Getting the best value from electronic stability control on heavy trucks and trailers, which has been mandated for new trailers since late 2019 and for new prime movers since January, is the mission that NTI's Adam Gibson is on.
Mr Gibson, a transport and logistics risk engineer, addressed the Livestock and Rural Transporters Association of Queensland conference at Roma on the weekend.
He said its capabilities hadn't been well communicated to the industry, and operators were possibly not getting best value from the system, or using it in a potentially more dangerous manner.
Mr Gibson uses his company's claims data, as the largest insurer in the space, to understand why and where trucks crash and what can be done about it.
"I want operators to understand most of all the opportunity there is to give data from those systems back to the drivers to let them know how much of a margin for error they have," he said.
"In the livestock space, the greatest area of concern for me are single vehicle rollover crashes.
"Stock crates by their nature, 4.6m high, moving a load, operating on some of the most challenging roads not just in the country but in the world, and doing fantastic work.
"Those single vehicle rollover crashes on bends are 14pc of my large losses across all occupations, whereas in the livestock space it is 40pc of crashes.
"Out here the two biggest risks as a driver are falling over and falling asleep. What can we do to influence that?"
He said there wasn't much more that could be done to make modern Australian stock crates dynamically better, which left making sure the best people were driving, and being supported with technology, as the areas to work on.
"This is the first time in the history of trucking that we've been able to provide that feedback back to our drivers, and that's really powerful," he said. "It's not about undermining or second guessing, it's about empowering."
The risk is that drivers come to rely on its intervention capabilities.
Because the system can intervene and apply the brakes itself to "settle things down", drivers could assume they can "run into the corner a bit hotter than they might have historically".
"Rather than safety improving they go back to where they were or potentially, get worse," Mr Gibson said, noting that had been the lived experience in the forestry sector in Victoria.
He said speeding was a natural human trait but was a terrible way to measure the mastery and professionalism of drivers.
"Being able to say I'm the smoothest driver, in livestock almost more than any other occupation, is a really good measure of the performance of our drivers, and we can provide that feedback," he said.
"If your workshop guys are downloading this (data) every time the truck comes through for an A service, then all of a sudden there's no data there, you know it's stopped working.
"If they're checking, the drivers are more likely to let them know when a light comes up on the dash.
"They start to compete on being the smoothest driver in your fleet rather than the fastest driver in your fleet.
"And honestly, smooth is fast as well, it's just fast in the right places."
Mr Gibson said some fantastic work had been done in the Victorian forestry industry once that lesson was learnt.
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Sally Gall
Based at Blackall, CW Qld, where I've raised a family, run Merino sheep and beef cattle, and helped develop a region - its history, tourism, education and communications. Get in touch at 0427 575 955 if you've got a story idea for me.
Based at Blackall, CW Qld, where I've raised a family, run Merino sheep and beef cattle, and helped develop a region - its history, tourism, education and communications. Get in touch at 0427 575 955 if you've got a story idea for me.
