Moving New Zealand Forward – the Future of Heavy Vehicles, was the theme for the 19th International IRTENZ Conference that took place this week at the Jet Park Hotel, Hamilton. Local and international leaders in vehicle technology, vehicle and infrastructure engineering and design, and compliance, discussed some of the latest trends, learnings and issues affecting the industry.

The energy transition, infrastructure and pavement wear, and compliance and regulation, were the three centres of conversation. ‘Productivity’ was a keyword throughout.

Professor David Cebon of Cambridge University, UK, is one of the globe’s leading thinkers on what tomorrow’s road transport and logistics environment might look like, and his keynote address certainly set the tone for the conference – there’s a huge task ahead for the industry, there’s no silver bullet, and soon everyone is going to have to align their goals for the sector and climate, and be willing to take on the risk and cost.

Cebon said with a 3.5% net margin in transport, there is not much to accommodate the push to decarbonise from the carriers’ point of view when electric logistics results in a 10-25% increase in logistics costs. He highlighted sorting the charging conundrum as a priority, saying if that’s not fixed, the energy transition could tip over.

Cebon promoted ERS (Electronic Roading System) for dynamic charging in environments that see north of 1500 heavy vehicle movements per day, especially when the roading grid and power grid intersect. He shared his opinion that hydrogen was “a dead duck before it starts” – a view challenged strongly by other speakers from the alternate-energy sphere.

The NZTA’s Ivan Torstonson, Riccardo Areosa and Tara MacMillan updated delegates on the latest changes in certification, permitting and regulation, dutifully taking onboard the delegates’ comments and concerns.

MacMillan said the agency has undergone a significant restructure, refreshed its strategy and implemented a new ‘systems thinking’ approach. “We needed to get the right capacity in the right areas. Three new ‘head of’ roles have been created allowing everyone to be more intentional about end-to-end oversight of their domains. It will make a big difference in how we make changes going forward. We want to work collaboratively to understand challenges and opportunities and be targeted in our approach to solving them,” she said.

The need to increase axle mass limits, and possibly harmonise them with other territories, to accommodate heavier alternative-energy vehicles was a hot panel discussion between John de Pont, TERNZ; Les Bruzsa, NHVR Australia; Alfons Reitsma, Scania NZ; and David Alabaster, NZTA pavement engineering.

“Productivity is the name of the game; it must always be behind any changes. Industry won’t push for significant reforms if there’s no productivity gain,” commented Brusa.

“If we want to standardise with other jurisdictions, we need to be designing for these [expected life and network renewal] now and do really long-term planning,” said Alabaster.

“Each time we ask for reformed rules we don’t ask for much, a few percentages. Current proformas hamper us; we have to compromise within the rules. The technology changes so quickly it’s a moving target. If we build new proformas for ZEVs we can leave diesel where it is for now because the volumes are so low; that gives room for the infrastructure improvement,” noted Reitsma.

In closing the conference, IRTENZ chair Chris Carr summarised the bits he found most interesting: “We learnt that NZTA is targeting 99.6% RUC compliance – that’s amazing, as an industry we should take a pat on the back for that.

“I agree decarbonisation is the greatest challenge we face. The adoption of Euro-7 points to the fact our decarbonisation process doesn’t have to be absolute.

“The speed limit drop at the top of the south reduced productivity by 33%. What an astounding number! Addressing that kind of issue requires flexibility.

“We’ve got 1000 years of hydrogen underground – that’s quite special. Energy security is a huge issue we’re going to have to deal with.

“43% of energy is used in heavy transport. And Greg Pert’s quote of ‘fantasy doesn’t produce efficiency’ I particularly like.”

Keep an eye on our weekly EDMs between now and February, as each will feature a highlight from the conference – starting this week with Dr John de Pont’s life membership. A hearty congratulations from us all at New Zealand Trucking Media, John!

Take care out there,

Gavin Myers
Editor