary engine that draws fuel from a truck’s main fuel tanks.
Source: Prime Mover
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A TRUCKIE disqualified from driving until 2038 has been arrested and charged by police for allegedly using fake names, having a fake driver's licence and possessing amphetamines.
He was netted in a two-day heavy vehicle enforcement operation on the Barton Highway on the NSW/ACT border, with truck drivers subjected to drug and alcohol tests and vehicles undergoing inspections.
The disqualified driver was charged with not carrying a work diary, driving while disqualified, possessing a fraudulent licence and possessing a prohibited drug.
Police conducted about 300 breath and drug tests, resulting in five positive drug samples.
Forty-five heavy vehicles were inspected, with 44 defect notices and 27 traffic infringement notices issued.
The also found nine drivers had removed or tampered with their speed limiters.
Superintendent Stuart Smith, Commander of Operations at the Traffic and Highway Patrol Command, said removing unsafe vehicles, dangerous goods and rogue truck drivers from the roads remains a major priority.
Tampering with a speed limiter can allow a truck "to travel well in excess of the speed limit; in effect, the truck becomes a dangerous weapon", he said in a statement.
"There is no place in the trucking industry for drivers who shirk responsibility, fail to keep their vehicles roadworthy and put the lives of other motorists at risk."
Source: Herald Sun
New funding of $1.7 million recently announced by the Federal and New South Wales Governments for trials of Cooperative Intelligent Transport Systems (C-ITS) technologies has been welcomed by national peak body Intelligent Transport Systems Australia.
The Heavy Vehicle Safety and Productivity Program funds provide for pioneering projects involving heavy vehicle to infrastructure communication technologies to make roads safer.
On the busy South Sydney to Port Kembla truck corridor, the Cooperative Intelligent Transport Systems Initiative (CITI) provides for the fitting of dedicated short range communication transceivers to heavy vehicles that regularly travel this route.
Intelligent Transport Systems Australia Chief Executive Officer Susan Harris said this is one of the few C-ITS trials around the world focused on heavy vehicles. "This facility will be set up with major players in the logistics industry to establish this corridor as a test bed for trialling a range of C-ITS technologies in real world conditions," said Susan Harris.
The CITI project has the potential to speed development and testing of C-ITS technologies such as:
- Provision of real time traffic signal phase and timing (SPAT) information to the driver in the vehicle cabin.
- Provide advanced driver alerts about conditions at intersections, particularly at high risk junctions.
- Test approaches to communication spectrum allocation.
- Explore issues associated with C-ITS applications in remote areas away from fixed line power supply.
- Systems that streamline commercial activities, such as access to and from the Port.
In addition, the Heavy Vehicle Safety and Productivity Program will fund a Connected Rest Area Project using C-ITS to enable heavy vehicle drivers to locate rest areas and to explore the integration of this technology within existing systems, including drivers' electronic work diaries.
Source: Prime Mover
With this year’s Operation Austrans due to start on Monday, Victoria Police has undertaken a restructure of it heavy vehicle enforcement resources.
The Heavy Vehicle Unit will join the Major Collision Investigation Group under the Transport and Investigations Section of the Road Policing Command.
The new section will see an enhanced focus on chain of responsibility offences in the lead up to the introduction of the uniform Heavy Vehicle National Law across Australia, according to Victoria Police.
Working for a month annually and nationally, Operation Austrans will target fatigue, speeding, drug use and other driver behaviour issues on major highways.
Superintendent Neville Taylor says the operation reinforces the opportunities for joint enforcement and chain of responsibility work with other agencies including VicRoads and Worksafe.
“We know heavy vehicle safety is an industry wide issue, not just a police one,” Taylor says.
“When we ran this operation in May last year, we detected 665 fatigue related offences and 135 chain of responsibility offences against company owners, operators and consigners.
“We are continuing to work with our road safety partners and an example of this partnership was this month’s Operation Trishula, which saw VicRoads intercept 218 heavy vehicles and issue 182 defect notices over a five day period.”
Taylor says 44 people died in collisions involving heavy vehicles in 2012, a decrease of 4 percent.
“Across Australia during the 12 months to the end of June 2012, 225 people died from 200 crashes involving heavy trucks or buses,” he adds.
Police from the Heavy Vehicle Unit, with the support of the State Highway Patrol and regional highway patrol units, will be focusing on heavy vehicle routes on the state’s major highways, including the Western Highway, Hume Freeway and South Gippsland Highway.
Source: Owner Driver
A 22-YEAR-OLD man remains in a serious condition in St George Hospital after he came off his motorbike and was dragged 200m along Wiley Ave, Punchbowl, by a semi-trailer yesterday.
The man was hit by the truck after he slammed into the back of a white van on the intersection of Punchbowl Rd around 6.15am.
He suffered a range of serious injuries and was rushed to intensive care.
