Australian Automotive October 2020

DESIGNER DREAMS

06 DRIVING FORCE

Some initiatives undertaken by VACC are more tangible than others, but all play a critical role in supporting members

08 INDUSTRY VOICE

VACC CEO, Geoff Gwilym reflects on the history and importance of peak bodies, particularly during hard times

09 MAKING MOVES

Construction of VACC’s new purpose-built headquarters in North Melbourne has officially begun

10 CUTTING EDGE

Australia’s most comprehensive technical solution combines VACC’s suite of products with the global reach of Haynes

12 CYBER THREATS

Technology has transformed the modern business landscape but with new opportunities, come new vulnerabilities

14 CHECKING IN

Preliminary results from the National Automotive Industry Survey are in and the impact of COVID-19 is clear

16 JOBKEEPER WIN

VACC provided much needed granular detail - and evidence - to influence Treasury to amend JobKeeper 2.0 eligibility criteria

18 TOP MODEL

Toyota’s 2020 HiLux puts Australian design and engineering talent on show, proving the legacy of domestic car-making lingers

FE ATURES

22 BIG CHAIR

Repco Australia Executive General Manager, Wayne Bryant talks COVID-19 and its wide-reaching impact on business

28 SAFETY FIRST

Australian academic, Liz de Rome is leading the charge to improve safety outcomes for motorcyclists

32 COVID EFFECT

With virus-free days well and truly in the rear-view mirror, Paul Tuzson looks at what the future could hold

38 PICKUP ARTISTS

There’s always a need for transport with a tailgate, and the future is looking well and truly electric for the beloved ute

48 TALKING TYRES

This month run-flat tyre basics are in the spotlight, along with left and right-hand thread confusion

54 SERVICE DIRECTORY

Find everything from the latest products to the best business services you need, all in one place

56 BUSINESS INDEX

Drive your business forward by taking advantage of the VACC alliance deals and assistance at your fingertips

IT’S ADVOCACY THAT MATTERS

WHEN one looks at an organisation like VACC, it’s very easy to see certain things. This magazine, for instance. When looking through it, one can see the work involved, and the tangible benefit to the reader is industry information gathering: keeping up to date with the latest news and learning about emerging trends.

VACC has websites and social media channels, we make videos, we produce all manner of communications.

These are highly visible, and well regarded by members.

But VACC is like an iceberg. What one sees is only the tip. Most of what goes on is unseen – and sometimes unrecognised by many members.

Amongst VACC’s most important work is advocacy: speaking up on behalf of members in important forums. It’s the reason VACC was formed in 1918, and remains the reason we exist today.

Most members are extremely busy working in and on their businesses. They have customer and staff issues, bills to pay, and regulation to take into account. Because of this, a person working in a business rarely has the time or inclination to engage with the political system. They need someone to do it for them.

That’s where VACC comes into its own.

Because VACC represents over 5000 businesses, employing around 50,000 people, politicians want to listen to what we have to say on important issues. This has never been more

Gwilym and the Industry Policy team of John Khoury, Michael McKenna and Imogen Reid, ably led by John Guest, develop meaningful policy positions and execute these in various ways: through the writing of submissions, conducting high-level meetings, lobbying through the Chamber’s numerous

The number of policy wins over the years is impressive and VACC’s ability to effect change is getting stronger. VACC is recognised as the most effective automotive industry association in the country, and that’s thanks to a very capable and hardworking team that, sometimes, goes under the radar.

David Dowsey

MANAGING

David Dowsey

03 9829 1247

editor@australianautomotive.com SUB-EDITOR

Pia-Therese Hams

DESIGNERS

Faith Perrett, Gavin van Langenberg 03 9829 1159

creative@australianautomotive.com

CONTRIBUTORS Ged Bulmer, Rod Lofts, Paul Tuzson

VACC adheres to its obligations under National Privacy Principles legislation. Information on products and services contained in the editorial and advertising pages of this magazine does not imply the endorsement of any product or service by VACC. Australian Automotive is copyright and no part may be reproduced without the written permission of VACC. Advertisers and advertising agencies lodging material for publication in Australian Automotive indemnify the VACC, its directors, Board, employees, members, and its agents against all claims and any other liability whatsoever wholly or partially arising from the publication of the material, and without limiting the generality of the foregoing, indemnify each of them in relation to defamation, libel, slander of title, infringement of copyright, infringement of trademarks or names of publication titles, unfair competition, breach of trade practices or fair trading legislation, violation of rights of privacy or confidential information or licences or royalty rights or other intellectual property rights, and warrant that the material complies with all relevant laws and regulations. This publication is distributed with the understanding that the authors, editors and publishers are not responsible for the results of any actions or works of whatsoever kind based on the information contained in this publication, nor for any errors or omissions contained herein. The publishers, authors and editors expressly disclaim all and any liability to any person whomsoever whether a purchaser of this publication or not in respect of anything and of the consequences of anything done or omitted to be done by any such person in reliance, whether whole or partial upon the whole or any part of the contents of this publication. Advertising accepted for publication in Australian Automotive is subject to the conditions set out in the Australian Automotive rate card, available from editor@australianautomotive.com

Connect with VACC

Industry Associations

What are we here for?

