Trucking and road safety advocate Rod Hannifey notches up a major milestone.
Trucking and road safety advocate Rod Hannifey has clocked up more than 1 million kilometres with his Truckright Industry Vehicle trailers.
Owner//Driver was riding with Hannifey as a passenger when the trailers recently clicked over the 1 million kilometres mark near Aratula on the south-western outskirts of Brisbane.
The Vawdrey trailers have been on the road since 2008 and are pulled by a Kenworth K200 prime mover.
They’re owned by Hannifey’s employer and chief supporter, Rod Pilon Transport, based in Dubbo and celebrating 40 years in business this year.
The sides of the trailers carry facts and photos demonstrating the importance of the trucking industry to the Australian economy and some of the safety and efficiency features of modern trucks.
At the rear are Hannifey’s ‘Top 10 Tips for Sharing the Road’ that are displayed in rotation.
When we travelled from Moree to Brisbane and return, the tip was: “Trucks use all the lane width, don’t hog the centre line, give us space in laned traffic and on the highway.”
The Truckright trailers are a familiar sight at truck shows and Hannifey has had numerous eminent transport decision makers riding upfront, as well as making numerous media appearances and writing submissions to various government inquiries.
Hannifey has relentlessly lobbied road authorities about poor parts of their infrastructure, mostly in relation to his usual run along the Newell Highway between Melbourne and Brisbane.
He is also a tireless advocate for better rest areas for truckies.
There is a long list of Truckright sponsors that have supplied gear.
These include Attards load restraint trailer curtains, Alcoa wheels, BPW-retrofitted ABS and EBS (electronic braking system), Jost turntable products, Narva lighting, Ancra straps and winches, 3M conspicuity tape,Groeneveld auto greasers, Tramanco ‘Chek-Way’ on-board scales, Michelin Tyres, and Valor tyre pressure monitoring system.
The long list of industry partners includes Kenworth, National Transport Insurance, peak industry bodies and federal government agencies.
Bauer Trader Media, publisher of Owner//Driver, is a media partner.
Photography: Steve Skinner