Issue 335

Owner Driver

Owner/Driver is the biggest circulation truck publication in Australia.

Owner Driver1 min read
Owner Driver
Editor: Greg Bush Ph: 0408 780 302 Fax: 07 3101 6619 E-mail: Greg.Bush@aremedia.com.au Senior Journalist/LCV Specialist: Cobey Bartels Ph: 0409 044 128 E-mail: Cobey.Bartels@aremedia.com.au Technical Editor: Steve Brooks E-mail: sbrooks.trucktalk@gma
Owner Driver2 min read
Brighter Days Ahead
AUSTRALIA may have passed the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic but its ramifications look likely to linger for some time. Although the trucking industry has, for the most part, survived the brunt of COVID’s impact, there are areas within transport that
Owner Driver1 min readCrime & Violence
NHVR Repeals Auswide Prohibition Notice
THE NATIONAL HEAVY VEHICLE REGULATOR (NHVR) has repealed the prohibition notice issued to Melbourne-based Punjab Roadtrains, trading as Auswide Transport Solutions (ATS), and associated company Southern Cross Freight Lines, after the parties agreed o
Owner Driver1 min read
Worksafe Victoria In Reversing Trailer Fatality Probe
WorkSafe Victoria has issued an incident report on a freight depot fatality as it continues to probe the incident. On November 2, a 65-year-old man was directing a co-worker to reverse a truck and trailer into a shed at a Yarraville depot, when he st
Owner Driver2 min read
Go Ahead For Picton Road Upgrade
PICTON ROAD FREIGHT and safety advocates are lauding the announcement of a $44 million state pledge towards planning the New South Wales link route’s duplication. As one of NSW’s crash black spots, it, along with with $35 million in planning money fo
Owner Driver2 min read
Scania to miss Brisbane Truck Show
SCANIA WILL be missing from next year’s Brisbane Truck Show (BTS), marking it as the second Swedish-headquartered truckmaker to bow out after Volvo. However, Scania is not pointing the blame at the COVID-19 pandemic for its non-attendance at the even
Owner Driver3 min readTechnology & Engineering
Thumbs Up For Electronic Work Diaries
THE FIRST Electronic Work Diaries (EWD) have been approved in Australia. The rollout commenced on December 1, the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator (NHVR) reports. The EWD Policy Framework and Standards were developed in association with technology pr
Owner Driver1 min read
Win for Brown & Hurley apprentice
THE HEAVY VEHICLE INDUSTRY AUSTRALIA (HVIA) Industry Awards, which took place in Brisbane on November 20, has praised the winners across several prestigious award categories. Assistant minister for road safety and freight transport, Scott Buchholz, w
Owner Driver1 min read
Transport Women Australia announce 2020 scholarships
Transport Women Australia Limited (TWAL) and Daimler Truck and Bus Australia Pacific has announced that four women from various sectors of the transport industry are the 2020 winners of the Driving The Difference Scholarships. They are Isaiah Tomkins
Owner Driver10 min readAutomotive
Mack To Sing safety Anthem
IT HAS BEEN a long time coming, but if the whispers are correct and Mack’s new Anthem does actually debut on the Australian market in early 2021, it will be an incredibly momentous occasion for the bulldog breed in this country. A milestone for true
Owner Driver2 min readAutomotive
Short Run, Sweet Ride
A short drive from Mack’s Lehigh Valley plant, the company has a bulldog customer centre and test track. As far as test tracks go, it’s nothing special or particularly demanding. But on a cold and snowy Pennsylvania afternoon back in early 2018, it w
Owner Driver3 min readMedical
Driving And Diabetes
DRIVING A VEHICLE requires complex physical and mental skills. When you have diabetes, you may need to take extra precautions to ensure road safety. If you take insulin or glucose-lowering medicines, hypoglycaemia (‘hypo’) can stop you from driving s
Owner Driver4 min read
Undisciplined Drivers
BLOODY HELL – this is the month Santa Claus shows up. I can’t get over how quickly the year has gone. I guess that’s what happens when one is head down and bum up most of the time. What with being reasonably active with work, plus spending a fair amo
Owner Driver3 min read
Driving Under Pressure
WHAT WILL it take for our federal government and its agencies to do something about reforming our industry? In September, Safe Work Australia reported a jump in driver deaths for 2019 – up to 55 from 38 in 2018. We would expect the numbers of driver
Owner Driver4 min read
Gearing Up For 2021
THERE WILL be one more TruckRight Industry Vehicle (TIV) in the New Year if all goes to plan. I had been trying to get sufficient support for some time and had a plan as to how it might happen, but that was me being, perhaps, overly positive. You hav
Owner Driver4 min read
Festive Sounds Abound
AC/DC Sony Music www.acdc.com Evergreen hard rocking Australian band AC/DC has risen from the ashes again with Power Up (alternatively titled PWR/UP), their first studio album since 2014’s Rock Or Bust. It’s also the first since guitarist Malcolm You
Owner Driver2 min readCrime & Violence
Work Diary Exemptions
IT CAN be hard to fill out a work diary at the best of times, but for drivers who experience reading and writing difficulties it can be almost impossible. I have represented many drivers who have had to go to court over work diary breaches arising fr
Owner Driver1 min read
Country Corner
Troy Cassar-Daley Sony Music www.troycassardaley.com.au Multi award-winning artist Troy Cassar-Daley gets into the festive season with his new album Christmas For Cowboys. Surprisingly, it’s actually Cassar-Daley’s first Christmas release and he deli