Detectives from the Metropolitan Crash Investigation Unit surveyed the crash site and the 69-year-old driver of the truck was given mandatory blood and urine tests.
Police are appealing for witnesses of the crash, especially the driver of a white van, to come forward with information.
Inspectors believe the van driver might not realise an accident occurred.
Anybody who witnessed the incident is urged to call Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.
Source: the Telegraph
A truck driver has been killed on a WA farm after he tried to get inside a moving vehicle.
WorkSafe is investigating the work-related death of a 65-year-old man at a potato farm at Eastbrook near Pemberton in the state's South West, on Tuesday afternoon.
He was believed to have been run over by a truck when he attempted to gain access to it as it rolled down an incline.
WorkSafe has expressed disappointment at the number of deaths in the agriculture sector.
WorkSafe WA Commissioner Lex McCulloch said there had been far too many deaths in the industry recently.
"There have been six deaths in the agriculture sector since July 1 last year," Mr McCulloch said.
"This equates to more than 35 per cent of the total work-related deaths over this period.
"And since the agriculture sector only accounts for three per cent of the workforce Australia-wide, it is a serious concern that the sector is so over-represented in the fatality statistics.
"These deaths are simply unnecessary and unacceptable, and everyone involved in agriculture – from farmers to industry associations to machinery dealers to manufacturers – has a role to play in reducing the toll in the industry.
"It is crucial to ensure that farm machinery is designed safely and that it is operated in the correct manner.
"Everyone needs to understand how to operate the types of plant involved in agriculture and be acutely aware of the associated risks.
"Better awareness of safety is the only way to arrest this sad toll of absolutely unnecessary tragedies."
WorkSafe inspectors are at the scene of Tuesday's incident, and will interview witnesses and investigate the circumstances.
"Any work-related death is a tragedy, and my sincere condolences go out to the man's family," Mr McCulloch said.
Source: WA today
A GEELONG-BASED company is confident its million-dollar-plus investment in Warrnambool with a new driving training centre will provide a more flexible alternative to the TAFE system.
Journey Management Group founder Shane Blakeborough told yesterday’s official opening of the company’s south-west base that it was designed to be the most modern training facility in the nation.
“We’ve been training up to 100 people from as far as Horsham and the South Australian border since Christmas and aim to expand to about 150,” he said.
“It’s an alternative to the TAFE system and provides more flexibility and more modern equipment.
“We’ve had a satellite presence in Warrnambool for a while, but last year took a closer look, met with local people to get a feel for what was required and decided to build the most modern, state-of-the-art training facility in Australia.”
The company purchased and transformed a former steel sales depot in Strong Street into a regional base with 18 vehicles in truck driving and operating earthmoving equipment, cranes and forklifts.
A B-triple truck is likely to be added to the fleet later when VicRoads routes in the south-west are announced.
Mr Blakeborough, who also runs a trucking company, has his wife Debbie as chief executive and daughter Jacinta as Warrnambool sales manager.
He started in the industry at 16 in a trucking workshop before becoming a driver, then worked four years training drivers for transport magnate Lindsay Fox.
About four years later he started his own company, which now employs almost 130 across the state.
“Demand for truck drivers is expanding especially for younger workers,” he said.
“The old stereotype of truckies in singlets and thongs has long gone.
“There are good career prospects for male and female drivers.
“We’ve started a cadetship starting at school level going through to adults.”
Source: The Standard
Australia’s transport ministers have backed a National Transport Commission (NTC) proposal to increase heavy vehicle charges by 2.5 percent on July 1.
Meeting today as part of the Standing Council on Transport and Infrastructure (SCOTI), ministers agreed to increase registration fees and the fuel excise.
The price rise will add an extra 0.64 cents per litre to the excise, reducing the trucking industry’s fuel tax credit to 12 cents per litre.
The increase is due to account for government expenditure on the road network.
Queensland abstained from today’s vote on the charges because Transport and Main Roads Minister Scott Emerson was absent.
SCOTI also voted in favour of the development of detailed work on options to reform the existing charging system.
The NTC earlier this year released a review of the system and outlined possible improvements to it, including axle charging and fuel-based charges.
The communiqué from today’s SCOTI meeting says a final decision on the preferred option is expected to be made early next year, with the change to apply from the middle of 2014.
“The [National Transport] Commission consulted closely with industry and stakeholders in the conduct of the review, and this close consultation will continue as the detailed options are prepared for consideration by the Council,” the communiqué states.
Changes canvassed in the review are designed as a short-term fix until the work of the Heavy Vehicle Charging and Investment (HVCI) group is implemented.
The HVCI is examining a new charging framework, including the possibility of mass-distance-location pricing.
Ministers agreed at today’s meeting industry needed to be involved in the development of a package of reform options for public consultation.
“As a result, recommendations from the Council on the options will be provided to COAG in July 2014,” the communiqué states.
Source: Owner/Driver
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