Commerce (VACC) is the peak association for the automotive industry in Victoria (and Tasmania). Our members are business owners: vehicle and tyre dealers, mechanical and body repairers, body builders, windscreen repairers, vehicle restorers – everything automotive.

VACC’s role is to advance the industry and we do this by acting as the voice for those working within it. Almost weekly I meet with politicians and regulators, letting them know how their policy affects real people, who work in your neighbourhood and employ locals.

VACC has a team of experienced professionals that provide technical information, workplace relations advice, OHS&E guidance, and more. One of the things VACC does, for which I am most proud, is employ around 500 apprentices. We select, place, and mentor these young people to ensure there is labour to sell, service and repair the vehicles of the future. It’s all important work that keeps the economy moving and people employed, and we could use more of that right now.

just about everything – hairdressing, building, optometry – and they play a very important role in society.

The Victorian Automobile Chamber of

VACC also provides trusted information to help people run better businesses, and this is likely to positively impact you, their customer.

VACC CEO, Geoff Gwilym voices his opinion each week in the motoring section of Friday's Herald Sun. You can also read his pieces at vacc.com.au/blog

New VACC HQ build begins

THE Victorian Automobile Chamber of Commerce (VACC) has celebrated another big step toward an exciting new future, with construction of its purpose-built headquarters in North Melbourne breaking ground.

Envisaged over three years ago, VACC made a strategic decision to capitalise on its St Kilda Road premises and move to a purpose-built facility in close proximity to the city. The background to the decision-making was a realisation that the current building was aging and the need to keep sourcing tenants was onerous and time-consuming.

VACC CEO, Geoff Gwilym said, “Even looking at a modernisation of VACC House would have had severe implications for member funds, with an unknown projection of future tenancy rates. Ironically, the coronavirus situation has highlighted the need for VACC to reduce its office footprint and not rely on rental incomes as a major income stream.”

The new building on Victoria Street in North Melbourne, on the city fringe,

has been designed to reduce business silos at VACC and to encourage crossteam and cross-department activity.

“We need to use all of the capability in the association to bring quality services to our members. Working collaboratively in a highly intuitive work environment means we can focus on what is important to the members,” Mr. Gwilym continued.

The new, four-story building will have a large open atrium on the entrance level and will be able to showcase new vehicle innovations and display the latest technologies. Access from the laneway at the rear of the building means that cars will be able to be rolled into the main entrance foyer.

Looking up into the working of the building, members and visitors will get a feeling of activity and transparency. Informal meetings will be held in the entrance foyer and member meetings will be accommodated across the other building levels. Members will have easy access to the building with 91 car spaces being allocated and an electric charging station included, as part of the

three levels of basement car parking.

VACC President, Fury Bortolotto said, “This is a great step forward for VACC, both in recognising our past and in preparing VACC for the future. The building will have a look and feel that talks to the future of the automotive industry. This is so important, especially if we want to attract the right people into the industry. I am proud to be putting the spade into the ground on this important project.”

The building will take 370 days to build and VACC anticipates it will be moving into the new premises in late 2021. A fixed time-lapse camera has been mounted on the worksite and VACC will be sending out regular building stage updates in the coming months.

VACC members should be very proud of this ambitious move, led by the Executive Board for the longer-term benefit of all VACC members.

The location of the new headquarters is 650 Victoria Street, North Melbourne, on the corner of Lothian and Victoria Street.

VACC Technical has changed

VACC Technical Services has launched into a new era of product offerings that will change the automotive technical information game in Australia.

VACC has signed a multi-year deal with the famous British-based Haynes Publishing Group, bringing to market a suite of products, unsurpassed in Australia, under the banner of VACC MotorTech.

VACC MotorTech brings together VACC’s proven Tech Online, Times Guide, Tech Estimate, Tech Advisory Service and Tech Talk products with the might of Haynes’ international know-how, to provide an enormous (and evergrowing) amount of technical service and repair information to subscribers.

