The Australian Livestock and Rural Transporters Association (ALRTA) is working in collaboration with several leading livestock transporters and transport insurance provider, NTI, to improve safety and reduce truck roll-over crashes.
The ‘Braking Habits’ project is at the forefront of this initiative, with its key aim being to educate the livestock transport sector on the benefits of using data provided from telematics and smart braking systems such as Electronic Stability Control (ESC).
“The livestock industry has been resistant to advanced braking technologies which is largely driven by concerns over its durability and service,” says NTI Transport Research Manager, Adam Gibson. “I’d suggest that the first adopters of most of these systems had a tough time in terms of reliability, durability and also the personnel skills to keep these systems working.
“But we’ve now got technologies that can powerfully talk directly to the key risk, rollover crashes.”
The ALRTA’s key message is this – smart braking is now mandatory on new heavy vehicle combinations and operators are already paying for it through additional costs on trailers and prime movers, so why not get the most out of it?
Enter Betts Rogers Livestock Transport and Frasers Livestock Transport, two key transport companies which are completely behind this messaging. Through their previous knowledge and recent case studies with the ALRTA, they have both experienced the benefits of smart braking systems and using telematics data.
Betts Rogers Livestock Transport prides itself on the way its drivers take care of their livestock loads, and the results obtained using diagnostic ESC data in a recent trial supported this. More importantly, the findings demonstrated that using the data alone helps operators manage their fleet compliance and safety responsibilities.
“Working with our brake service partner, Air Brake Systems, we downloaded the data from our trailers to establish a baseline,” says Betts Rogers Livestock Transport General Manager, Chris Betts. “I didn’t realise how in depth it went into the details. The EBS data allowed us to have some great conversations with our drivers, publicly celebrating the highest performers and privately coaching those with higher rates of stability control events.”
Similarly, Frasers Livestock Transport recently fitted an ESC system to one of its B-double combinations in Queensland which travelled from Goondiwindi to Kingaroy with data and email alerts in real-time.
“This project will be a game changer for the industry,” says Frasers Livestock Transport Compliance and Central Queensland Manager, Athol Carter. “It’s a no-brainer – we’ve already got this equipment fitted, and if it reduces rollovers and serious incidents, why wouldn’t you want it working? There’s no point paying for something only to have it sitting there and you not even looking at it or knowing anything about it.”
The ‘Braking Habits’ project will be rolling out in full effect in April this year at the 2025 National Rural Carriers Convention in hopes of increasing awareness on the potential of data from smart braking systems.
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