B triples coming to a Hume near you....

[Full Noise]

Originally Posted by MercurySilver

wow
i load doubles with 2 containers, or big singles with a 40foot container but ive never seen four singles
looks awesome

Out in the back blocks, they run all different combinations, like a quad, which is basically two B doubles joined by a dolly.

[nstg8a]

Originally Posted by Full Noise

Rego on an interstate B double is already around $16,000 a year. A B triple will be over $20,000.

Wow. All of a sudden paying just over $1000 to register the XR8 doesn't seem so bad.

[MercurySilver]

1000 $!!!!
holy ****
i didnt pay that for my xr8 ute minid you it was a year and a bit ago

[Trevor 57]

Originally Posted by new2ford

But where are the great majority of journeys? I haven't checked but I wouldn't be surprised if there were more road deliveries between Russia and the Atlantic countries than all Australian freight combined. Bound to be when comparing a continent of 20 million people with one of over 700 million people.

Keep on track will you, this conversation had nothing to do with population, it has to do with disatance travelled. Am I typing too fast for you to keep up?

[AlbertM]

Originally Posted by Trevor 57

every system can be by-passed. I can almost gaurentee that road is far more heavily regulated, the big difference between the 2 is that rail is "self" regulated and road isn't to the same degree

Rail is not self regulated, and the regulations are far more strict for rail than they are for the road.

[new2ford]

Originally Posted by Trevor 57

Keep on track will you, this conversation had nothing to do with population, it has to do with disatance travelled. Am I typing too fast for you to keep up?

Exactly, read what I said. You were making a point that Australia had some unusually long trip lengths and I was telling you Europe does too (and the US and other places). There's nothing particularly special about the industry in Australia.

I don't know what sort of inferiority complex advocates of the road transport industry in Australia have that they have to attribute it with some sort of hero status. I'd reserve that for the truckies who do the Road of Death in Bolivia!

[wrongwaynorris]

How does the driver of a B triple judge distance?
After overtaking a car say doing 97 and the B triple doing say 100 how does the B triple driver judge the back of his unit and pull back into the left lane.

If we had courteous intellegent trained drivers not vehicle steerers in this country the car being overtaken would flash their high beam momentarily when the trailer is clear . But alas atleast 90% of Australian drivers are just arrogant numbskulls .

If the brakes are applied very hard on a B triple for an emergency stop how does the B triple pull up> In a straight line .

If on a road with no excessive camber yes , all these trailers will be mandatory with ABS if I am not mistaken .

[wrongwaynorris]

Originally Posted by new2ford

Exactly, read what I said. You were making a point that Australia had some unusually long trip lengths and I was telling you Europe does too (and the US and other places). There's nothing particularly special about the industry in Australia.

Yes there is , in Europe and America truck drivers do not have to put up with stupid arrogant ignoramouses on the roads .

I don't know what sort of inferiority complex advocates of the road transport industry in Australia have that they have to attribute it with some sort of hero status. I'd reserve that for the truckies who do the Road of Death in Bolivia!

Theyr'e just guys like you and I out there earning a living FFS .

The simple fact is atleast 90% of truck drivers are thorough professionals where as 90% of car drivers are utter morons .

[GasoLane]

Originally Posted by wrongwaynorris

How does the driver of a B triple judge distance?
After overtaking a car say doing 97 and the B triple doing say 100 how does the B triple driver judge the back of his unit and pull back into the left lane.

We've got these really big reflective things on each door.
We call them mirrors.
We look into them frequently.
We can see all the way to the back of the last trailer.
When the back of the rear trailer is past the car we turn left.

Originally Posted by wrongwaynorris

If we had courteous intellegent trained drivers not vehicle steerers in this country the car being overtaken would flash their high beam momentarily when the trailer is clear . But alas atleast 90% of Australian drivers are just arrogant numbskulls .

True but you forget the car drivers golden rule. "Thou shalt not let one Truck overtake you..........ever!"

[stevz]

Originally Posted by new2ford

By comparison you won't find a single train driver who is ripped to the tits and a repeat offender.

An old video, but still goes to show you're wrong...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPRp_J6HIlw

[Burnout]

This thread has drawn the crabs, that's for sure...

[Trevor 57]

for sure, arguing for the sake of arguing, I am a bit over it.

Train drivers as role models FFS, that will be the day

[maty]

Originally Posted by Full Noise

No no no, that’s what the boffin’s in government want you to believe. The reality is, none of your costs will ever go down.

In business, the bigger the business, the higher the operating costs.

The simple fact is that they will cost more to operate, they will raise more income but the income will not necessarily cancel out the increase in operating costs.

A very wise man once said, “you can come up with statistics to prove anything, Kent. Forty percent of all people know that.”

