Sunday the 20th October saw the opening day of the CMCA rally in Elmore, Victoria. Rod Hannifey was invited to discuss sharing the road with heavy vehicles and had the TIV on display at the event. As is usual with this crowd, Rod’s message was a huge success as he conveyed our mantra of road safety to get everyone to share the road responsibly and most importantly, safely.
In our February edition of ‘Truck That’ which is also the final edition of Rod’s Churchill Fellowship tour of the UK and the USA, we speak to some seriously interesting people. As the tour has continued it is quite apparent the challenges that face our colleagues in other countries are almost the same that we do here in Australia. Distracted driving and electronic logs are on the top of the list but following up closely in both countries is the lack of appropriate rest areas.
It continues to beg the question of the law and policymakers, (who proclaim and aspire to be at the top of the intellectual tree), why they don’t consult with and examine what the real-world experiences are for us who must live and or be punished by their decisions. Why has it taken so long for them to act on rest areas? It’s not as if the population growth and subsequent increase in the freight task have just landed in their lap. It is almost Pythonesque when you think of it.
We have a chat with Glen Rice about his beautiful conventional Kenworth and large sleeper or should we say house. Plus, we also get to chat with Brad Christianson about a very unusual looking international Cabover.
As in our last episode where we spoke with young Dillon, who had a refreshing take on our industry, in this episode, we meet a young lady who clearly enunciates the frustration being felt by many as to how to educate our young drivers to act responsibly and safely around heavy vehicles. Check out their camper trailer too. Also, check out the “little Pete” belonging to Wayne Alberts, we must say, we want one.
Rod also poses some questions about the law surrounding red and blue lights and how both NRMA and the Police Associations call for a review of the law to attempt to make it safer for everyone.
In Truck That for December, our last episode for the year, Rod shows us to part two of his Churchill Fellowship trip to the United States of America. The purpose of the trip was to have a look at the issues pertaining to heavy vehicle operators and drivers and see how they are combatted in another country. Luckily for us, Rod took along his own small video camera and this gives us a glimpse into what was an awesome trip all around.
Rod speaks with Randy Wolfe, an owner-operator, who is quick to point out his frustration with the car drivers (four-wheelers) “sound familiar” and their lack of appreciation for the size and weight of the heavy vehicle. He also gives us his view on the ELD or electronic logs that drivers must have fitted in the US. Rod shows us a pretty standard type of rest area for trucks and four-wheelers to share and then he shows us the cream of the crop, one that Rod describes as being more like a resort.
We get to meet Nicole Rutledge “on Set” who has joined the team as Host alongside Rod for the Truckies Top Tips, currently in production due to be released for Easter. We also get to meet Jessica Ferrari, producer extraordinaire, on the set as well. Jessica also produced the Crawlin the Hume’ special that we did back in 2016.
To top off the episode, we speak with a shining light for the American transport industry at least with Dillan Wooley, a 21-year-old truck driver paying his way through college. I couldn’t help but think as I was watching this interview that our industry would be in an excellent space with more operators like this one. When you hear a comment like “It’s a great culture it’s just that we need more younger people in the culture to keep it going” you kind of know that things will turn out ok with more like this young man.
We hope you enjoy our December episode and wish every one of you a safe and prosperous New Year and whatever you do over the festive season and whichever way you lean, from us at Whiteline Television to you, Merry Christmas.
In our October edition of Truck That, part 1 of our special series of Rod’s study trip as part of the Churchill Fellowship grant that he was awarded in 2016. Rod was awarded the NRMA/ACT Road Safety Trust Churchill Fellowship for Road Safety from a pool of some 1200 applicants. Rod deferred the trip for one year with approval from the Churchill Trust to better align with events towards the objectives of the fellowship trip, “To study trucks and road safety in England, Canada and America”.
The application is a detailed and rigorous process, where you provide a detailed reason for your application, what you have done in your field and over what time frame, a plan and proposed itinerary and what you hope to achieve and why.
From the Winston Churchill Trust page. “The aim of the Trust is to provide an opportunity for Australians to travel overseas to conduct research in their chosen field that is not readily available in Australia. It also aims to reward the proven achievement of talented and deserving Australians with further opportunity in their pursuit of excellence for the enrichment of Australian society. No prescribed qualifications are required to apply for a Churchill Fellowship. The subject of the proposed project is limitless provided a benefit to Australia is evident and a willingness to share the research findings with the Australian community is displayed.”
