Trucks this morning held up in Longreach. Phone pic by Helen Avery

The flooding rains once more have brought transport on the main road arteries in Northern Australia to a standstill. Heavy rain from the Northern Territory across Western Queensland and into southern Queensland and New South Wales is causing havoc and roads seem to be closed everywhere.

As I write Darwin and Mount Isa trucks are held up in Longreach with roads In all directions cut, some rivers 5 m over the road. There are currently flood warnings for the Bulloo, Barcoo and Thomson Rivers and Cooper’s Creek. All the Gulf Rivers are out and the Warrego and Maranoa are in flood with a state of emergency declared in Mitchell (Warrego Highway).

The logging situation worsens in Tasmania with more and more truck drivers having to leave their home state to find work on the mainland. This note from friend and Truckin’ Life contributor Sue Streit today:

Logging is worse, yes worse. The last of the hardwood saw mills will close next week. They are all closed here. The biggest, McKays closed yesterday. Not only will we have to buy hardwood from the mainland but there is no saw dust for the racing industry, the chook industry and there is a brick factory which also relies on 5 semi loads a week. The building industry will be devastated once the supplies run out.

Anyway I believe the magazine has sold out as there are some that could not get it.

As a Tasmanian I have to thank you for your interest and that you told it how it is. I don’t know what else we can do.

Cheers Sue

Cold Logging in Tassie - photo by Lyndon Jones

Another group of five passengers being escorted from the downed Boeing 767 after being unloaded by forklift.

I flew out of Darwin yesterday through Wet Season storms, headed to Brisbane for a Volvo Trucks function. Something when amiss with the Qantas 767 when I reckon we were somewhere south-west of Winton. An announcement was made that there were fumes in the cabin. I’m still not sure what was going on, but whatever it was, it got the flight crew and cabin crew a little nervous.

The big 767 turned around and made an emergency landing at Mount Isa. We sat there for an hour until all checks were made – fire brigades, police and paramedics all on hand. While the strip was long enough for the 767 to land, there was no equipment at the airport to handle a plane of this size, so we were unloaded unceremoniously five at a time on a forklift.

A 737 flew up from Brisbane and flew us back down, I got to bed in the early hours of the morning and made it in time for the Volvo function.

The Qantas crew handled the whole situation very professionally It was a bit nervy for a time, but at least another story to expand upon over a beer from time to time.

Lindsay Davies at the Katherine River at the Low Level, this was once the main road through to Darwin.

In Katherine today checking out the transport situation since the rail link between here and Darwin was wiped out at Christmas time at the Edith River. Every truck, every skel trailer, float, anything that can load a box on, is pretty much busy running between the railhead at Katherine and Darwin. Darwin is being supplied solely by road transport.

Caught up with Lindsay Davies, good mate over many years. Shared a meal or two, tried out the new Maccas in Katherine. Lindsay drives for Slingshot Haulage in Katherine, pushes a float – seems to be mostly to Port Hedland in recent months.

We’re not as young as we used to be, there’s no doubt about that. But age is an interesting question, our perception of it changes as we grow older. It only seems like a few years ago that I thought everybody over 30 was ancient. How things change. We live in a world now that is run by 12-year-olds – doctors, bank managers, lawyers and so forth.

Caught up with a couple of mates today. Bob McMillan and I have known each other for a quarter of a century and Paul Willoughby for much longer than that. Paul and I used to run for Bagley’s Transport I guess in the late 70s early 80s, a long time ago.

We sat and talked for an hour or two. It was pretty good, common histories mixed with common interests even though our paths have parted and come together over the years. Old fellas? Yes I suppose so. Elderly? Never. Back-to-back I reckon we three could still hold our own in a fairly big ruckus. But no one is ever going to find that out, instead we talk about trucks we’ve driven, bosses we’ve worked for, runs we’ve done. Families with us, families gone their own way. The bitter sweet taste and memory of life.

Three old fellas yarning – but we’ve still got a bight I reckon!

Caterpillar truck engines have been much loved in Australia and attracted a loyal following for many decades. Taking Cat engines out of the OEM market brought tears of frustration (well almost) from many operators.

Entering the ‘whole truck’ market through a partnership with Navistar came as a surprise.
However in 2010 Cat seemed to turn around a little with the launch of the dedicated Caterpillar truck. More than 500 of these were built in an attempt to place Euro 4 equivalent engines in new Australian trucks before the end of 2010. The majority of this build is still lined up in a backlot at Cat’s Tullamarine HQ.

The Cat C15, a much loved line haul engine now gets ADR 80/03 rating with twin Diesel Particulate Filters

Now Caterpillar says it has the answer to ADR80/03 (Australia’s current emission standard and roughly akin to Euro 5) by the introduction of a particulate filter to meet the emission requirements of ADR80/03.

