Owner/Driver #339
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EYES ON THE ROAD Rod Hannifey<br />
Driving the message<br />
The brand-new TruckRight Industry Vehicle will be<br />
hitting the highways within months<br />
BY THE TIME YOU READ THIS, I will<br />
have stepped out of the current<br />
TruckRight Industry Vehicle (TIV)<br />
– number 2 – after nine years<br />
and nine months. The truck and<br />
trailers will continue on in the Rod<br />
Pilon Transport (RPT) fleet with a<br />
few minor changes, removing the TIV and<br />
TruckRight bits with a new driver. I hope it will<br />
continue to spread the message as it has done<br />
thus far.<br />
I am having shoulder surgery and this<br />
will mean six weeks in a sling and six weeks<br />
minimum for recovery but hope to then step<br />
into a new, and likely last, TIV.<br />
I have been working on this for years now<br />
and only really got it started in December<br />
last year and with delusions of how it might<br />
come together. I even hoped to have it at the<br />
Brisbane Truck Show but the timing for the<br />
truck, trailers and other incidentals mean that<br />
will simply not be possible.<br />
The current trailers will be 13-years-old<br />
in October and have performed well. The<br />
curtains were replaced when the K200 arrived<br />
and so they are coming up on 10 years old.<br />
They are looking a bit tired but still do the job<br />
they were originally intended to do, and that<br />
is show another face of the road transport<br />
industry to the public.<br />
We have some magnificent-looking rigs on<br />
the road but until I designed the first curtains,<br />
which now adorn another set of RPT trailers<br />
(thank you RPT yet again), there was almost<br />
nothing that promoted us as such.<br />
Yes, there are curtains that promote<br />
customers, tractors, vineyards, dog food and<br />
the like, even those that promote the transport<br />
company itself, but even now, outside a few<br />
with ‘this vehicle takes 60m to stop’ signs and<br />
the ‘if you can’t see the driver, he can’t see<br />
you signs’, there is still very little to promote<br />
us. I would love to see Toll, Linfox and others<br />
do something similar. They certainly have<br />
the capacity to do so, yet that is one of the<br />
reasons I left Toll nearly 14 years ago. I had<br />
approached management and asked them to<br />
do something like the TIV, but at the time was<br />
told: “We can’t afford it.”<br />
Toll has got recently involved with the Amy<br />
Gillett Foundation about cyclists; Linfox has<br />
signs seeking drivers on the back, but for<br />
such large companies they have done little to<br />
promote the road transport industry in this<br />
obviously very visual and in-your-face field of<br />
marketing.<br />
Even in the USA, where there is a campaign<br />
called ‘Trucking Moves America Forward’<br />
that raised $1 million and then wrapped 100<br />
trailers with its message, there’s little else.<br />
There is certainly nothing like the TIV. Any of<br />
you who watch Trucking In America will know<br />
they have many tribute trucks to the armed<br />
forces and even 9/11 and, of course, their truck<br />
show trucks, which are far beyond many of<br />
our wildest dreams in terms of customisation.<br />
HELPING HANDS<br />
I have a lot of people to thank for the first two<br />
TIVs, starting with Ken Wilkie for loaning me<br />
his K104 to get me going. Then Rod Pilon for<br />
buying me the trailers and ongoing support,<br />
most of the staff of RPT over the years in one<br />
way or another, and all who have contributed<br />
product, many with ongoing support for their<br />
products.<br />
Roger Sack at Tramanco, with his on-board<br />
scales, has been behind me from the start. I<br />
also thank Michelin, Kenworth and Inland<br />
Truck Centres, Icepack Services, Cummins and<br />
Jost (first TIV), Narva, Attards for both sets of<br />
curtains, Shell, BPW for the electronic brake<br />
ROD HANNIFEY, a transport<br />
safety advocate, has been<br />
involved in raising the<br />
profile of the industry,<br />
conducting highway truck<br />
audits, the Blue Reflector<br />
Trial for informal parking<br />
bays on the Newell, the<br />
‘Truckies on Road Code’, the<br />
national 1800 number for<br />
road repairs proposal, and<br />
the Better Roadside Rest<br />
Areas Group. Contact Rod<br />
on 0428 120 560, e-mail<br />
rod.hannifey@bigpond.<br />
com or visit<br />
www.truckright.com.au<br />
BELOW (L TO R): The first TIV<br />
shortly before it was handed<br />
back to Ken Wilkie; The<br />
second TIV in Brisbane, back<br />
from Melbourne after being<br />
adorned with pin striping<br />
and on-board scales<br />
BOTTOM: The current<br />
and outgoing TIV with its<br />
evergreen trailers<br />
“For such large companies they<br />
have done little to promote the<br />
road transport industry.”<br />
system, Air CTI, GME for radios, Transcom for<br />
individual mudflaps and spray suppression,<br />
3M for conspicuity tapes and clear coat<br />
for the front of the TIV and bullbar, Herd<br />
Bull Bars, Groeneveld for auto greasers,<br />
Mobileye, Transtech, Truckbling, King of the<br />
Road Truckwash and Fisher Park Truckstop,<br />
Truckers Bed, Alcoa (first TIV), Rimex Metals<br />
for the tank skirts and inside cupboard doors,<br />
and Valor for the tyre pressure monitoring<br />
system.<br />
Then there are all the transport companies<br />
who provided photos for the two curtain sets:<br />
the aim was to cover from a rigid to a fivetrailer<br />
roadtrain and all the different sectors,<br />
from general to tippers, tankers, livestock,<br />
heavy haulage and local.<br />
Nolans, Baxters, EA Rocke, Holcim, Boral,<br />
RPT, BIS, Camerons, Kerbys Orange, North Coast<br />
Towing, Inland Petroleum Dubbo, Lampsons<br />
and Stockmaster all contributed photos and<br />
towards the cost of the curtains. Help from the<br />
NHVR, NTC, NRFA, LBRCA, VTA, TCA, NTI, John<br />
Morris/NTI and NRMA and of course, <strong>Owner</strong>//<br />
<strong>Driver</strong>, ATN and Deals on Wheels magazines in<br />
one form or another, taking trips and offering<br />
support for initiatives, and so on. Most kept<br />
with me for four years, some more, but here<br />
we are at nine-plus and finally a new plan.<br />
MENTAL HEALTH<br />
Now I am doing it all again, hoping to have<br />
a few surprises and additions, trying to pull<br />
it all together while working full- time and<br />
seeking support part-time, along with the rest<br />
of the bits and pieces I am involved with.<br />
I said last month about the current issues<br />
on the road, such as lack of facilities, abuse by<br />
many if not most of those we deal with one<br />
way or another, from ridiculous penalties for<br />
mistakes (nothing whatsoever to do with road<br />
safety, just simply revenue raising) to lack of<br />
parking, toilets and access to good food. So<br />
it’s no wonder we are struggling to get people<br />
into the industry.<br />
Simply look at the toll in mental health we<br />
all thought was there for many and it’s now<br />
documented and in the eyes of all from recent<br />
surveys. I fear it is getting worse in more ways<br />
than it is getting better. I truly believe my<br />
efforts with all this and other activities has<br />
helped keep me sane and mostly keen to keep<br />
trying.<br />
ownerdriver.com.au<br />
APRIL 2021 51