For example: Some knucklehead at the NTC thought that it would be a great idea to near triple the cost of registration for “A” or lead trailers. This would never have worked in the long term and they ended up back-pedalling mid way through 2012 to significantly reduce this unnecessary burden. They just ended up raising the cost of rego for rigid trucks instead.

Rego on an interstate B double is already around $16,000 a year. A B triple will be over $20,000.

Look at it in fixed and variable costs.

You are adding another A or lead trailer. You are limited to the amount of freight you can carry, whether it be cubic or maximum weight.

In affect, the increased cost of registration, the higher insurance, operating costs for tyres and maintenance would hardly make it a viable option. That’s before you even get into the cost of compliance.

Compliance, the big $$$ killer. It will be highly unlikely that anyone operating one of these will be able to drive straight out of their depot and into another depot at the other end. So someone else will most likely have to take one of the trailers to an approved hook up point somewhere near the Hume highway, at either end. So you have to buget for another truck and driver to bring part of the combination into the dept. depending on how far that is, will well and truly kill the profit made with the extra A (lead) trailer.

Remember, it’s local councils that have the say on what local roads these vehicles will be allowed on, not Vicroads or the RMS.

Would Prime mover need to be registered as a mc(medium combination) or lc(long combination), another increase in costs. A lot of transport depots couldn't handle triples in them. Bigger rest areas and hook up yards at either end of the hume to accommodate these larger vehicles,how long will it take them to build them its taken an eternity to duplicate the highway.

[GasoLane]

Originally Posted by maty

Bigger rest areas and hook up yards at either end of the hume to accommodate these larger vehicles,how long will it take them to build them its taken an eternity to duplicate the highway.

Rest areas ?... Hook up yards ?
There are none now so I doubt that any State Government would be prepared to build any, at least not without financial help from any of the major Transport companies who will be the only one's using B-triples.

Trucks have been changing over at Tarcutta (Hume Hwy) in the main st for as long as I can remember.
There is finally a changeover place there, this only took about 10 years of state and local governments debating about it!

Dubbo is another example, there is parking space opposite and on the road by the old Caltex Roadhouse. Trucks used to use the space along the road just sth of the Roadhouse as well.

Dubbo Council in their wisdom planted trees far enough out from the kerb and spaced far enough apart that Trucks could not park there.
Before anybody says that the Trucks were interrupting business's or people sleeping this is a light industrial area mainly occupied by car yards.
90% of the Trucks/Trailers were gone before anyone started normal working hours.

[nstg8a]

It's the same up here, just have to drive round rocklea before 6am to see there has to be a shortage of lay up areas. Pretty much any piece of ground big enough to park on will have some one parked on it.

[wicko]

Originally Posted by wrongwaynorris

If we had courteous intellegent trained drivers not vehicle steerers in this country the car being overtaken would flash their high beam momentarily when the trailer is clear . But alas atleast 90% of Australian drivers are just arrogant numbskulls .

As part of the 10% of the population who flash their lights to let you know you've cleared me - its great to get the left/right blinker which is code for 'Thanks' (???). Can't say I recall anyone who hasn't done that.

[56L]

I just spent the last 8 months driving a 409 kenworth pulling a extra lenght quad dog under the PBS system on skinny north western NSW highways,I would never dare to dodge a pothole with on coming traffic as these suckers kick out at the back big time ,alot of close calls thats for shore. I wish i was on the hume

In comparison to my set up i noticed the b doubles always tracked alot better

[OzJavelin]

Stupid question time ... As the length/mass of a truck/trailer increases to B-triple specs -from single trailer and B-double - does the braking capacity increase with it so that stopping distances are the same. I would have thought not, but with more trailers comes more brakes so I suppose it could?

[Trevor 57]

More brakes does indeed give increased braking, this was part of the trial that I was part of, they pull up in a good distance, and now with the advent of ABS on the trailers and with disc brakes they are pretty damn good, but like anything maintenance must be kept up.

Remember B-Triples have been running in Victoria for over 15 years, over 95% in metro Melbourne, between Geelong and Broadmeadows.

B-Triples run across the Nullabor as well.

[GasoLane]

Originally Posted by wicko

which is code for 'Thanks' (???).

Yes it is, and it is appreciated

Originally Posted by OzJavelin

Stupid question time ... As the length/mass of a truck/trailer increases to B-triple specs -from single trailer and B-double - does the braking capacity increase with it so that stopping distances are the same. I would have thought not, but with more trailers comes more brakes so I suppose it could?

Trev pretty well covered it, but I might add all our Volvo's have Disc's as standard on the prime movers and there is an increasing number of trailer's with them as well.

You can keep your Brembo's, these are bigger

Volvo Steer axle.

[mitch_s]

Originally Posted by Full Noise

and it’s only parasites like Fox and Toll who will be using them anyway.

