Overnight Linehaul Trucking Crash Menace
Tuesday, July 9th, 2013
Another heavy linehaul truck crashes on another wide, fast, multi-laned highway
Truck drivers paid on a trip rate, not the safer hourly rate.
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Hume Highway at Marulan July 2013:
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<< A man has died in a crash involving a truck and several cars on the Hume Highway, about 15km south of Marulan.
A NSW Police spokeswoman:
“The male driver of the semi-trailer was ejected from his vehicle and died at the scene. Emergency services responded to reports of a collision between a semi-trailer, a smaller truck and two cars in the southbound lanes of the Hume Highway” at 6.25pm (last night). The drivers of the other vehicles and their passengers were assessed by paramedics on site before being taken to Goulburn Base Hospital for further treatment.”
One southbound lane of the highway remained closed on Tuesday morning as traffic was directed around the crash site. >>
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Hume Highway at Kyeamba Gap (same night):
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<< Meanwhile, northbound lanes remain closed on the Hume Highway at Kyeamba Gap between Tumbarumba Road and Little Billabong Road following a truck accident there early this morning. >>
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[Source: ‘One dead in Hume Highway crash’, 20130709, by Tom McIlroy and Stephanie Anderson, The Canberra Times, ^http://www.canberratimes.com.au/act-news/one-dead-in-hume-highway-crash-20130708-2pm8b.html].
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Hume Highway at Marulan March 2012:
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<< About 12.45am (Tuesday March 27, 2012) a B-double semi-trailer was travelling north laden with furniture , about 5km south of Marulan overnight.
The semi rolled onto its side spilling its load onto the highway, blocking all northbound lanes. A semi-trailer travelling behind the B-double truck crashed into the rear of the B-Double.
The driver of the B-double was taken to Goulburn Base Hospital suffering a possible fractured rib, while the driver of the second truck was not hurt. A salvage operation is underway following a double truck crash on the Hume Highway.
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[Source: ‘Truck crash causes Hume Highway delays’, 20120326, The Yass Tribune, ^http://www.yasstribune.com.au/story/215489/truck-crash-causes-hume-highway-delays/].
Australian Native Landscapes linehaul semi jack-knifes
One of many speeding over the B,ue Mountains
Truck drivers paid on a trip rate, not the safer hourly rate.
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<< Jack knifed … a truck accident shut the Great Western Highway at Mount Victoria this morning. The highway was shut for over an hour after a truck jack knifed blocking both lanes of the highway. A heavy tow truck was brought in to remove the truck. The road reopened around midday.
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[Source: ‘Truck blocks Great Western Highway’, 20120418, ^http://www.westernadvocate.com.au/story/96085/truck-blocks-great-western-highway/].
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Hume Highway at Marulan 29 July 2011
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Australia Post (government-owned) StarTrack Express B-Double truck crashes off the Hume Highway
The overnight linehaul truck driver fell asleep on cruise control
Truck drivers paid on a trip rate, not the safer hourly rate.
[Photo: CHRIS GORDON]
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<<The 47-year-old driver of this rig died when it ran off the Hume Highway near Marulan in the early hours of July 29. A report is being prepared for the coroner.
ROAD CLOSURE: The scene of Wednesday morning’s accident 500 metres south of Goulburn’s northern exit at 6am when for unknown reasons a B-double left the road. The driver suffered minor injuries.
With another two serious truck accidents on the Hume Highway near Goulburn in the past two weeks – one of them fatal – the Goulburn Post examines whether cruise control is a possible factor. LEIGH BOTTRELL reports.
IS cruise control on long-distance trucks – often allied with automatic transmission – contributing to serious accidents on our main highways?
This question increasingly is being raised as big semis and B-doubles proliferate and speed limits are increased on some major NSW country roads. Or, is boredom leading to drowsiness, brought on by modern “easy driving” truck technology and improved highways, the real culprit?
The jury is still out on this, while there is not yet definitive accident survey evidence pointing to cruise control’s role in accidents. But anecdotal evidence and practical knowledge of people long-associated with big rigs and their drivers suggests cruise-auto can be a mixed blessing.
Bert Cool has seen the aftermath of more truck accidents than probably anyone else in his 30 years with Royans, the Wagga Wagga-headquartered heavy vehicle recovery and repair group.
Now operating Australia-wide, Royans over the years have been called on to haul thousands of trucks back onto the road from every imaginable predicament. Too often, the smashed or burnt cabs tell the story of lives lost and families shattered.
And Bert Cool has no doubt that drivers falling asleep while their long-haul rigs are running on cruise control is a contributing factor to a growing number of highway accidents.
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Bert Cool:
“Definitely. It happens more often now. A driver can nod off and the truck just keeps going, because he doesn’t have his foot on the accelerator. Before he wakes up, they’re in the scrub, or they hit something.
Before cruise control, if a driver dropped off at the wheel his foot nearly always fell away from the accelerator and the truck slowed down. He usually was woken up before they got into real trouble.”
