Owner Driver

IT’S BEEN a big summer for Australia and transport has been at the heart of it as usual. The drought has been cruel to many parts of our country and with widespread fire activity there is real pain in the bush and regional areas where we work and liv

THIS YEAR’S HAY RUN, sponsored by heavy vehicle insurer National Transport Insurance (NTI) for the fourth year, delivered to Armidale on January 26 after a three-day journey. The Burrumbuttock Hay Run was founded by Brendan ‘Bumpa’ Farrell back in 20

THE TRANSPORT WORKERS UNION (TWU) has accused Amazon of safety shortcomings overseas for its Flex initiative, newly launched in Australia. The TWU deplores the advent of AF, now operating in New South Wales and Victoria, and reiterates its call for g

LET’S ALL BE A LITTLE honest with ourselves here, it doesn’t matter how old we are, how young we are, how ‘mature’ we pretend to be, whether we wear a suit or high vis work gear, whether your mum still packs your lunch or you order a high priced soy

MOST TRUCK drivers have war stories about narrowly avoiding accidents with cars that don’t drive safely around them. I’m sure many of you have added a few close calls over the past few months, with the extra holiday makers and caravans on the road. M

IT WOULD be remiss this month to write about anything other than the tragedy that has hit our country, especially considering truck drivers are among the worst affected and those heroically stepping up to help. From all of us at the Transport Workers

To the unknown truckie, we would like to send you a very big “Thank You” for paying for some of our meal at Echuca on January 8, 2020 at the Caltex Roundabout servo. I understand you heard the staff talking about 27 of us (Country Fire Authority Stri

ONE OF THE THINGS I have asked for in both my Heavy Vehicle National Law (HVNL) review and senate inquiry submissions is a national road standard. For over four years now I have been asking to get a bit of road fixed just south of Yelarbon. Last call

If you asked anyone in the earthmoving industry what makes a great Expo, most would agree that it’s seeing equipment innovations and new technologies that are going to save time and money, plenty to entertain the family and a well organised, relaxed

EVERY TRUCK owner and driver has a story to tell about how they started out in the industry. For Steve Earl, he’s straight to the point with his explanation. “I was selling cooking oil and running it out the back of my ute, then in a little truck. “T

IT WAS just like any other early morning on the Hume Motorway for the stream of trucks heading towards the southern outskirts of Sydney after a long night driving from Melbourne. Not much CB radio chatter because most drivers were too tired to talk;

THE RIGID TRUCK market is facing a tilt from an unexpected quarter this year, with Scania Australia to enter the fray armed with safety equipment and a 7.0-litre Euro 6 engine. The Swedish firm acknowledges this with the smallest truck engine Scani

VOLVO GROUP AUSTRALIA (VGA) is strengthening its customer service network in the nation’s north, with the appointment of Western Truck Group (WTG) as its sales, parts and services dealer for Rockhampton, Townsville, Cairns and Darwin. The transfer of

MASAMI (MAT) OZONO is a proud Japanese man who for more than 40 years has inched his way up the ladder of executive engineering appointments at UD. Fortunately for me, his English is good and more fortunately for UD and its leagues of customers, his

SENIOR VOLVO GROUP AUSTRALIA (VGA) executivees have confirmed that the Australian introduction of new UD Croner and Quon 8x4 models will go ahead as planned despite the startling announcement in late December of a ‘strategic alliance’ that will see I

WHEN IT COMES to misunderstood medical conditions, type 2 diabetes is hard to beat. Despite more than 1.3 million Australians living with diabetes, and around 300 Australians being diagnosed with the condition every day, many people struggle to separ

THERE HAS always been certain things I’ve wanted to accomplish in my life – see a Kiwi win the Bathurst 1000 (several times now), photograph a whale breaching (just the one time), order one thing of every section of a McDonalds’ menu just so the serv

WELL, we got here, it’s 2020. Well most of us did, but sadly so many didn’t, and we can only hang our collective heads in shame for not doing more (or less) that would possibly have made a world of difference. I was asked late last year: “How can Sa

HINO HAS WON its 11th straight Dakar Rally in the Under 10-litre class, extending its record of class victories in the 2020 Dakar Rally, which was held in Saudi Arabia from January 2 to 17. New team director Teruhito Sugawara alongside Hirokazu Somem

IT IS BOTH a tad sad and somewhat satisfying to sample a small slice of Thailand’s automotive manufacturing industry. In this case, Volvo Group’s highly efficient Thai-Swedish Assembly (TSA) facility in the province of Samutprakarn, little more than

CONTRARY TO EARLY indications that it was about to be ousted by a buoyant Volvo, Kenworth in 2019 retained its crown as the most popular heavy-duty truck on the Australian market. Despite the closeness of a contest which at one stage saw just a few d