A new project called TruckSpot will allow truckies in Gippsland and the Green Triangle area of Western Victoria and South East South Australia to provide a snapshot of current road issues via an interactive map.
Developed with support from the Heavy Vehicle Safety Initiative (HVSI), administered by the NHVR, and developed in partnership with Safe Freight Networks Australia and CrowdSpot, the project invites truckies to share both positive and negative features of the road network.
Truck drivers and transport operators can share an ‘Issue Spot’, a ‘Like Spot’ or an ‘Idea Spot’ and then drop it directly on the map for other users to see.
The information will also be used as a way to gather road safety data in a bid to reduce the prevalence of black spots.
The website is now live and will be accessible for three months. After this a heatmap will be available which will highlight the danger points on the road network.
The TruckSpot initiative was launched by Safe Freight Networks Australia following over a decade of discussions with drivers about the near-misses they face on a daily basis, some of which is caused by poorly designed or executed road infrastructure.
Project officer for Safe Freight Networks Australia, John Ernst, said the data obtained through this project can inform road infrastructure decisions into the future. He anticipates that some issues such as poor sight lines at intersections can be fixed by road owners in their regular maintenance scheduling whereas other problems may require significant investment.
“We want to get away from the old way of deciding on where road safety infrastructure funding should be spent and target it to areas where professional drivers are seeing the problems,” he said, adding that often truck drivers have been identifying these hot spots for decades.
“By allowing drivers to have an easy-to-use method of identifying the issues we hope to get ahead of the curve and not wait till there is a death before we act.”
To access TruckSpot, click here.