Session 4a: Higher capacity vehicles 2
Higher productivity freight vehicles: lessons of history - a
case study of B-doubles in Australia
Bob Pearson, Director, Pearsons Transport Resource Centre, Australia, bobp@ptrc.com.au
In many parts of the world, debate continues about the advantages and disadvantages of
higher productivity freight vehicles, a debate that raged in Australia for a number of years
about B-doubles. B-double is the name used in Australia to describe a prime mover hauling
two semi-trailers, a configuration that is called a B-train in some other parts of the world.
It is easy to proclaim that higher productivity freight vehicles will cause problems in the
future, because no-one can be proven right or wrong until the future becomes the past.
Opponents of higher productivity vehicles often proclaim that proponents must prove that
proposed vehicles are as safe or safer, less polluting and reduce truck travel. Such proof is, of
course, impossible until the vehicles actually have a period of operational experience.
2009 marks the 25th anniversary of the first B-double to be granted permission to operate on
the populated east coast of Australia. We therefore have a significant period of history to
examine the original claims about the performance of B-doubles as well as the prophecies of
impending doom from opponents.
This paper examines the operation of B-doubles over the last 25 years and presents the
factual situation about their impacts and effects as a case study of higher productivity freight
vehicles.
The first B-double in Australia was a 17 metre long vehicle carting containers to the wharf in
Western Australia, the largest State in Australia and long an innovator in vehicle
configurations. In Western Australia, as in many parts of Australia, road trains up 53.5
metres long and weighing more than 120 tonnes are allowed to operate. However, the
standard freight workhorse in Australia was the six axle articulated vehicle consisting of a
three axle prime mover and a triaxle semi-trailer.
Up until 25 years ago, there was a void between this standard single articulated vehicle and
the road train. The introduction of B-doubles filled that void and now B-doubles successfully
operate throughout Australia. Last year, the freight task carried on B-doubles, measured by
tonne-kilometres of travel, exceeded the task carried six axle articulated vehicles for the first
time.
But the struggle to introduce B-doubles was long and difficult. Five years after the first Bdoubles began to operate, there were less than 50 in the whole of Australia and only one
crossed a State border. Australia has six States and two Territories, with control of road
transport generally in State or Territory hands. Only in 1991 did the Federal Government
introduce legislation to provide for B-doubles engaged in interstate trade to operate.
The paper will outline the factors that led to the increase in numbers of B-doubles from less
than 100 to more than 10,000 in only 18 years, including industry innovations and
government responses. The paper also outlines performance measures relating to the use of
B-doubles in Australia, comparing the present position which uses B-doubles with the case
that would have existed if B-doubles had not been permitted.