The Federal Coalition’s plan for Infrastructure Australia would help governments see beyond the electoral cycle and make road funding decisions for the long term, the Chairman of the Australian Trucking Association, David Simon, said today.

The Coalition released its Infrastructure Australia plan yesterday. Under the plan, Infrastructure Australia would be responsible for auditing Australia’s infrastructure asset base. It would revise the audit every five years and use it in the development of its 15-year infrastructure project pipeline.

“Australia’s current road planning and funding system is broken. Too many decisions at all levels of government are determined by short term considerations,” Mr Simon said.

“The Coalition’s plan would help governments focus on making long term road funding decisions, because the deficiencies in Australia’s infrastructure base and the best spending options would be clear to everyone.”

Mr Simon said Infrastructure Australia should also be responsible for advising governments on target standards for each tier of the road network, to guide road investment, maintenance and access decisions.

“The standards should cover critical engineering issues like the depth of the pavement, the strength of bridges and the radius of curves, and should be set so the industry could use high productivity vehicles on key freight routes and last mile connections as they are upgraded,” he said.

“Increasing the use of high productivity vehicles like B-triples and super B-doubles is a key to increasing the industry’s productivity, safety and reducing its greenhouse gas emissions.

“For example, an operator that switched from semitrailers to B-triples would more than halve the number of trips it needed to deliver any given amount of freight, and would reduce its fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions by 31 per cent,” he said.

A B-triple is a prime mover with three trailers linked by turntables. A super B-double is a prime mover with two trailers linked by turntables that can carry more cubic (ie: lightweight) freight than a conventional B-double.

More information about the ATA’s road funding and charging policy