News & Opinion
For many people in the industry, PBS has often been touted as a benefit. This is either through promoting safer vehicles or allowing operators to make their operations more efficient and productive. But today we are going to look at a case of an operator making the decision of whether to operate under PBS or… Read more »
From 22 July 2019, Performance Based Standards (PBS) vehicles carrying dangerous goods will be allowed through the PBS pre‑advised design approval process. The National Heavy Vehicle Regulator (NHVR) has further expanded the PBS pre-advised (PA) design approval process. Following a long list of changes earlier this year, this may seem like a small change, but… Read more »
In 2019, Advantia will be running an in-depth training course on Performance Based Standards (PBS). Known as the PBS Masterclass, this one-day course is designed for people who may have any role to play in PBS. Advantia has been involved in the PBS Scheme since it was conceived almost 20 years ago now, however a… Read more »
On the 1st of April 2019, the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator (NHVR) expanded the Performance Based Standards (PBS) pre-advised (PA) design approval process. The changes allow three new types of vehicles to get faster Design Approvals (DA), mostly at PBS Level 2. This batch of changes is centred around expanding the process to include more… Read more »
Around the world, the undisputed workhorse of the short-haul road freight system is the prime mover and semi-trailer. In Australia, our version of this key vehicle will typically be a 6×4 prime mover towing a tandem or triaxle semi-trailer, with a total length of no more than 19-metres. The combination is used for carrying all… Read more »
Q: How long is an A-double? A: Well, it depends… An A-double is any heavy vehicle combination featuring a prime mover towing two semi-trailers that are connected to each other by a converter dolly. ‘A’ signifies a converter dolly coupling, as opposed to ‘B’ which signifies a direct piggy-back fifth-wheel coupling, as in a B-double…. Read more »
I saw this interesting article posted on LinkedIn by NTI’s Adam Gibson and thought I’d share it here. I wholeheartedly agree with Adam’s conclusion. Just a quick article here, I was doing some other analysis and by coincidence ended up with the datasets for the Australian road freight task and employment data open at the… Read more »
Recently the National Transport Commission (NTC) publicly announced that Federal Transport Ministers had approved the NTC’s recommendations for improving the Performance Based Standards (PBS) Scheme. The PBS Scheme has enjoyed significant success since 2007 when it was first implemented. NTC Chief Paul Retter stated, “PBS scheme vehicles offer between 15 and 30 per cent more… Read more »
When was the last time you did a road trip between Melbourne and Sydney? If you work in the heavy vehicle industry, I’m sure for some the experience is relatively common. Mine was in early 2013 as part of a project with VicRoads, Roads and Maritime Services and Transport for New South Wales to investigate… Read more »
One statement that seems to pop up more than any other in my conversations with Australia’s road authorities goes something like this: “Parts of our 26-metre B-double network don’t meet all of the minimum geometric requirements for Level 2A classification under the PBS Network Classification Guidelines.” This is usually followed by commentary about insufficient lane… Read more »
