How to improve truck productivity amid the fuel crisis

Recent events have put truck productivity in the spotlight as fuel costs rise, and look set to stay high for the foreseeable period.

But there are ways truck operators can get more bang for their buck, and some of them offer a quantum leap in productivity...

Although anyone who owns a truck will profess to being aware of the cost of running their vehicles, when fuel prices soar it does concentrate the mind and inspire them to search for better productivity from their trucks.

One of the most effective methods of getting the best productivity gains in recent years has been looking into using Performance Based Standards (PBS) to improve productivity, and therefore, profitability from a truck.

The PBS scheme is relatively simple. It allows truck and trailer makers and operators to step outside of the strict limitations of our prescriptive rules (in terms of truck and trailer dimensions and specifications) to create much higher productivity for the operator, and without compromising road infrastructure or safety.

In recent years we've seen some great examples, which can often result in 50 per cent improvement in productivity. For example 25 years ago, you would never see a road train anywhere a major city.

Today, we don’t call them road trains when they're in an urban environment. Instead, they are A-doubles, B-triples, or AB-triples, and just about all of them are involved in the PBS scheme or are able to use these urban roads as a result of PBS.

This year, there are over 30,000 trucks on the road involved in PBS. The stats show together they have improved both productivity and safety on our highways, including a reduction of 69 per cent in road accidents for articulated PBS trucks, when compared to the average, whole articulated truck population.

Truck and dogs make up 41 per cent of the PBS fleet, followed by A-doubles, then semi-trailers, B-doubles and longer road trains. The number of A-doubles in the fleet has grown dramatically since 2021, and it continues on a steep upwards curve.

The productivity improvement from each A-double is around 50 per cent; instead of using two prime movers to pull two trailers, one prime mover pulls two trailers.

“I just have a measure, fuel per tonne per 100 kilometres,” explained Kelvin Baxter from Kelvin Baxter Transport, while speaking at the Australian Trucking Association’s Technical and Maintenance Conference.

“If you look at an A-double or an AB-triple, it is staggering the savings that are there in terms of fuel.

"Now it can be green, it's much reduced carbon emissions; it's all those good things, but it's safety as well. It's less vehicles on the road with these PBS combinations; less fuel, less drivers, less wages, and increased safety.”

Fuel costs and shortages will remain an issue even after an end to the current Middle East hostilities. The impetus becomes even more important as the government strives to meet its stated carbon emission goals.

For many operators there's a frustration that although they invest in the latest safety equipment, with the same ability to increase productivity, they're unable to access that productivity improvement because the truck sits outside the current PBS scheme.

This issue really hits home for rural operators. Low quality country roads combined with larger distances involved mean that local authorities will not allow heavier or longer, higher productivity vehicles on their roads.

“We need to be looking at our return on investment; to get back our investment that we've made and open up those networks to safer, modern vehicles that are the everyday standard elsewhere nowadays,” said Atholl Carter, Frasers Livestock’s Central Queensland and Compliance Manager at the ATA TMC.

“We put one of our brand new livestock, B triples beside an A-double, but it's not PBS rated as a high productivity vehicle, even though it has the same capacity, plus all the same safety benefits and features as the vehicle parked beside it," he said.

“It's a no brainer that by doing more with less, it is a clear way to reduce fuel burn, and therefore emissions. And it's here now, and we need to be taking that on board.”

Related: PBS trucks explained: What it is and how it affects your business