Two separate trials using high performance vehicles (HPVs), one in regional Victoria and the other in Metropolitan Melbourne, are to
Two separate trials using high performance vehicles (HPVs), one in regional Victoria and the other in Metropolitan Melbourne, are to be rolled out by the Victorian Government as a part of The Victorian Transport Plan.
Super B-doubles—constituting of two 40 foot trailers—will run iin Victoria’s ‘Green Triangle’ in regional Victoria, and on the West Gate Freeway, the Hume Highway and the Western Ring Road out-side of peak times.
The Green Triangle is the land between the three points of Port Campbell, Mount Gambier and north of Dimboola and Nhill.
In the report, released today, it states the only vehicles “being extended in this trial” are b-doubles capable of carrying two 40-foot containers.
The promise of a reduction of emissions “of up to 22 percent” and the projection of the freight task doubling by 2020 are said to be the motivations for the move.
The regional trial will be funded on the defined Principle Freight Network.
The Government has called the move a “priority stage trial” which will target roads connecting to the Port of Portland.
“[The aim is to] support movement of timber from plantations to chip mills and for export. These upgrades are expected to demonstrate the productivity benefits derived from next generation HPFV use, as well as best practice arrangements for managing social amenity issues,” the plan says.
The “Metropolitan” trials will have several stipulations that the regional trials do not.
They are:
• All movements must operate outside of peak periods
• All 80-foot b-doubles must be fitted with GPS for tracking
• Only approved access routes are the Western Ring Road, The Hume Highway and The West Gate Freeway
It is not known at this stage whether IAP Technology is involved in the plan.
“They will be tracked via GPS to ensure they travel only on the approved routes,” the plan says.