Chris Konditsiotis, the CEO of Transport Certification Australia (TCA), this week told attendees of a forum organised by the Truck Industry Council (TIC) in Sydney, Australian transport operators are utilising world leading technology in the field of telematics.
“I believe we are leading the world,” said Konditsiotis. “In Europe every policy area has a piece of technology. The Europeans have a digital tachograph. It does one purpose: it provides a regulatory framework for managing speed. That’s it. You can’t do emails on it. You can’t use it for fleet management. It has a single purpose and the whole operating environment around it supports that single purpose.”
Konditsiotis told the forum that the multi function or “interoperability” of electronic devices has to be by design and that to encourage innovation Australia required performance based standards rather than descriptive standards.
“We have to constantly discourage technology which takes us down dead alleys,” said Konditsiotis. “Technologies that are so constrained that you can’t build on them. Or we at least accept that that’s what we are buying and make a commercial decision.”
As an example, Konditsiotis highlighted the multiple electronic tolling systems that are required for vehicles travelling through different countries in Europe.
“You can wind up with a lot of gear in your vehicle where 80 per cent of the functionality is basically the same,” said Konditsiotis. “Conversely, in Australia, any electronic toll tag works on every toll network.
“Electronic boxes that were originally engineered for heavy vehicles now occupy 95 per cent of the taxi fleet in this country. This expanded use of the developed technology provides a cost saving and the same basic technology is utilised across industries from auditing bus movements in Tasmania to being a key element in the driverless ore trains operated by Rio Tinto in WA.
“There are now 15,000 heavy vehicles in the country that have a TCA certified box in them. The majority of those (applications) have nothing to do with regulation – the customer has made a commercial decision. The first applications were in relation to IAP (Intelligent Access Program) which is about giving heavy vehicles improved access to the road network.”
On the subject of electronic work diaries, Konditsiotis told the forum his organisation has completed a two-year operational pilot and that this was a practical example of how to get the interfacing right between policy and technology.
On September 1 2013 TCA announced the introduction of IAPm which will be an approval scheme that combines the use of certified telematics and On-Board Mass (OBM) measurement systems.
“IAPm provides the strongest assurances that the right truck is on the right road at the right time at the right mass,” said Konditsiotis.
As a further example of Australia’s leadership in integrated telematics, Konditsiotis said TCA is working with the Higher Capacity Transports (HCT) Project Team in Sweden to deploy the IAP in Sweden and has entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with the Swedish Transport Administration to establish an international exchange of information, knowledge and expertise between Sweden and Australia.
Konditsiotis concluded his presentation with a quote from Anders Berndtsson of the Swedish Transport Administration which recognized the strength of the Australian developed systems: “Technologies like the IAP offer smarter, cost effective innovative solutions for using existing road infrastructure, particularly when it comes to meeting challenges within environment, transportation and infrastructure.”