Available now for subscription are three ‘bundles’: Diagnostics, Service & Repair, and Maintenance. These new products are positioned at an unbeatable price and VACC members receive generous discounts of up to 50 percent.

Haynes is best known in Australia for its Haynes manuals that have been in print since 1965 and have sold over 200 million copies worldwide. However, they

online products, designed for automotive professionals under the HaynesPro brand.

Until the agreement with VACC, HaynesPro products have not been available in the Australian market in such affordable and convenient packages.

The HaynesPro products include:

• HaynesPro Manuals AllAccess Cars allows access to all Haynes manuals online, providing step-by-step repair and service information, along with extra details not published in the hard copy versions. The Haynes OnDemand video tutorials – available for many of the most popular models – are the ultimate aid to getting vehicles correctly serviced and repaired.

• HaynesPro WorkshopData Tech contains extensive maintenance information like repair times, timing belt and chain replacement procedures, capacities, wheel alignment, torque specification and over 100,000 high-quality technical drawings.

• HaynesPro WorkshopData Electronics and Smart includes the VESA guided diagnostics system, wiring diagrams for most vehicle systems, fuse and relay locations, earth point and control unit locations, TSBs and known fixes.

The agreement between VACC and Haynes provides automotive business owners new options and easy access to repair information and vehicle repair times not available previously, in bundles to suit every business’s needs.

Visit: motortech.com.au to learn more.

Dayco Australia Celebrates a decade supporting Ronald Mcdonald House

OVER the past decade, Dayco Australia has supported one of the country’s most caring charity initiatives, Ronald McDonald House Charities Victoria & Tasmania (RMHC VIC & TAS).

RMHC VIC & TAS provides a temporary home and support service for the parents and families of seriously ill children across Australia. Located in close proximity to paediatric hospitals, including the Royal Children’s Hospital, Ronald McDonald House enables families to remain close to their loved ones during major treatments and surgeries.

For ten years now, these families have been able to secure a home-awayfrom-home during these stressful times, with Ronald McDonald House providing the support and everything required to minimise their anxiety. This has proven to be a very welcome assistance for families who live in rural areas or even interstate, without the access to state of the art medical facilities and specialists that major cities like Melbourne can provide.

Dayco Australia was presented with a certificate commemorating this important milestone by RMHC VIC & TAS, supporting the company’s pride in being a long term sponsor of Room 1, at Ronald McDonald House Parkville.

“I would like to take this opportunity to thank and congratulate Dayco Australia on reaching ten years of supporting RMHC VIC & TAS through your ongoing room sponsorship,” stated

About Dayco

Peter Bishop, Ronald McDonald House Charities Victoria & Tasmania CEO.

“Thanks to you we have been able to provide thousands of families with a safe, warm bed and a supportive community close to their child’s bedside,” Mr Bishop added.

In addition to the company’s financial sponsorship, Dayco Australia also provides

Dayco is a global leader in the research, design, manufacture and distribution of essential engine drive systems and aftermarket services for automotive, truck, construction, agriculture and industrial applications. Through our expertise in transferring power quietly and efficiently, Dayco has emerged as the leading global system solutions provider for hybrid electric vehicles.  Dayco’s 100+ years of experience in drive systems allows us to equip all customer applications around the world with the most effective drive systems to meet customer specific performance requirements. Dayco’s world class global distribution network services the aftermarket industry with a full offering of kits and products to meet each local market’s need.  We accomplish this with a dedicated global team that respects one another, shows humility through continuous learning and acts like owners in everything we do. Dayco has more than 40 locations in 22 countries and over 4,500 associates. For more information about Dayco, visit the Company’s website at www.dayco.com For further information contact Paul Marinelli, Marinelli PR - 0417 558 655.

RMHC VIC & TAS  visiting families with Medallion Club tickets for major Melbourne AFL games to help in providing some temporary excitement and distraction from their serious medical situations.

Dayco Ambassadors and Porsche Carrera Cup racing drivers David Russell and Roger Lago offered their GT3 Porsche rear wing following the aborted 2020 Australian Grand Prix in an online auction to raise additional funds for Ronald McDonald House. Just before the bidding deadline, Dayco Australia Managing Director and Vice President - Aftermarket, Arnold Mouw stepped in to outbid everyone and secure this piece of motor racing memorabilia.

“To say that we are proud to partner with such a worthy charitable service for a decade is an understatement. From the moment we commenced our involvement with RMHC VIC & TAS it was clear that this is very special and more than worthy of financial and in-kind support. We strongly encourage more companies to become involved and help bring smiles to families during the most worrying times in their lives,” Arnold Mouw, Dayco Australia Managing Director and Vice President - Aftermarket, stated.