Owner Driver2 min readCrime & Violence
Prioritising Access
ON OCTOBER 1 this year, the Treasurer released the Productivity Commission’s final report on national transport regulatory reform. The Productivity Commission (PC) was asked to assess the economic impacts of the transport regulatory reforms, agreed b
Owner Driver8 min read
Beer And Bling
Chicken parmigiana! Yes you read that correctly, I’ve just started a story on one of Australia’s coolest Kenworth’s with the words ‘chicken parmigiana’. No doubt you’re wondering why? Well, I guess that’s a fair question. It would make a really cool
Owner Driver4 min read
Cash Flow To Fuel Your Business And Keep You On The Road
Small transport operators have many expense commitments that put strain on their cash flow. Factors such as vehicle lease payments or purchase costs, fuel payments, driver wages, rent, regular servicing and vehicle repairs all contribute to relativel
Owner Driver4 min readAutomotive
Vote For Your Favourite And You Could Win Big!
The 2020 Valvoline Truck of the Year Award marks the culmination of the third year of the highly-popular Truck of the Month feature in Owner//Driver. The team here at Owner//Driver has chosen the 12 finalists, but the responsibility of selecting the
Owner Driver2 min read
AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS ON SHOW AT NATIONAL DIESEL DIRT & TURF
There is something special about a field day. Whether it’s the variety of exhibits or the fun atmosphere, field days always draw a crowd. The National Diesel Dirt & Turf Expo is no different, with visitors enjoying the relaxed, family-friendly experi
Owner Driver4 min read
Dubbo Bridge Battle Gains Impetus
CONCERNED Dubbo residents, Dubbo mayor Ben Shields, association members and key industry personnel, including road safety advocate Rod Hannifey, have reinforced their position against the New South Wales government’s plan for a River St bridge across
Owner Driver3 min read
Brisbane’s Week Of Weeks
The latest announcement about the 2021 Brisbane Truck Show was not about the truck show at all. Yet it was greeted with overwhelming enthusiasm by stalwarts from across the industry. The last show to feature heavy equipment and machinery was also the
Owner Driver5 min readAutomotive
Blast From His Past
I HAVE, in the past, had the pleasure of viewing and photographing some splendidly fantastic, big budget truck restorations. Projects years in the making, with quite literally hundreds of thousands of dollars spent to bring a classic truck back to a
Owner Driver3 min readCrime & Violence
It Pays To Ask About Driver Pay
There’s plenty of evidence that certain operators in the truck moving industry are guilty of serious wage theft. These on-going breaches also fall within the definition of Modern Slavery under the regulatory guidelines. So who exactly is responsible?
Owner Driver11 min read
Going, Going … Gone!
IT IS A brutally long way from Uluru to Dandenong, especially via Chicago and the big Cat-house in Peoria. That, however, is the decade-long mental excursion that needs to be made to gain any sense of the circumstances leading to the recent announcem
Owner Driver5 min readAutomotive
Volvo Delivers
DESPITE THE frustrations stemming from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, Volvo Group Australia (VGA) has swum against the tide, embarking on what it states as its biggest launch ever with a new range of FM, FMX, FH and FH16 models – just in time
Owner Driver5 min readTechnology & Engineering
Compounding A Comeback
The following is an abridged version of a Steve Brooks feature story titled ‘Compounding the Interest’ published in November 2019. It may help to understand how turbo-compounding works and Volvo’s motives for resurrecting the technology despite the n
Owner Driver2 min read
Isuzu And Volvo Cement UD Trucks Agreement
VOLVO GROUP and Isuzu Motors have offered further detail on the commercial vehicle strategic alliance recently finalised by both parties. The deal cements the memorandum of understanding signed in December 2019 “to capture the opportunities in the on
Owner Driver2 min readTechnology & Engineering
Iveco Australia Launches Telematics Platform
IVECO’S LOCAL arm has introduced its own telematics system for the Australian and New Zealand markets. Following what it calls an extensive local development phase, the new platform is designed and manufactured in its Melbourne plant specifically for
Owner Driver2 min readTechnology & Engineering
Daimler And Volvo In Fuel Cell Joint Venture
EUROPEAN RIVAL truck manufacturers Volvo Group and Daimler have signed a binding agreement for a joint venture to develop, produce and commercialise fuel-cell systems for use in heavy-duty trucks and other applications. The Volvo Group will acquire 5
Owner Driver2 min readTechnology & Engineering
Cummins Underlines Hydrogen Ambitions
IT MAY have cut its teeth on internal combustion but engine-maker Cummins wants the market to know it is seeking to become a hydrogen powerhouse as well with a view to producing more hydrogen electrolysers. To that end and in what the company describ
Owner Driver4 min readCrime & Violence
Intimidation Persists
Last month, three senior representatives of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) were questioned by Senators Tony Sheldon and Paul Scarr regarding the letter sent to me which threatened 10 years in jail for talking about low rate

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