The 2024 Livestock and Rural Transporters Association of Victoria conference featured a number of technical talks, including from Air Brake Systems’ Shane Pendergast.
Shane earned the prestigious Craig Roseneder Award for Technical and Maintenance Excellence last year, as recognition for the work he’s done both in his service role and educating the industry around electronic braking and rollover systems.
Shane shared his story as an educational opportunity for operators who may not be monitoring or maintaining their braking systems as closely as they should be.
He worked at Cootes for 16 years as a workshop manager, where he perfected his craft as one of the industry’s technical and mechanical experts.
Shane Pendergast.It was when he was there that he witnessed an accident that would change safety regulation in trucks to the modern day.
“The Pebbly Beach rollover was responsible for the implementation of modern day rollover stability control,” Shane said.
“I was in the Port Botany workshop at Cootes. This was a horrific accident. It closed the South Coast Road for nearly a week. The trailer was fitted with standard ABS only.
“That accident could have been avoided if it had been fitted with a rollover stability control system.”
While the process of testing and diagnosing these systems can be long and painful, Shane has the benefit of advanced data systems on his side.
It is vitally important to ensure your truck and trailers are braking how they should.
“There’s never been a more important time to have stability control function and braking systems in your trailers,” he said.
“I have no issue with high productivity vehicles – we have a lack of drivers, so that’s where we need to be. How lucky are we that we make the best trailers in the world.
“But if you’ve ever driven an A-double or a B-double that’s not set up correctly, it’s not fun at all. Braking systems need to be harmonised. We need to be doing onset testing.
“Brakes have always been a problem. If you’re not harmonising your braking systems, you’re completely wearing down your brakes.
“If you’re not doing brake rollover testing, you may never know the deficiencies in your systems.”
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