Certificate presented to Dayco Australia on reaching one decade of support for one of the country’s most caring charity initiatives, Ronald McDonald House Charities Victoria & Tasmania (RMHC VIC & TAS)

The rise of cyber threats to Australian businesses

TECHNOLOGY is transforming the modern business landscape — not only speeding up innovation and productivity but also widening the door to cyber threats. This means that every business, regardless of industry, geography or size, is exposed to cyber risk. And the stakes are escalating: the global cost of cyber crime is estimated at more than $1 trillion1 and is expected to rise with the growing use of technology and internet-connected devices.

While much of the commentary around cyber risk often focuses on larger organisations, cyber risk also presents a significant issue for SMEs. A recent study from leading cyber insurer, Beazley noted that 71 percent of ransomware attacks their breach response team responded to in 2019 were targeted at smaller organisations, who often spend less on information security and are more vulnerable.2 The risk has only worsened in the wake of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, with security provider Trend Micro noting a spike in COVID-19 related URL attacks and email spam attacks from February to March 2020 of 260x and 220x respectively.3

Specific to the automotive industry, 2019 saw an attack against Toyota in Australia4, followed by a larger attack targeting Honda’s global IT network5 in 2020. Outside of auto manufacturers, the online auto auction company, Manheim Auctions, suffered a ransomware attack in February 2020, with reports at the time stating that the attackers demanded a $30m ransom to restore their systems.6

The ever increasing numbers and sophistication of cyber-attacks have led to a shift in the approach to cyber risk management across many Australian organisations. Gone are the days when the IT department alone was charged with assessing, preventing and defending against cyber-attacks. Cyber risk is now an enterprise-wide concern given the potential consequences — lost revenue, response and recovery costs, damage to or loss of intellectual property, business relationships, job security and customer confidence – and requires a cohesive approach both in prevention as well as management through dedicated insurance.

How can cyber insurance assist?

Every company should have a comprehensive cyber risk management strategy, including executive-level governance, appropriate investment in

technical controls and effective business continuity procedures, of which cyber insurance should be a core component. An essential financial instrument in the risk management toolbox, cyber insurance is complementary to cybersecurity, not an alternative.

Cyber insurance should ideally be tailored to the unique cyber risk profile of an individual business, which is shaped by the firm’s use of technology in its operations; interactions with vendors, suppliers, customers, and other third parties; and how it collects, handles, stores, and transmits confidential information. Generally, however, most cyber policies will contain a range of basic first and third party coverages, including:

Network business interruption

Data restoration

Event management/breach response

Cyber extortion

Privacy liability

Network security liability

Privacy regulatory defence costs

Media liability.

Cyber Crime – some policies also provide an option to include cyber crime cover. This is designed to provide broad protection for a range of third-party electronic crimes involving theft of money and fraud incidents, including phishing scams, social engineering and electronic wire transfer fraud.

Specialist Incident Response - one of the most valuable features of cyber insurance is the direct and immediate access an insured has to specialist vendors, who can provide important assistance in managing and containing a cyber event. Often this

specialist knowledge does not exist within an insured’s business and the ability to access these vendors can help reduce the severity and length of a cyber event. Engaging with a specialist can protect a company’s reputation, mitigate legal liability, or isolate and remove malicious code before it causes widespread damage. For high-severity cyber events where the financial impact is significant, cyber insurance is a cost-efficient risk transfer tool that can help companies lessen cyber-attack cash outflows and losses.

Case Study – Ransomware

results in lost business and additional costs

The following case study, supplied by one of Marsh’s key cyber insurer providers, CFC Underwriting, provides an example of both the effect of a cyber event on a small business and how access to a cyber insurance policy can assist.

In this case, the insured business was a medium-sized manufacturer, with a workforce primarily involved in the manufacturing process, but whose sales and administrative staff relied on computer systems to arrange appointments, produce quotations and to keep in touch with prospective customers.

The insured suffered a significant ransomware attack after a hacker breached their systems through an improperly configured Remote Desktop Protocol access port. The attacker launched encryption software across multiple servers and also encrypted the insured’s backups, meaning key data was unrecoverable without payment of a ransom of three bitcoin demanded by the hacker.

After their initial attempts to restore their systems failed, the insured notified CFC’s incident response service, who engaged with a specialist service provider to negotiate with the hacker, pay the ransom and ultimately decrypt the affected servers. However, despite the swift response, the insured was left without full access to their computer systems for four working days, which had an immediate impact on the business’s sales and administrative functions.

