the price of fuel

[DanP]

I got the info from the Australian Transport Safety Bureau - monograph 11, "Fatal Four Wheel Drive Crashes"

It's funny that I've never been to a fatal accident involving a four wheel drive. I've been to about ten fatals just in the last two years alone in an area where there is almost as many 4by's as passenger cars. NEVER believe statistics. How the hell would they know the kilometres travelled???

Dan

[Jack E]

I agree with Dan on discounting statistics.
Anybody who has studied even a little statistics knows that any result can be achieved, usually the required outcome determines the sampling!

I have a Heavy Rigid licence and have driven many different types of trucks.
I have also driven many different types of 4WD.
The two are very dissimilar as far as the actual driving is concerned and a 4WD is definately alot closer to a car than a truck.
There is no point having to get a MR or HR licence to drive a 4WD.
What we need is a better standard of licensing at all levels which actually requires some practical ability and defensive skills.

As far as fuel goes, we have one machine at work which uses 3000litres of diesel a day, we have three more of these ordered (these are to replace two electric machines we have inoperation at the moment!). Apparently when these four are operational we will need a road train of diesel a day to run all our engine driven equipment.

Cheers, Jack

[shep]

bladdy nora 3000ltr a day what are they?

i worked for shell in the N.T a few years ago and the fuel trucks were 3 b doubles joined toghether they used 1ltr of fuel to go 1km.we worked on a markup of 17cents and the fuel is still the same price as nsw.

shep

[Jack E]

bladdy nora 3000ltr a day what are they?

Liebherr 996 Shovels.

This is not actually one of ours.
About 650 tonne, and it works 24/7 except for maintenance.

[shep]

mate hope you dont do the servicing and if you do the opperaters are easer on the machines then some of the sites ive worked on.

shep

[savage]

I hope that's an icecream scoop!......
savage.

[savage]

I think everyone has a very valid point, the system as a whole needs attention, just like public transport and the hospitals etc....etc....
savage.

[Iain]

One quote:
"A more insidious problem is the lack of vision behind 4WDs. Almost ninety per cent of children killed in NSW driveways in 1998 were run over by 4WDs or large commercial vehicles.

Equally applicable to a lot of sedans where you simply cannot see what is directly behind and below you, don't apply that to just 4WD's.
You have mirrors, use them, if it is really a concern get a rear electronic sensing unit, a lot of Eoro cars have them as standard.
The worst I ever did was run over my kids bikes, but they should not have laid them on the ground behind my 4WD, it would not have been any different if I was driving any other car as I approached my car from the front and got in.

[BJP]

That`s where I work, where did u get that pic from Jack?, I think that they use about 3000lts in 12hrs

[Jack E]

Google images.
Where is it?
I am not 100% but 3000litres for a 12 hour day might be right, ours work 24 hours.

Cheers, Jack

[BJP]

Burton Coal, near Mackay, I was just talking to a co-ord and he said it was about 3000lts.

[adrian]

I do a tad of country driving myself. I don't think you have a clue what your'e on about.

I don't think it's necessary to get personal.
I did qualify my remark by saying that maybe it was just in my own experience.
If you want to say that people driving small cars are more careful than those driving four wheel drives then do so and I'll accept your opinion and move on.
That's the sort of remark that makes a lot of these threads go downhill very quickly.
We have a lot of fatal accidents between Taree and Kempsey and most of them involve small cars. Admittedly, many have P plates attached but most don't.
As I said, the public debate is getting a bit hysterical. We even had the case of a Sydney council talking about placing a parking levy on 4x4s because they take up more space. My landcruiser prado (most common 4x4) is shorter than a commodore and a falcon. The 100 series landcruiser is shorter than a falcon and only 14mm longer than the commodore.
The public debate seems to lean toward emotional rather than factual argument.

[HavinaGo]

I wonder if the whole "4x4 being bad" mentality is a furphy. Look at that table of numbers back a few posts ... apart from motor bikes, what vehicle is involved in the most fatal accidents per 100,000,000 vehicle-kms? Heavy trucks!

Why do we allow semi-trailers, B doubles, B tripples et-al on the road at all? If a car has a conversation with the bumper of one of them the result is pretty predictable. Trucks thunder back and forth between our capital cities burning fuel, destroying roads, keeping me awake at night and flattening people all because ??? I'm not sure!

How can we get these monsters off the road? How can we get rail, or other more fuel efficient transport systems to work? Maybe we need to consider going back to a user pays system ... ie get the trucking companies to pay for the roads .. or could we allow the rail companies free access to railways lines? Maybe I could be a benevolent dictator and just ban anything over 5 tons from residential areas or access roads to residential areas and ban anything over 5 ton capacity from intercapital routes where railways lines exist. sinister smile as I make a change for the greater good



Oh I don't know. It just seems rediculous that we accept 60 ton trucks along side 1 ton cars while grumbling about 4x4's.

[Jack E]

we accept trucks on the road because Carbatec and Timbecon are so far away from many of us.

[doublejay]

This vehicle could probably come out on top in any collision.

~ The mover stands 311 feet tall and 705 feet long.
~ It weighs over 45,500 tons
~ Cost $100 million to build
~ Took 5 years to design and manufacture
~ 5 years to assemble.
~ Requires 5 people to operate it.
~ The Bucket Wheel is over 70 feet in diameter with 20 buckets, each of which can hold over 530 cubic feet of material.
~ A 6-foot man can stand up inside one of the buckets.
~ It moves on 12 crawlers (each is 12 feet wide, 8' high and 46 feet long).
~There are 8 crawlers in front and 4 in back.
~ It has a maximum speed of 1 mile in 3 hours (1/3 mile/hour).
~ It can remove over 76,455 cubic meters each day. (100,000 large dump trucks at 40yds. each)