Capital Equipment News September 2020

COVER STORY

Scania pushes the limits with first PBS truck fleet

the second batch of 10 followed during the third week of the same month. The new fleet ushers in a new era for both Scania and the customer, as it is the first Scania fleet in South Africa to be designed and operated under the Performance-Based Standards (Smart Trucks) framework. The Performance-Based Standards (PBS) Scheme offers the heavy vehicle industry the potential to achieve higher productivity and safety through innovative and optimised vehicle design. PBS vehicles are designed to perform their tasks as productively, safely and sustainably as possible, and to operate on networks that are appropriate for their level of performance. The basic principle of PBS is matching the right vehicles to the right tasks. Background to PBS The PBS or ‘Smart Truck’ project is a South African research initiative designed to trial the introduction of high productivity road freight transport in the country. The initiative is being led by stakeholders from the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), regulated according to a PBS framework, which has proven highly successful in Australia, New Zealand, Canada and parts of Europe. The South African pilot project was initiated in 2004, and grew to include 245 demonstration vehicles in various industries by 2018, which are closely government, industry and academia. ‘Smart Trucks’ are developed and

I n a ground-breaking delivery, Scania has handed over a 20-unit fleet of Scania R 560 A6x4HZ CR20N trucks to its longstanding customer, Reinhardt Transport Group. The transport giant is one of Scania South Africa’s biggest tipper transportation customers, operating in excess of 700 Scania trucks at the moment. The 20 trucks, explains Johnny-Ray Basset, key accounts manager at Scania South Africa, have been deployed at a mining contract in Mpumalanga, transporting mining products between Steelpoort, in the Limpopo province of South Africa, and Maputo, Mozambique. The first 10 of the new trucks were delivered during the second week of August, and Scania South Africa has delivered 20 Scania Performance-Based Standards (PBS) trucks (Smart Trucks) to S Hauliers, a subsidiary of the Reinhardt Transport Group, one of its biggest customers in South Africa. The PBS – an alternative regulatory framework for governing heavy vehicles – pushes the limits by allowing for increased payload, while specifying stringent safety measures, thus decreasing costs of transportation significantly, writes Munesu Shoko .

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CAPITAL EQUIPMENT NEWS SEPTEMBER 2020