The National Heavy Vehicle Regulator (NHVR) launched a new interactive tool today geared towards managers of heavy vehicles and truck fleets.
Freight PASS, as it is known, will help industry and road managers make more informed safety, productivity and sustainability decisions about the benefits of heavy vehicle combinations on the road network.
The new Freight PASS uses more than one million registration data records to assess a range of performance factors for conventional and Performance Based Standards (PBS) vehicles including crash likelihood, trip numbers and travel time, and fuel consumption.
“The Freight PASS will improve the speed, accuracy and consistency when making decisions about using safer and more productive vehicles, to meet Australia’s growing freight task and zero emission targets,” said NHVR CEO Sal Petroccitto.
“The tool has been developed by linking datasets across governments, industry, research agencies and the NHVR to produce a robust and reliable information source for use by industry and road managers.
Freight PASS is the first of a suite of productivity related tools that will be released for consultation in the coming months.
“We want the tool to support industry by enabling the estimation of transport time and cost savings associated with shorter routes and arming road managers with the information and confidence to grant access to higher performance vehicles,” added Petroccitto.
The platform allows the user to input scenario data including the type of vehicle, trip length, average speed and commodity to estimate time, crash rate, fuel consumption, carbon emissions, and estimate costs or savings from longer or shorter routes.
A 30m PBS A-double will complete, as shown by the tool, a nominated freight task more safely, in half the time, with almost half the fuel consumption and carbon emissions than a 19m conventional semi-trailer.
“Freight PASS dispels the notion that larger vehicles are more dangerous and polluting, by improving the understanding of heavy vehicle performance via a platform that is visual and interactive,” Petroccitto said.
“We encourage users to take advantage of this dynamic tool to ensure they balance and consider the long-term effects of road freight activity on productivity, safety and sustainability.”
Australian Trucking Association CEO Mathew Munro said the new technology would support evidence-based decisions and improve consistency across state and territory borders.
“This is a terrific initiative that will enable operators to leverage technology to support streamlined and consistent access decisions,” said Munro.
“We’re working with the NHVR to drive continuous improvement in the sector to make it easier for our members to improve safety, productivity and sustainability across their fleets.”
The NHVR is encouraging those with an interest in Freight PASS to provide feedback on the tool.
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