Like all road and transport agencies in Australia, the Queensland Departments of Main Roads and Transport face a significant challenge in managing the use of the road network by large commercial (or freight) vehicles. The 34,000 km of road for which Main Roads is responsible has a replacement value of more than $25 Billion - which makes it one of largest single infrastructure investments in Queensland. Even with an annual Roads Program in the order of $1 Billion, Main Roads is increasingly under pressure to maintain this road network to a level that meets the demands of both the community and industry. A large part of industry's demand of, and on, the road network is seen in the operation of heavy commercial vehicles (HCV's) - even though HCV's represent only some 3.5% of the total Australian vehicle fleet, they can be attributed with 55% of Australia's road wear costs . And this demand is growing - the amount of road freight movement (measured in tonne-kilometres) is forecast to double by 2015 , with over 95% of this being currently clocked up by HCV's . This growth in freight movement, and the continuing demands for greater efficiency, is motivating transport operators to make more frequent use of large multi-combination vehicles - from the 'routine' B-Doubles and Road Trains through to the 'innovative' AAB Quads and ICON's. When operated as intended, these innovative (or special-combination) vehicles can pose less of a threat to roads, bridges and other road users than 'normal' large multi-combination vehicles (such as Type 1 and Type 2 Road Trains). However, when these large special-combination vehicles operate "outside the envelope" (eg. travelling at too high a speed, or on the wrong route, or in the wrong traffic conditions) they can pose a much greater risk. Thus, road and transport agencies have to manage these impacts in a sustainable way whilst facing increasingly constrained budgets. A scan of the activities of overseas road and transport agencies shows that there is a definite move towards implementing systems that automatically monitor the movement of individual vehicles (typically articulated trucks). In the USA, this implementation is focusing on linking that nation's extensive network of weigh-stations with HCV's via dedicated short-range communication (DSRC) systems . In Europe, work is progressing on both DSRC-based systems and global positioning system- (GPS)-based systems . It is this work on GPS-based systems that has fueled a lot of interest in Australia - given its large physical area, its relatively low population density and the fact that most of its 'vulnerable' road network (thin pavements, narrow carriageway, etc) is in quite remote areas where routine enforcement is most difficult.
Samenvatting