trucksales Awards 2024: The shortlist

Each year, trucksales presents awards for the products, concepts or ideas that our panel of judges thinks are the most innovative and safest for the year.

The awards don't have to necessarily go to a vehicle manufacturer. They can go to anyone that the judges think has come up with something truly innovative or that promotes safety in the transport industry.

This year we had a very diverse group that judges had to choose from, and below is a shortlist that they came up with for each award.

If you would like to read the full story of any of the products that we ran on trucksales, simply click on the blue headline.

Winners of the Safety Award and Innovation Award will be announced in late January.

Volvo Electric increased range

In June, Volvo announced that its medium-duty electric trucks would be getting increased range.

Thanks to more powerful batteries in Volvo’s medium-duty FL and FE Electric, it is now possible to speed up the transition to quieter and cleaner city transport. The new batteries offer 42 per cent extra energy capacity.

While the trucks won't get you from Sydney to Melbourne or Brisbane, the extra range on offer does mean that Volvo’s battery-fuelled trucks can handle most types of routes and assignments in urban areas, as well as providing power for energy-consuming jobs like refuse handling or construction.
The Volvo FL Electric now has a range of up to 450km, while Volvo FE Electric has a range of up to 300km.

The first company to take up on the increased-range trucks was DHL, taking delivery of an FL Electric in September.

Fuso eCanter Gen II

Mercedes-Benz and its subsidiary, Fuso, have been at the forefront of electric truck development since most developed countries expressed a need for low- and zero-emissions trucks.

Since its 2017 launch in Japan, making it the first series-produced, all-electric, light-duty truck in its home market, the eCanter has been running with selected fleets in Europe, North America, Australia and New Zealand, clocking up more than six million kilometres in the process. We first tested an Australian-market model back in June 2021.

But the big step forward with the Gen II eCanter is the eAxle, a final-drive unit that replaces the previous mid-mounted electric motor, prop shaft and conventional rear axle, housing a mechanical differential.

In the lead-up to the launch of the latest model, Daimler made no secret of the fact that the next-generation eCanter would incorporate an eAxle, but its innovative design surprised us.

Rather than having the electric motor on the front of a conventional diff nose on a rigid rear-drive axle, the 2023 eCanter has a chassis-mounted electric power unit with open half-shafts connected to the rear wheel ends. Its conventional leaf spring packs are bolted to a U-shaped cross beam that sits behind the power unit.

Read more about the eAxle here, but we certainly reckon it’s a worthy finalist for our Innovation Award

Omni Tanker Composite Road Train

We reported on the Omni Tanker road train back in July, and even then we thought this a great innovation.

Omni Tanker has been around for long time – we first reported on the company's composite tankers back in 2016.

However, Omni Tanker is now using aerospace technology in tankers to gain a 15 per cent increase in payload and include a safer baffle system.

Employing advanced composite materials and engineering practices commonly found in aerospace, Omni Tanker’s new triple tanker features world-first Mould-in-Baffles to better manage the movement of fluid (surge) in the road tankers, enhancing safety. Meanwhile, advanced fabrication techniques reduce the weight of the trailer units.

Omni Tanker says the Mould-in-Baffle principle was conceived five years ago and is now an important part of the company’s innovation portfolio, with the technology set to enter service in the Australian market as well as export markets including North America and Europe.

The collaborative project between Omni Tanker and Mick Murray Welding delivered a triple road train solution that boasts a 15 per cent gain in payload – as a result of the advanced carbon-fibre composite construction – enabling a reduction in the number of trips and associated emissions through a greater carrying capacity.

Omni Tanker is an Australian innovation success story, using advanced composite materials to produce lightweight tanks with exceptional chemical resistance by combining the strength of carbon-fibre composites with the chemical resistance of specialty thermoplastic liners using their patented technology.

Coregas H2Station hydrogen fuelling station

Coregas, an Australian-owned industrial gases company, launches the Coregas H2Station, Australia’s first hydrogen refuelling station for heavy vehicles, in Port Kembla, NSW.

With plenty of companies looking to hydrogen for heavy-duty truck power in the future, many are asking how the trucks will be refuelled.

Coregas has answered part of the question by opening the first hydrogen refuelling station in Port Kembla, NSW.

Construction of the $2 million H2Station has been assisted by a $500,000 NSW Government grant.

The H2Station will facilitate the introduction of zero-emissions hydrogen fuel cell trucks to the Illawarra-Shoalhaven region and local heavy vehicles will be encouraged to access the H2Station, which can rapidly refuel up to 10 vehicles a day. The H2Station is a low-cost commercial solution capitalising on existing infrastructure aimed to seed a future network of hydrogen-fuelled transport.