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However, Sergeant Rod Cranston, of Goulburn police highway patrol, doubts that cruise control by itself is a contributing factor to truck accidents.
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[Source: ‘Cruise control, fatigue’, 20110811, by Leigh Bottrell, The Goulburn Post, ^http://www.goulburnpost.com.au/story/972063/cruise-control-fatigue/].
[Ed (ex-trucker): Overnight driving is inherently dangerous, and with trucks the risk is exacerbated. Linehaul (long-distance) freight should travel by rail for reasons of safety away from ordinary road users and economy of scale. Local distribution freight should travel BY DAY on the roads until governments can adequately safeguard local communities from the unacceptable risks and consequences of heavy-vehicle driver fatigue.
Linehaul rail freight is inherently safer that linehaul road freight when professional management is on par. Linehaul rail freight is cheaper per unit of freight over a large volume. This will be moreso as the price of imported diesel structurally increases.
For hundreds of linehaul trucks driven by hundreds of drivers to do the job of one linehaul train say Sydney to Darwin is uneconomic. The door delivery component either end requires logistical design and efficiency (pulling bureaucratic fingers out).
Immorally, trucking companies exploit truck drivers by denying them employee status and benefits, selfishly to shift decent driver wages and benefits to employer profit.
Yet both Federal and State governments across Australia are stuck in a 20th Century truck-centric mindset when it comes to freight logistics strategic planning, disregarding the environment ruined in the process of building bigger, more and wider highways, disregarding the permanent negative impacts upon local communities, and driving truck drivers to early graves. It is all very selfish and ^Robber Baron in thinking. The main beneficiaries are the trucking barons.]
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Bullaburra, its vegetation and rural amenity destroyed
So that more and bigger trucks can cruise on 80kph (nudging 90kph)
Like Woodford, the RTA-come-RMS will soon deem Bullaburra not to be a village, as if it never existed.
[Photo by Editor, 20130630, Photo © under ^Creative Commons, click image to enlarge]
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Read More:
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>Threats from Road Making – articles
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Linehaul has a smarter way: Intermodal Rail/Road Logistics
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Bucharest International Rail Freight Terminal (BIRFT)
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<< Romanian-based ^Tibbett Logistics, the operator of South-Eastern Romania’s prime intermodal rail terminal, has this week received the first scheduled train with intermodal wagons from Germany and Austria. The new service will initially comprise two trains a week in each direction.
The first train arrived early on the morning of 29th October 2012 with 38 units – eight semi-trailers and 30 45’ pallet-wide continental containers, destined for import customers in the south east of Romania, primarily Bucharest and Ploiesti.
Tibbett Logistics has recently renamed the terminal as the Bucharest International Rail Freight Terminal, or BIRFT, because it has become clear to the company – which is part of the UK-based Keswick Enterprises Group – that a large proportion of the marketplace in Eastern Europe remains unaware that the services offered at the terminal go well beyond simple domestic road-rail transportation.
The open-access terminal is used to transfer shipping containers arriving on rail wagons to road trailers, and vice versa. BIRFT is the only such facility in Romania operating regular scheduled block trains between Constanta Port and Bucharest, on both import and export movements. Customers include the major shipping lines and freight forwarders, as well as direct users.
In addition, it is the only intermodal rail terminal offering CFS (Container Freight Station) and warehousing services within the terminal itself, linked directly to the rail tracks. The terminal accommodates domestic and international conventional rail wagon traffic, and Tibbett Logistics combines these activities with conventional road transport whenever the latter is more efficient than collecting or delivering containers using its own rail wagons.
Completing the services offered at the terminal are stripping/stuffing containers, customs clearance and transit operations, along with container management, repair and storage.
Tibbett Logistics CEO, David Goldsborough, commented: “We believe that – via the Port of Constanta – Romania is the natural entry point to Europe from the East and elsewhere. Our aim is to facilitate the efficient transportation of goods from the Port to end-destinations throughout Europe, as well as from EU states back to Romania.
“Since the inception of our regular block trains between Constanta and Bucharest we have had many discussions with users and potential users regarding other rail-related services – including the handling of conventional wagons, where we already have an excellent infrastructure in place. We have developed additional services so that we can customise the mix of rail-based and road-based transportation in either containers or conventional trucks – depending on the exact needs of the customer. Given the increasing cost of diesel, this is being very well received by both existing clients and those coming to the service for the first time.”
Tibbett Logistics is Romania’s largest privately owned contract logistics specialist. In addition to intermodal activities, it offers comprehensive supply chain management services to the automotive, textiles, retail and other FMCG sectors throughout Romania and across South East Europe. It operates approximately 70,000 square metres of warehousing, plus a distribution fleet comprising tilt trailers, double- and triple-chamber reefers and container chassis – along with its own intermodal rail wagons. >>
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[Source: Bucharest International Rail Freight Terminal receives first intra-EU train, 20121102, ^http://www.keswickenterprises.com/news.php]
