AustroadsNews | March 2017 

Welcome to the March 2017 edition of AustroadsNews. If you have been forwarded this email you can subscribe here to receive future updates.

Contents

• Registration, licensing and insurance issues with automated vehicles

• Driver licensing and barriers to Indigenous economic participation

• Visibility could lead to freight supply chain efficiency

• New rule to help PBS vehicles maintain safe speeds on descents

• Drivers licences in Australia

• BITRE Road Safety Reports

• Fourth UN Global Road Safety Week

• Austroads Bridge Conference 2017

• Upcoming workshops + conferences

Registration, licensing and insurance issues with automated vehicles

Austroads has published a report that considers the potential impacts on vehicle registration, driver licensing and compulsory third party (CTP) insurance arrangements that might arise from the introduction of automated vehicles (AVs) in Australia and New Zealand.

Increasing levels of automation are predicted to impact on current arrangements for registering motor vehicles, licensing drivers, and administering CTP insurance schemes. Understanding these impacts is important as we prepare to support the trialling and testing of AVs in the short term and mass‑market deployment in the longer term.

Driver licensing and barriers to Indigenous economic participation

The Forrest Review recommends that all Australian State and Territory Governments “introduce a consistent approach to issuing ‘provisional’ locked licences for people who are unable to drive due to unpaid fines or other traffic infringements, so that they can get and keep a job by being able to drive.” The objective of this measure would be to address barriers to employment experienced by Indigenous people whose driver licences are subject to suspension, cancellation, or other sanction.

In mid February Austroads published a report that finds that the States and Territories already have measures allowing people whose licences are subject to suspension to keep their licences, either for employment or any other purpose, including the:

• ‘Period of Good Behaviour’ option (under which a driver who has lost all of their demerit points can continue to drive, subject to good behaviour conditions)
• ‘Time to Pay’ option (under which a driver can continue to drive while outstanding fines are repaid by instalments).

These options are already offered in a relatively uniform manner across all of the State and Territory jurisdictions and appear to largely achieve the objectives of this recommendation of the Forrest Review.

Visibility could lead to freight supply chain efficiency

Austroads has released a report that examines the benefits of using end-to-end supply chain visibility technologies.

The project, undertaken with the Australian Logistics Council Supply Chain Standards Working Group and GS1 Australia, used real time industry pilots with TOLL, Arrium OneSteel and Nestlé to assess the impact of using end to end supply chain visibility technology.

The technology uses Global Data Standards (GDS) and enables all stakeholders in a supply chain to keep track of freight.

Minister for Infrastructure and Transport Darren Chester said the findings of Austroads’ report are in line with the Government’s commitment to develop a comprehensive national freight and supply chain strategy.

New rule to help PBS vehicles maintain safe speeds on descents

Austroads has published a report that proposes a new rule in the Performance Based Standards scheme, adding a requirement for applicant vehicles to meet a minimum level of auxiliary braking performance. The purpose of the new rule is to ensure that PBS vehicles can maintain a safe speed on long, steep descents, without reliance on service brakes.

Auxiliary brakes are speed control devices that are able to slow a vehicle without using its service brakes. With the correct use of a suitable auxiliary brake on a long downhill run, it should be possible to minimise the use of a vehicle’s service brakes and thereby maintain their capacity to stop the vehicle.

Drivers licences in Australia

This BITRE information sheet presents an estimate of the number of drivers licences in each state and territory and Australia as a whole from 1922 to 2016. Long-term trends in licences per person, both Australia-wide and in each State/Territory, are shown.

The paper concludes that the absolute annual change in licence totals to 2030 should be almost the same as in the last decade. From 17.2 million drivers on the road in 2016, the total should increase by about 25 per cent to 21.7 million drivers by 2030.

BITRE Road Safety Reports

Road Deaths Australia—Monthly Bulletins

Released mid month - Latest February 2017 
This bulletin contains current counts and summaries of road crash deaths and fatal road crashes in Australia. It is produced monthly and published on BITRE's website on or around the 14th of each month. Data are sourced from the road traffic or police authorities in each jurisdiction.

Fatal Heavy Vehicle Crashes Australia—Quarterly Bulletins

Latest release February 2017 
A quarterly publication tracking counts of fatal crashes that involve heavy vehicles.

Fourth UN Global Road Safety Week

8-14 May 2017

Governments, international agencies, civil society organisations, private companies - all of us who travel the world's roads - are encouraged to plan and host events on 8-14 May 2017 to mark the Fourth UN Global Road Safety Week. The theme of the week is "managing speed".

www.unroadsafetyweek.org

Austroads Bridge Conference | Register Now

Melbourne,  3-6 April 2017

The organising committee for ABC2017 invites you to participate in this important conference. The ABC is the premier bridge conference in Australia and provides a great opportunity for local and international specialists in the field of bridge engineering to share experiences, innovations, achievements and knowledge. 

ARSC2017 

Perth, 10-12 October 2017

The 2017 Australasian Road Safety Conference (ARSC2017) will be held in Perth from Tuesday to Thursday 10-12 October 2017. The Australasian College of Road Safety, Austroads, ARRB and Curtin Monash Accident Research Centre are proud to support the largest road safety-dedicated conference in the Southern Hemisphere.

With a theme “Expanding our horizons”, ARSC2017 will showcase the regions’ outstanding researchers, practitioners, policy-makers and industry spanning the issues identified in the United Nations Decade of Action for Road Safety:

• Road Safety Management
• Infrastructure
• Safe Vehicles
• User Behaviour
• Post-Crash Care.

Upcoming Workshops + Conferences

Accessing the Australian Road Research Board Library | 17 March 2017, Online, No charge but registration essential

2017 IPENZ Transportation Group conference | 29-31 March 2017, Hamilton, New Zealand

Traffic Management Association of Australia (TMAA) Conference | 6-7 April 2017, Gold Coast, Queensland

10th Austroads Bridge Conference: ABC2017 | 3-6 April 2017, Melbourne, Victoria

ARRB Level 2 Bridge Inspection | 4-5 May 2017, Melbourne, Victoria

National electronic Tolling Forum 2017 | 23-25 May 2017, Sydney, NSW

IPWEA Australasian Fleet Conference | 23-25 May 2017, Brisbane, Queensland

Trucking Australia 2017 | 21-23 June 2017, Darwin, Northern Territory

2017 AAPA International Conference | 13-16 August 2017, Melbourne, Victoria

AITPM National Traffic and Transport Conference | 15-17 August 2017, Melbourne, Victoria

Australasian Road Safety Conference | 10-12 October 2017, Perth, Western Australia

Concrete 2017 | 22-25 October 2017, Adelaide, South Australia

ITS World Congress | 29 October-2 November 2017, Montréal, Canada

IRF World Road Meeting | 14-17 November 2017, Delhi, India

IABMAS 2018 | 9-13 July 2018, Melbourne, Victoria