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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Who is steering this truck?
By: Phil Taylor
September 2017
The discussion and hype surrounding autonomous vehicles and technologies continue to build both overseas and here in Australia, but what are the practical benefits and realities of such technologies?
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What does the data show?
By: Phil Taylor
August 2017
Each month the Truck Industry Council (TIC) publishes new truck sales information for use by government organisations, the Australian trucking media and TIC’s own members. This data is distributed under the banner of T-Mark, TIC’s brand name for the truck sales numbers. I have commented in the past that month-to-month changes in sales are not particularly volatile, largely because the road transport industry is an essential and stable sector of the Australian economy and the size of the country’s freight task does not change on a day-to-day basis. Of course, there are seasonal trends that require additional freight movements in specific sectors, such as the harvest seasons in the agricultural districts, or more generally the Christmas rush as we all gear up with presents and festive season foods for friends and family, but these trends don’t typically impact new truck sales. There are, however, some year-in, year-out trends that do affect new truck sales such as the increase we see leading up to the end of the financial year. This information is important for planning and stock control management.
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