Decision to allow wider trucks on Australian roads should pave the way for the electrification of heavy duty transport.

A major change to Australian design rules promises to be a “game changer” for Australia’s shift to electric freight transport.

The new rule announced by the federal government will allow wider trucks on Australian roads, bringing the country in line with overseas markets and removing one of the key barriers to local uptake of heavy duty electric trucks, as most overseas-built models were just a few centimetres too wide to meet Australia’s previous standards.

“This Safer Freight Vehicles package responds to direct calls from industry to increase the width limit of trucks and follows extensive public consultation and feedback,” said federal assistant minister for infrastructure and transport Carol Brown.

“These changes will be a real game changer for industry, businesses and other road users, as they will save lives by adopting technology to reduce the likelihood of crashes, while also lowering freight costs and supporting better environmental outcomes.”

The change increases the overall width limit from 2.50 to 2.55 metres for new trucks, as long as they are fitted with safety features such as side guards and devices to limit blind spots.

  • rcbrk
    3·
    1 year ago

    For a lot of the more rural towns (or a least for the ones I know of) that do have rail connections, they are only accessible using diesel locomotives as there is no electricity network set up to power electric trains. So if we don’t want to introduce more emissions from rail freight we would have to electrify the whole rail network.

    Hydrogen (and battery) are both viable energy storage methods for heavy rail freight:

    • Wiggles@aussie.zoneOP
      1·
      1 year ago

      Yeah true I didn’t even think about batteries or hydrogen as diesel replacements for trains. The up to 6MWh of storage your article quotes for the short distance hauls sounds like a lot of storage, but I guess there is a considerable amount of surface area at the bottom of a locomotive that could be filled with batteries, and if each locomotive can’t hold enough storage to pull the load, you can just add another locomotive to the train to make up the difference.

      • Jumuta@sh.itjust.works
        1·
        1 year ago

        the problem though is that the production of batteries produce pollution, and they have a set lifetime, unlike overhead wires.

        • Wiggles@aussie.zoneOP
          1·
          1 year ago

          No doubt, but steel production produces a lot of pollution as well. It will be interesting to see the progression of green steel manufacturing tech and battery tech vs one another over time, even hydrogen tech. Its a tough choice because at any point we could see a major breakthrough in one of them making all the others relatively less cost and environmentally sound options.