2011 Annual Report - National Transport Commission

The key findings were:
• In most cases, trucks are not a ‘top of mind’ concern
for drivers. Drivers are more concerned about their
personal safety while driving than about sharing the
road with trucks.
• The majority of concerns about freight vehicles are related
to negative perceptions of truck driver behaviour such
as speeding and tailgating.
• The majority of respondents (74%) reacted positively to
the PBS scheme, as well as its potential to improve safety
and address climate change and congestion.
• There was a common misconception that PBS vehicles
do more damage to the roads. (PBS vehicles do no more
damage than other heavy vehicles. In fact, they often do
less damage, because their innovative design allows them
to move freight with fewer trips.)
The NTC briefed industry and governments on the findings
which will be used to inform future communications about
heavy vehicles and the PBS scheme.
Increasing the use of safer and
more efficient vehicles
B-triples—vehicles comprising a prime mover and three
semi-trailers—operate almost Australia-wide. They are
known to be safer, more efficient and to do less damage to
pavements and bridges than the equivalent A-double road
train, a type of truck that is approved to run on the Type 1
road train network. However, unlike the A-double, there is no
consistency in road network access and operating conditions
across state and territory borders, which limits their use to
primarily intrastate operations.
The NTC estimates that if B-triples were approved to operate
nationally on the existing Type 1 road train network, by
2030 Australia would save 26 lives, 1.1 million tonnes of
CO emissions and $1.1 billion of costs. To achieve these
2
outcomes, the NTC has been working in collaboration with
government and industry over the past year to develop a
regulatory proposal to allow modular B-triples to operate on
the Type 1 road train network. Stakeholder input has been
critical to shaping the proposal, which is expected to be
released for public consultation in August 2011.
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