APRIL 2013 MOVINGMORE WITH LESS New access arrangements for High Productivity Freight Vehicles in Victoria Victoria plays a significant role in Australian road transport. It is home to Australia’s largest container port and the bulk of Australia’s manufacturing industry. 3 Introduction The Victorian experience Victoria plays a significant role in Australian road transport. The need for change It is home to Australia’s largest container port and the bulk of Australia’s manufacturing industry. Victoria has Since the 1990s Australia’s freight task has been growing therefore always been forward-thinking in relation to at a rate that will see it double every 15-20 years. the way that freight is moved by road. Following the Without a significant government response, Australia introduction of B doubles in the early 1990s, and Higher faces the prospect of its roads being overly congested Mass Limits in the late 1990s, around 99 per cent of with truck traffic. the Victorian arterial road network and over 1,600 local The 2007 Productivity Commission Inquiry into Road and government roads were made available to B double and Rail Freight Infrastructure Pricing found that as a result of Higher Mass Limits vehicles. the inherent differences in the service characteristics of In the six years since the Performance Based Standards road and rail, only about 10-15 per cent of the freight task (PBS) Scheme was introduced, Victoria has granted is considered to be contestable across the two modes. access to the vast majority of Australia’s 1,000-plus This means that most of the freight currently being PBS-approved vehicles. transported by truck cannot feasibly be transported by rail, so truck productivity must be improved if we are Further, for more than 15 years, six 33.5 metre B triples to manage the road component of freight task growth. have safely carried automotive components between the Ford Motor Company’s Geelong and Broadmeadows The B double is currently Victoria’s safest and most plants. During the same period, 30.0 metre B doubles have efficient mainstream freight vehicle configuration. carried very heavy loads of shipping containers a short It has single-handedly accommodated a doubling of the distance between the Port of Melbourne and the South freight task since its introduction in the early 1990s, but Dynon Rail Terminal. More recently, these freight demand continues to rise. Truck configurations B double configurations were safely trialled at 77.5 tonnes that can safely carry more freight than current B doubles transporting containers on an extended network in the will put downward pressure on the number of trucks north and west of Melbourne and bulk commodities in in operation, leading to fewer trucks on the road than the south-west of Victoria. would otherwise be the case. Just as the B double offered a quantum leap in productivity over pre-existing single The measured benefits of HPFVs articulated configurations, an increase in productivity Aside from the reduced on-road exposure brought above current B doubles needs to be significant if there about by the use of HPFVs, leading to fewer crashes, is to be a noticeable impact on road congestion overall HPFVs also offer a direct safety benefit due to their in the years to come. safer on-road performance in comparison with standard vehicle combinations. Preliminary research currently being undertaken for Austroads, based on Australia-wide crash data compiled by National Transport Insurance since 2005, has found that as the size of a combination vehicle increases with the addition of trailers, the rate of major crashes reduces significantly, as shown below: Crashes per Crashes per 100 million 10,000 kilometres vehicles Single semi-trailer 20.6 146 B-double 7.3 121 B-triple 4.3 99 4 Between now and 2030, HPFVs operating under the gives industry more flexibility to select the most PBS Scheme are expected to save our community suitable vehicle configuration, which makes HPFV 4.5 billion vehicle kilometres, 94 fatal crashes and 114 operation viable in applications where it was not viable fatalities nationally. before; and Economically speaking, the benefit of HPFV operation recognises the different road and traffic conditions is felt not only by the operators of the HPFVs, but also in country Victoria and metropolitan Melbourne, by the wider community through a flow-on effect that which gives rise to opportunities for greater has been estimated at about 84 cents for every dollar volumetric capacity in applications that predominantly saved by the operator. occur outside of metropolitan Melbourne. HPFVs will improve Victorian road safety as well as the Victorian economy. Cubic Freight Network What now? The majority of road freight is volume-limited or ‘cubic’ Victoria’s implementation of HPFVs has so far been freight. Cubic freight is of sufficiently low density that contained to specific industries and specific vehicle it will fill the space available inside a vehicle before the configurations on specific routes. This has limited the vehicle reaches its legal mass limit. Therefore, by