Pre-advised PBS Truck and Dog combos extended

NHVR Chief Engineer Les Bruzsa has announced that from April 4, three- and four-axle truck and five- or six-axle dog combinations up to 26m long and 73t GCM will now qualify for the PBS pre-advised approval.

“This means additional PBS combination types can be assessed and receive a Design Approval by the NHVR without submitting the application to the PBS Review Panel,” Mr Bruzsa said.

“Since we conducted a trial of pre-advised design approvals last year, we have been steadily adding combinations to now cover 85 per cent of all design approvals.

“This has reduced application processing times for applicable vehicle types from an average of four weeks to just three business days.”

Other eligible combinations include:
>> Level 1, 3- or 4-axle truck and 3- or 4-axle dog combinations up to 20m long and 50.5t GCM
>> Level 2, 3- or 4-axle truck and 3- or 4-axle dog combinations up to 20m long and 62t GCM
>> Level 1, prime mover and tri- or quad-axle semitrailer combinations up to 20m long and 50.5t GCM
>> Level 1, B-doubles fitted with tandem or tri-axle groups up to 20m long and 50.5t GCM
>> Level 2, B-doubles fitted with tandem or tri-axle groups up to 26m long and 68.5t GCM
>> Level 2, A-doubles with single, tandem or tri-axle semitrailers and tandem or tri-axle dollies up to 30m long and 85t GCM
>> Level 3, A-doubles up to 36.5m long and 95.5t GCM.
The PBS scheme, which has been in place across Australia for the past 10 years, provides approval for innovative and optimised vehicle designs of high productivity vehicles.

During 2016-17 the scheme continued to grow with 1416 PBS combinations approved by the NHVR, which was a 23 per cent increase on the previous year. Since being introduced in 2007 the scheme has seen over 6400 innovative combinations enter the heavy vehicle fleet.

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