“Locating the H2Station alongside Coregas’s existing hydrogen production plant and transport hub for bulk hydrogen in Port Kembla created operational and cost efficiencies,” said Alan Watkins, Executive General Manager at Coregas in Australia

“The H2Station will allow hydrogen trucks to access the majority of the Illawarra-Shoalhaven region and reach metropolitan Sydney.”

Mr Watkins said that transitioning Coregas’s diesel truck fleet to fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs) was a cornerstone of the company’s decarbonisation roadmap.

“Coregas’s diesel truck fleet travels almost six million kilometres every year,” he said. “That’s equivalent to driving 150 times around the world, which contributes to 54 per cent of Coregas’s carbon emissions.”

Back in September, we reported on the Heavy Vehicle Driver Operation Skill Set course in WA, which is teaching people how to drive trucks the right way.

Western Roads Federation CEO, Cam Dumesny, says in Western Australia, the transport industry, working in collaboration with the vocational education and training (VET) sector, has demonstrated that their training can lead to safer driving and long-term employment.

“The students have a truck driver mentor who teaches them not only how to drive but how to drive safely," said Mr Dumesny. "By the time the students finish the course, they’ve had really comprehensive training that prepares them properly for life either behind the wheel of a truck or in trucking operations," he added.

"We’ve been running the Heavy Vehicle Driver Operation Skill Set in Perth. We created it in collaboration with the Transport Workers Union. It’s funded by the Western Australian Government and run through TAFE,” Mr Dumesny said.

“This is not just your usual ‘tick a box’ trucking course where the aim of the game seems to be getting high enrolment numbers. What we’re interested in is how many of these students complete the course and how many get real jobs in the trucking industry,” Mr Dumesny continued.

“The course we’re running in Perth has been remarkably successful … We’ve had 500 students who have enrolled in the course and are now employed in the trucking industry. Interestingly, 38 per cent of the newly trained and employed truck drivers are women, a rate substantially above the industry average of less than five per cent.

“I think the difference is that it’s industry working in collaboration with the VET sector. It shifts the focus from simply training the students to driving safely and getting them jobs in the industry."

LSM Radar Sense AEB

Rear-end collisions are the most commonly occurring two-vehicle incidents and can be catastrophic when the shunter is a heavy vehicle.

Autonomous emergency braking control that prevents or mitigates the effects of rear-end collisions is one of LSM Technologies’ key new products that were launched at the Brisbane Truck Show in May 2023.

LSM Technologies is a Brisbane-based electronics and engineering company that specialises in safety equipment for trucks and plant machinery. While making some componentry in Australia, it imported many products and adapted them for locally available products and operating conditions.

With that background, LSM Technologies has now taken the significant step of manufacturing and packaging as much of this equipment as possible in Australia.

LSM RadarSense radar proximity detection is designed to mitigate or prevent collisions in situations where the driver has not reacted to a potential collision. Autonomous Emergency Braking (AEB) is now fitted to many new trucks and is mandated for all heavy vehicles by ADR 97, which takes effect for new buses from November 2024 and new trucks from February 2025.

RadarSense provides audible and visual driver alerts and AEB can be applied. Built-in GPS tracking reports speed and location, with integration of compulsory shut-off in ACMA-designated areas, such as military zones.

RadarSense is being offered to new truck makers and as a retrofit purchase for fleet owners who want to have uniformity across all their trucks.

NHVR Don’t #uck With a Truck safety campaign

This is the second year that the NHVR’s Don’t #uck With a Truck safety campaign has been short-listed for our Safety Award.

We love the cheeky slogan, and so do the intended audience of young and future drivers.

This year, the NHVR has spread the campaign to include Schoolies, and we think that is a great idea.

NHVR CEO Sal Petroccitto said that while heavy vehicle safety was not a usual topic of discussion amongst young people, the NHVR’s goal was to bring the conversation to life and help teach inexperienced drivers how to safely share the road.

“This year alone, Australia has recorded 167 fatal crashes involving heavy vehicles and 190 lives lost,” Mr Petroccitto said.

“Our studies show many young drivers experience anxiety or nervousness driving near heavy vehicles, and with our road toll only continuing to rise, this is a huge cause for concern.

“Typically, around 70 per cent of serious incidents involving both heavy and light vehicles are the fault of the light vehicle, highlighting the need for greater education, and this education starts with our young drivers.

The 2021 trucksales Safety Award and Innovation Award will be announced in late January.