News of two ‘new’ Caterpillar engines came at a media conference held at the posh Shangri La Hotel in The Rocks, Sydney.

Cat Trucks Australia MD, Bill Fulton, explained the re-release of the C15 revamped to meet Australian ADR 80/03 uses passive regeneration technology utilising a twin Diesel Particulate Filter (DPF) system developed in the States by Johnson Matthey Technology.

Mr Fulton says the high ambient temperature in Australia assists in this approach, to meet Australian standards while it still maintains the performance and economy expectations of previous C15 users.

The system bypasses the SCR and EGR technologies used by other engine manufacturers.

The new C15s will be officially launched at the Melbourne truck show in March and will be available from the end of 2012. It will of course only be available in the NC2 marketed Cat trucks.

This afternoon Caterpillar also announced the coming release of the C13, a n EGR engine due to start testing in Australia mid 2012.

As 2011 moves towards curtains down, several truck manufacturers are dodging for pole position in 2012 to compete in, what some commentators are expecting to be a bear market.

Rumours are definitely not to be believed BUT there’s a bit of scuttlebutt around that MAN has won the lucrative Australian Defence Forces contract – or certainly a hefty chunk of it. Pat Cook from Western Star / MAN will not confirm or deny the rumours, however …

Mack has just launched the big MP10 giving the company a proprietary engine in the heavy end of its truck lineup. Along with the MP8 the two engines give a bulldog heart to 90 per cent of the product lineup – the Metro-Liner with the Cummins ISL is the only model now without the option of a bulldog’s heart.

Caterpillar – NC2 – is expected to make an announcement tomorrow (Friday December 9) probably along the lines of the Caterpillar C15 and C13 engines being emission-ready for the Australian ADRs to bring it close to Euro 5. General Manager for Sales and Marketing of NC2 Global Australia, Jeff Tyzack, says emissions have been controlled by utilizing a particulate filter without the need to go towards EGR or SCR systems, technology it seems that Caterpillar does not have market-ready as yet. It will be interesting to hear what the Cat people have to say at their media conference tomorrow.

All those white Cat trucks lined up in a row? Of the apparent 540 Caterpillar trucks with pre-Euro 5 engines built before December 31, 2010 to make them road legal in Australia, Jeff Tyzack says 125 have been sold and another 100 have buyers names on them as we head into the second year after their manufacture.

A pleasant Friday afternoon last week, kicking back beside a glistening Sydney Harbour, sharing the delicacies of the up-market Quay Restaurant and listening to Scania’s senior vice president of trucks, Henrik Henriksson talk of global trends and the booming market for trucks in South America and other developing countries. Seems that around 45% of Scania’s 2011 truck build will be fitted with Euro 3 and Euro 4 engines, mostly going to Russia and South America.

Australian Scania MD, Roger McCarthy says Scania will be offering both SCR and EGR options through 2012.

And Volvo of course broke the champagne bottle across the bow of the FMX range and Volvo, Mack and Scania could have announcements to make in the first quarter of next year.

Putting aside the usual buzz of sitting on top of a high-power diesel engine pulling three trailers, grossing 110 tonnes, putting aside that ‘king of the road’ feeling – the release of the 685 hp MP10 engine is a big moment for Mack Trucks in at last having a Mack-branded engine at the heavy end of the company’s lineup. And there was an excitement in experiencing this new power plant.

While there are many strong points in the BIG decision to go SCR (all conventional prime mover engine options in this range currently are EGR) Mack is going to have to sell the reduced fuel capacity (previously 2700 litres, now 1900 to make way for the DEF (AdBlue) tank and other emission control devices). As Dean Hartley said in the video – cool running is a big plus and the increased fuel efficiency reduces the range disparity between the two fuel capacities: the challenge now is to sell this to operators in remote regions.

Mack seems absolutely certain that the supply of DEF (AdBlue) will not be an issue in remote regions and the company is underwriting this promise.

Mack’s worst kept secret has been the company’s new heavy duty engine, the MP10. Over the best part of the past year rumours have been floating about of the new jigger working in this fleet or that fleet across the nation. This week Mack Trucks launched the new, long-awaited power plant at Port Augusta, South Australia. Why Port Augusta? Because from here road trains can leave in triple combinations. I am yet to see the trucks (it’s not daylight here yet) but apparently there’s a SuperLiner and a Titan, both powered by the MP10 and they are hooked up to double and triple combinations. The triple has a GVM of better than 100 tonnes. So I am here on this Sunday morning, in Port Augusta, to have a steer of these new outfits.

Just back from the Volvo FMX release at Werribee in Victoria (yesterday). While the weather was against the organisation of the event it gave a few of us a chance to bash around in the new trucks in some pretty slushy conditions. I knocked together a short video for the Truckin’ Life website:

Anyway the trucks handled well and I’m sure Volvo will extend the traditional FM market into construction, medium haulage mining and severe off-highway work.