After the initial detailed application, there are interviews to ascertain your knowledge and passion for your subject, towards becoming a state finalist and then from those state finalists, come those awarded fellowships for that year. If selected, you then have to provide a detailed itinerary, who and where you are visiting including travel plans for approval by the board. Once the trip is completed you supply a trip report to the board and then try and make the most of your learnings from the trip, towards helping other Australians.
In Truck That Australia June 2018 Rod talks about his progress on the mapping of parking bays with informal ones and the subsequent overlay of fatigue crashes.
He also speaks with local identity Leigh Campbell about his campaign for a new roadhouse, weighbridge and truck parking area in Wagga Wagga.
Rod also talks about a new mission that the drivers club has embarked on with the fines being issued for dropping a wheel over the white line when it comes to the safety camera. Drivers are being fined a considerable amount plus points for this seemingly innocent mistake with authorities touting attempted avoidance of the safety camera. Blind Freddie can see that you can’t avoid the cameras yet this draconian fine is for exactly that. The drivers club are going to embark on a campaign in an attempt to get this particular one reviewed or if possible removed. We don’t know how far we can go or if it will be done but it seems quite ludicrous to have this in place. As our industry sees an unsustainable exodus of older, disillusioned drivers and tragically owners, one ponders the question, How can we as an industry encourage new drivers into our industry with this kind of ridiculous fine in place? Why would anyone want to drive trucks for a living?
Rod also speaks with the founder of Whiteline Television, Mr Stephen McCarthy about what reasons he had for starting Whiteline Television, and where he sees it going into the future. Steve adds some of his thoughts on the industry as well.
Rod Hannifey has spent most of his truck driving career as a road safety evangelist and advocate for safety within the Australian road transport industry. He is an accomplished and respected columnist and has been an adviser to Industry and government on many projects. He also pilots the distinctive Truckright Industry Vehicle which is a K200 Kenworth in B’Double configuration.
Truck That May 2018 is a special edition of Truck That from the inaugural Megatrans in Melbourne Victoria. Megatrans is an event to cover transport and logistics from all aspects of the industry, road, rail, air and sea. The event attracted industry heavyweights from all facets too and in our special episode, we get to speak with a few.
Rod’s distinctive K200 Kenworth is on display at the event but on the way to Melbourne, he has the company of CEO Ben Maguire from the ATA (Australian Trucking Association) who took a ride with Rod from Dubbo to Melbourne where he gets to experience first hand the highways we drive on every day and Rod gets the opportunity to point out where we are desperately short on suitable rest areas in which to manage our fatigue. Ben has pledged to continue to assist us by advocating as well for more of these suitable rest areas and he recognises the links to many other factors that need addressing in order to attract younger drivers to our industry.
We also have the unique pleasure to have a chat with Paul Retter AM from the NTC (National Transport Commission) about the extensive research currently being undertaken into fatigue and the causes of fatigue in drivers. This kind of study hasn’t been conducted before and is a welcome strategy as we move forward in our never-ending bid for road safety.
We get to have a chat with Paul Anderson, the CEO of the VTA (Victorian Transport Association) about traffic congestion in Melbourne and his generally positive outlook on our industry.
We get to have a look at some new technology, one from Connect Source which was of particular interest was the system that keeps an eye on driver fatigue and sounds an audible alert if the driver closes their eyes as well as providing a vibration alert. This also works if the driver averts their concentration away from the road for too long, all in the name of road safety.
Plus a look at some onboard scales from Tramanco who are also a supporter of the Truckright Industry Vehicle.
A pretty packed episode.
In Truck That April 2018 Rod discusses the need and rationale behind the Truck That Drivers Club and discusses some of the forthcoming events for us. We also get a unique look at what Rod does at these events that he attends where the public are interested in seeing the Truckright Industry Vehicle (TIV) and listening to the seminars that he conducts into sharing the road with trucks.
At the ‘Stone the crows festival’ we get to meet radio personality Grant Luhrs who wrote a truck driving song called Always on the road that we get to hear performed by Balladeer and truck driver from Wagga Wagga, John Smith. We talk with the guys about the inspiration for the song and what its like for John as a truck driver and performer. The album is available from John and Christines Facebook page.
It’s amazing the people you meet at these events and we also catch up with former owner driver Alan Kruger who is attending his second event in Wagga Wagga after changing from his caravan to a motorhome and we get his take on the presentation done by Rod and the value of having the TIV at these events for all to see.
