Industry Insider : TIC
Phil Taylor
TIC
The Truck Industry Council, Australia's peak truck manufacturer group, has set itself the task of representing the trucking industry, responding positively to concerns of the public by building trucks that meet the world's most stringent safety and environmental standards. Current president is Phil Taylor of Isuzu Australia.
-
More than a load of hot air
By: Phil Taylor
July 2018
It has now been well over two years since the federal government announced its “whole of government” review of light and heavy vehicle exhaust emission standards for new vehicles in Australia. I detailed back in mid-2016 that on the table this time around for heavy vehicles was a move to Euro VI and equivalent emission standards from Japan and the USA. I also detailed that the review process would take some time and that any new regulations would likely take effect beyond 2020. Well it turns out that my prediction may have been a little optimistic. So, what has happened in the past two years? Well seemingly not much!
-
Twenty Years Behind the Rest of the World
By: Phil Taylor
July 2018
In my May column this year I made the comment that the Truck Industry Council’s (TIC) research showed that Australia was lagging two decades behind many countries in the western world with the take up of new safety and emission technologies. That cannot possibly be right I hear you say, well here are the numbers; Australia’s truck eet average age is 14 years now, for trucks above 3.5t gross vehicle mass (GVM), in Western Europe the average is approximately seven years for those trucks above 3.5t GVM. You then need to double these gures to account for the oldest trucks in the fleet, so Australia’s older trucks are 28 years of age, while in Europe the age is 14 years.
-
Enabling road infrastructure spending
By: Phil Taylor
June 2018
The May 2019 federal budget again showed the Australian Government’s continued commitment to infrastructure investment. This investment in freight infrastructure continues a trend that goes back to the days of the Federal Government’s Auslink policy in the early 2000s with its objective of better planning, developing and managing Australia’s national land transport infrastructure.
-
How old is too old?
By: Phil Taylor
May 2018
In my April 2018 column, I detailed that it has been a long road to recovery for new truck sales in Australia. I went on to explain that slow sales, coupled with an ever-increasing freight task, had resulted in an ageing of our truck fleet, and that this lack of fleet renewal severely hampers the uptake of new safety, environmental and productivity technologies in trucks. I illustrated this fact by looking at the example of Front Underrun Protection Systems (FUPS) – mandated by the Australian Government from 1 January 2012 – taking on the Truck Industry Council’s (TIC) estimates, 21 years from now to achieve 95 percent in-service fitment. That is beyond 2039 before the 11 lives saved per year predicted in the Government’s FUPS Regulation Impact Statement could be realised.
-
Reducing the national truck fleet age
By: Phil Taylor
April 2018
Truck sales in Australia hit a peak in 2007, when 38,131 new heavy vehicles were delivered. If the pace of sales over the first quarter of 2018 continues for the remainder of the year, we will rewrite the record books with a new all-time sales record. 2017 saw overall truck sales fall short of the 2007 mark by 1,306 vehicles, however first-quarter sales this year are up over 2017 by more than 1,000 trucks, putting the market on track for a record year if sales continue at this rate.
-
Road safety requires a modern Australian truck fleet
By: Phil Taylor
March 2018
Over recent months, there has been much commentary about road safety, particularly around heavy vehicles. It follows shock revelations that truck deaths in New South Wales rose by 86 per cent during 2017. Tragically, road deaths involving trucks leapt from 29 to 54 last year.
-
Out of step with the world
By: Phil Taylor
February 2018
The pace of technological development in the trucking industry, both here in Australia and globally, is greater now than we have probably ever seen, producing substantial safety, environment and productivity improvements. The rate of innovation is expected to accelerate over the next decade as we move towards connected and autonomous vehicles and zero-emission trucks.
-
US winds back greenhouse gas regulations
By: Phil Taylor
December 2017
Greenhouse gas reduction mandates in the heavy vehicle road-freight sector around the globe had always focused on the truck itself, because after all, it is the truck that expends energy moving the combination. That was until the US Environmental Protection Agency was challenged by the Obama Administration to review greenhouse gas regulation in this sector.
-
The devil is always in the detail
By: Phil Taylor
November 2017
On Wednesday 16 August 2017, the Honourable Paul Fletcher MP, Minister for Urban Infrastructure, provided further information on the reforms to the Motor Vehicle Standards Act 1989. This announcement follows Minister Fletcher’s original media statement on February 2016, revealing a package of reforms that will modernise and strengthen the MVSA, clarify vehicle recall arrangements, accelerate harmonisation of the Australian Design Rules with international standards, and consolidate the regulatory pathways through which non-standard vehicles are imported.
-
Getting down to the nuts and bolts
By: Phil Taylor
October 2017
In my July column this year I wrote about the first-ever national survey that looked at the health of our nation’s heavy vehicle fleet. The national survey was conducted by the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator and in the end it was not quite national, with Western Australia deciding not to take part.
-
Keep up to date on the latest news and developments in the commercial road transport industry. Sign up to CRT News today to receive a FREE weekly E-newsletter delivered straight to your inbox.
About | Contact | Privacy Policy
© Copyright 2018 Prime Creative Media. All rights reserved.