simply overall impact of HPFV operations. allowing cubic freight vehicles some additional length Victoria is now adopting a more general approach when operating on appropriate routes, more freight can to access arrangements for HPFVs. This document be carried within regulatory mass limits and productivity outlines the approach that will be implemented by can be significantly increased without the need to VicRoads in 2013. upgrade the strength of the road network. Cubic freight is the ‘low-hanging fruit’ of productivity improvement. Victoria’s existing B double network is suitable for the Key features of the new general operation of vehicle combinations with an overall length of up to 26 metres and a Gross Combination Mass approach to HPFVs of up to 68.5 tonnes. VicRoads engineers have, however, confirmed that PBS-approved vehicle combinations with VicRoads has adopted the following policy principles an overall length greater than 26 metres can safely be in forming the new approach to HPFVs: accommodated on certain parts of the B double network Place downward pressure on the number of trucks on that have generous road geometry, provided Gross Victorian roads by facilitating the use of more efficient Combination Mass does not exceed 68.5 tonnes. The HPFV configurations. available routes are now formally known as the Cubic Freight Network (Figure 1). Limit the use of HPFVs to appropriately designed roads, such as high-standard duplicated highways and roads with generous geometric design. Work with local governments to determine ‘last mile’ access. Ensure that trucks are safe and operate on the right roads through the Performance Based Standards (PBS) Scheme and the Intelligent Access Program (IAP). Importantly, the new approach: separately addresses volume-limited and mass- limited freight because of their different impact on the infrastructure, which allows more road network access to be made available to volume-limited HPFVs that do not exceed regulation B double mass limits; FIGURE 1: CUBIC FREIGHT NETWORK BENALLA BENDIGO BALLARAT MELBOURNE GEELONG HASTINGS TRARALGON EPPING TULLAMARINE ELTHAM MELTON ST ALBANS ESSENDON THORNBURY SUNSHINE MELBOURNE BLACKBURN RINGWOOD TARNEIT ST KILDA WERRIBEE CAULFIELD DANDENONG DINGLEY BERWICK GEELONG MORNINGTON HASTINGS 6 Current HPFV Network A-doubles in the Mildura region B doubles in the north and west of Melbourne, As previously discussed, various HPFVs exceeding 26.0 and on specific routes in western Victoria metres long or 68.5 tonnes Gross Combination Mass (or both) are currently operating under specific approval B-triples between the Ford Motor Company’s on a number of limited networks in Victoria. As part of Geelong and Broadmeadows plants. the new Victorian approach to HPFVs, all of these existing The roads approved for access by these existing HPFVs HPFV access arrangements will continue. This includes: are shown in the map below. FIGURE 2: ENDORSED HPFV NETWORK MILDURA ROBINVALE OUYEN BENALLA HORSHAM BENDIGO BALLARAT HAMILTON MELBOURNE GEELONG TRARALGON PORTLAND 7 Access conditions Route compliance assurance under the Intelligent Access Program (IAP) Safety assurance under the Performance The Intelligent Access Program (IAP) is an avenue by Based Standards (PBS) Scheme which VicRoads can offer a transport operator particular road access that is more favourable than normal access VicRoads will not stipulate particular HPFV designs. in return for a high level of confidence that the operator Rather, it will be left up to the industry to develop complies with the conditions of that access. HPFV designs that suit their operations. Proposed designs must be approved under the PBS Scheme before access The IAP uses tamper-evident GPS devices installed in can be granted. vehicles and connected wirelessly to accredited third- party service providers to monitor compliance with The PBS Scheme offers some freedom from conventional a specific set of approved routes for each vehicle. mass, dimension and configuration constraints. While Any instance of non-compliance is reported to VicRoads conventional constraints indirectly control safety and so that enforcement action can be taken if necessary. MILDURA infrastructure impact, under PBS a vehicle is ensured to be safe by direct assessment of its performance against Unless otherwise approved, operators must provide route sixteen safety-related and four infrastructure-related compliance assurance by participating in the IAP using ROBINVALE performance standards. The safety-related standards either an IAP Service Provider’s certified In-Vehicle Unit address aspects of vehicle performance including or the operator’s existing telematics system (if possible) acceleration and braking, rollover stability, high-speed under the IAP’s Entry Options. For details about IAP dynamic stability, low-speed turning capability and participation contact Transport Certification Australia general on-road tracking behaviour. The infrastructure- (T: 03 8601 4600, www.tca.gov.au). OUYEN related standards address the vehicle’s impact on road pavements and bridge structures.