All in all Rod’s attendance at the festival was well received we believe that the message came across well and Rod received plenty of great feedback from all concerned. Our next adventure will be to Megatrans in Victoria in May.
Rod Hannifey has spent most of his truck driving career as a road safety evangelist and advocate for safety within the Australian road transport industry. He is an accomplished and respected columnist and has been an adviser to Industry and government on many projects. He also pilots the distinctiveTruckright Industry Vehicle which is a K200 Kenworth in B’Double configuration.
Truck That March 2018 is an extra special episode from the Altona Truck and Trade show held at the Melbourne Ball Park in Altona. The event was an inaugural event for Australian Custom Trucks Magazine Editor Chris Smith and in our opinion was all in all a great day. You may remember when we spoke with Chris at the Newcastle truck show and convoy back in November and he invited Rod to the event. It was a privilege to be at this first show.
During the day we got to check out some awesome trucks, speak with some great drivers and talk to some industry representatives. Celebrity drivers from Prospero’s hit programme Outback Truckers, Steve Grahame, who just quietly would have to be one of the nicest drivers on the planet, and our mate Glen ‘Yogi’ Kendall were on hand for a chat. We also had a huge surprise as we got to meet young Jack Kendall who just may be the next generation of Kendall Truckers.
Simone Reinertsen a Stakeholder specialist from the NHVR spoke with us about EWD’s and parking bays of course as we all agree that there aren’t enough, which is a similar problem being experienced in the USA and just about everywhere. Whilst parking bays don’t come under the NHVR’s banner of responsibility, it is nice to hear their recognition of the problem as we all try to manage our fatigue. We always appreciate the NHVR, who willingly make themselves available for us to help explain their policies and dispel some of the myths that no one knows how they are created.
Rod Hannifey has spent most of his truck driving career as a road safety evangelist and advocate for safety within the Australian road transport industry. He is an accomplished and respected columnist and has been an adviser to Industry and government on many projects. He also pilots the distinctive Truckright Industry Vehicle which is a K200 Kenworth in B’Double configuration.
Following a tragic few weeks on our nation’s roads and in particular in NSW, Rod is back in Truck That February 2018 discussing the issues surrounding our industry. The loss of life on our roads is tragic and our hearts and prayers go out to everyone involved.
This month Rod discusses the open letter that was sent from the Managing Director of Toll to the Prime Minister and several other Politicians, media outlets and transport associations. He should be applauded for coming to the table however as Rod points out, he feels that many of the measures that are suggested would significantly benefit larger companies and preclude smaller operators from the industry due to cost. Rod also points out that some other measures that we would consider vital to industry safety, were completely overlooked such as proper and adequate rest areas.
As you would undoubtedly expect, Rod came up with his list of six things to improve road safety and driver education was of course on top of the list. It’s no surprise that roads and rest areas were next on the list. With the new chain of responsibility laws coming in as of the first of July, it is important that we continue to pursue government on the rest areas issue especially considering the harsher penalties imposed.
Closing off, Julia Holman from the ABC’s 7:30 report was doing a story on Rod and trucks etc, so she was graceful enough to allow Rod to ask her a few questions for all of you.
Welcome to TruckThat January 2018 and a new year, we sincerely hope that all of our listeners enjoyed the festive season as best as you could whether it was with family or as some needed to, working.
We’re back into things with a bang, presenting our first TruckThat episode for the year and as we mentioned last year, our focus is going to be on rest areas, the lack of them, the lack of facilities etc. etc. Rod will be keen to ask the tough questions about the lack of rest areas especially given the harsh penalties presented to the industry for lack of compliance in the area of fatigue management. As there is currently a review of rest areas underway Rod has been well and truly out there and now starts a campaign this month for improvements. Not only is there a distinct lack of rest areas right across Australia but the quality of the ones we do have are significantly poor with a lack of area, lack of shade and lack of facilities. Then as the Authorities build new roads and close down many parking bays, there seems to be a distinct lack of will on their behalf to utilise pieces of old road for new parking bays.
Rod also covers the ‘Green Reflector’ informal parking bays and just what the green reflectors are for as you make your way up the Newell Highway. Rod successfully bid for funding for this project through the NHVR road safety funding initiative in the 2016 round but it’s 19 years he’s been campaigning on the issue. We also started to release our Video shorts on Truckies Top Ten Tips for sharing the road safely with trucks so hopefully, we can reach some individuals out there and perhaps make a small difference.