HAHA!
guess me working for toll makes me a parasite.
bugger!

ohwell, that 'parasite' Toll is by far the best employer as far me and any other courier or truck driver ive ever spoken too.

as for Toll running triples, maybe one or two at the most.
if this is the case, go blame cotton on in lara near geelong, they seem to like smashing our doubles up and righting them off. its probably cheaper for toll to run triples out of the big customers like quicksilver, ripcurl and cotton anyway. the ammount of times i've seen trailers being rushed out because they've filled a double and still need another trailer.
all in all i think its a good idea. i think as far as the enviroment, costs and in some ways safety are concerned it may well be better to run the triples.
1 triple is better than a single and a double. if that is the case, one truck on the road is better than two..
dont mean to be a ****** kicker and start trouble but i think you'd think differently if you worked for Toll.



^That is MY 2 cents.

[mitch_s]

Originally Posted by sleek7

Mmmm ok, so in the news clip on the article page where they show a B double that crossed onto the wrong side of the freeway and killed 3 people in that little red car....that was the car drivers fault huh?

you my friend need to get your head out of your ****!
this is a prime example of people kill people.
its like a gun, how can a gun kill someone without some dips**t there to pull the trigger..
hundreds of shooters/hunters discharge firearms daily, how often does something go wrong.
same as....
How can a car, van, ridged, Single, Double or Triple kill someone when it has a licensed and properly trained driver behind the wheel.

i mean lets not be ******** pal, theres always going to be accidents that happen, just like there will always be ********* on the road. only thing is, we do it for a living and are responsible, theres alot more knob swallors out there in cars than in trucks.

[nb_351]

What would these people do if they came into contact with a quad road train like in the pilbara etc, or NT lol
Put a regular joe in a semi trailer and they'll pack it, let alone a combination setup
Or let's see them try and reverse one
People struggle to back up a box trailer or a boat
Try doing something that's 50 odd metres long
Sure there are some muppet truck drivers out there, ive worked with them, but most of them keep this country alive
The thing that makes them dangerous is other road users jumping on the brakes or into gaps that aren't big enough

[GasoLane]

All the posters that have been going on about ratbag drugged up insane Truck Drivers that drive around at 300kmh seem to forget one thing.



We (Truck Drivers) are out there with them as well.............. every night!

[maty]

Originally Posted by mitch_s

HAHA!
guess me working for toll makes me a parasite.
bugger!

ohwell, that 'parasite' Toll is by far the best employer as far me and any other courier or truck driver ive ever spoken too.

as for Toll running triples, maybe one or two at the most.
if this is the case, go blame cotton on in lara near geelong, they seem to like smashing our doubles up and righting them off. its probably cheaper for toll to run triples out of the big customers like quicksilver, ripcurl and cotton anyway. the ammount of times i've seen trailers being rushed out because they've filled a double and still need another trailer.
all in all i think its a good idea. i think as far as the enviroment, costs and in some ways safety are concerned it may well be better to run the triples.
1 triple is better than a single and a double. if that is the case, one truck on the road is better than two..
dont mean to be a ****** kicker and start trouble but i think you'd think differently if you worked for Toll.



^That is MY 2 cents.

That makes me a parasite to working for toll.
I agree with you Toll will only run a few triples mainly for general and country freight,all the express freight will still run in doubles and singles.
Are Tolls yards big enough to move triples around or stage awaiting departure

[mitch_s]

Originally Posted by maty

That makes me a parasite to working for toll.
I agree with you Toll will only run a few triples mainly for general and country freight,all the express freight will still run in doubles and singles.
Are Tolls yards big enough to move triples around or stage awaiting departure

I do know of one triple that toll runs and that's out of Perth

[GasoLane]

Originally Posted by mitch_s

I do know of one triple that toll runs and that's out of Perth

My company has been running B-Triples Adel-Perth for at least the last 5 years

[nb_351]

First fleet were running triples in vic, sa and wa when I was working there aswell

[nstg8a]

Originally Posted by nb_351

First fleet were running triples in vic, sa and wa when I was working there aswell

Lol and how did that end up for them....

Two of the main companies that we use at work are both making all their drivers get their licence for doubles (mc?) and getting rid of their singles, any drivers that refuse are being shown the door. That's parrys and pearsons. I wonder how soon before they start looking at triples.
Pearsons especially, they carry light but full loads up to us that we distribute to local stores, then they go next door and pick up empty cans that weigh even less. I can see triples being very attractive for them.

Our yard I think could handle them, but I'm not sure about actually getting in and out of the yard.
Plenty of people park on the street right beside the driveways not thinking about trucks coming and going.
We close to motorway as well, buy I doubt it would happen up here.

[Ben73]

Originally Posted by tweeked

Time - in the time it takes to load and unload at the terminal half the trips are completed. Rail really only comes into its own over 1000km

Out of interest how long do you think it actually takes to load & unload a coal train?