Use of heavy rigid truck trailer combinations in Western Australia

The road transport industry in Western Australia utilises a very wide range of vehicle configurations to maximise transport economies in a very large and sparsely populated state. Whilst the largest combination freight vehicles, road trains, are amongst the longest and heaviest in the world there are also unique features of the state's fleet. Developments have taken place in the use of 17 m truck trailer combinations with a gross vehicle mass of 58.5 tonnes and short 18 m 'B' doubles at 63.0 tonnes. These vehicles, which operate under special conditions, have proved very popular with transport operators. The paper details operating conditions and vehicle characteristics and compares several key performance factors for a number of vehicle configurations given a set transport task. The advantages of 'B' doubles and rigid truck trailers over more common vehicles are confirmed (A).