This particular business model operated on a made to order basis, meaning that they were reliant on computerised customer relationship management and design software to obtain customer orders before a product could be manufactured. The fourday delay led to a loss of multiple orders and once the systems were restored, the insured also required staff to work overtime to clear a backlog of orders which were received but could not be processed during the outage. Ultimately, the attack resulted in a covered business interruption loss of $130,959, as well as additional covered costs of $38,371. This additional cost was for the payment of the ransom, to decrypt the affected servers, conduct a thorough search

of the insured’s systems ensuring they were clean and free of residual infections, as well as carrying out a forensic analysis to confirm that none of the business's sensitive data had been accessed.

This claims example highlights the importance of having business interruption cover in a cyber policy. For many years, cyber insurance was synonymous with privacy risk, but it’s becoming increasingly clear that one of the biggest risks that businesses face is being unable to access their computer systems. Despite only being down for four days, this still resulted in the policyholder suffering a business interruption loss in excess of $100,000.7

Marsh Cyber Services

New technologies present enormous new opportunities for Australian businesses, but also creates exposure

to new and potentially catastrophic risks which businesses can no longer afford to ignore.

Cyber risk can be effectively managed through a programme of continuous improvement and vigilance that combines technology with risk transfer. Cyber risks are not technical problems that firewalls and patches (though important) can solve alone. Marsh delivers risk solutions to help you protect your business and enable confident risk-taking. Marsh’s approach to cyber risk management is comprehensive and employs techniques that Understand, Manage and Quantify the unique cyber risks affecting Australian businesses. For any cyber or general insurance enquiries please contact the OurAuto Insurance team on 1300 441 474 or email contact@ourautoinsurance.com.au

1. https://www.oliverwyman.com/our-expertise/insights/2018/sep/how-a-cyber-attack-could-cause-the-next-financial-crisis.html

2. https://www.beazley.com/documents/2019/beazley-breach-briefing-2019.pdf

3. https://globalcioforum.com/trend-micro-reports-gcc-hit-by-3067-covid-themed-cyberattacks-in-q1-2020/

Guarantees as to acceptable quality

WORDS John Caine Manager, VACC Business & Consumer Affairs

When a business sells goods to a consumer, the Australian Consumer Law, which came into force on 1 January 2011, uses the term ‘Acceptable quality’ as part of the consumer guarantees. In order to comply with the law, in relation to acceptable quality, it is necessary to consider the following points: Goods are of acceptable quality, where a reasonable consumer would find them fit for all purposes for which they are usually supplied. For example, a new car should not have serious paint defects or mechanical/electrical issues. A used car should function reliably and not break down or become unsafe shortly after leaving the dealership. There is also the guarantee as to durability. This is how long the vehicle or other product purchased should be expected to last, without breaking-down or requiring expensive maintenance or repairs. The law does take into account age, kilometres (in the case of motor vehicles) and price paid.

Terms such as ‘as is’ or ‘no guarantee’ are generally void under the law. However, it is lawful to make a consumer aware of a defect prior to purchase and if they continue with the purchase, then that defect would not be covered under the guarantee of acceptable quality. This should be done in writing, in the form of a defect notice and signed as acknowledgement by the purchaser with all parties retaining copies. Other defects which subsequently appear would still be covered by the guarantee.

The law also says that defects that should have been obvious to a consumer, having

examined the goods prior to purchase, are also not covered. This may be easy to apply to a leather lounge suite or a dining table, but is very difficult to apply to a car, motorcycle, or ride-on lawnmower sale due to the complex mechanical nature of the product. Notably, the above law does not apply to goods sold at public auction. Useful further reading may be had by referring to the ACCC publication Consumer guarantees subtitled A guide for business and legal practitioners, which is available for download at accc.gov.au

Business temperature check

Words Steve Bletsos

VACC Senior Research Analyst

VICTORIA has borne the brunt of economic and social pain associated with COVD-19 restrictions. So, how have Victorian automotive businesses fared overall during the coronavirus crisis? Not well, according to preliminary results from the National Automotive Industry Survey conducted in mid-August by VACC.

This time last year, before COVID-19, business conditions were rated as positive-to-strong for 75 percent of automotive businesses in Victoria, and this was consistent across metropolitan and regional areas. Since March this year, and particularly through the implementation of State 4 restrictions to date, 95 percent of Victorian automotive businesses have reported a significant deterioration to their operations according to the survey.

The key impacts are reflected in Chart 1. Chart1:

A reduction in customers, reduced demand for products and services, and government restrictions on operations were rated as the highest impacts by Victorian automotive businesses (62 percent, 54 percent, and 49 percent of survey responses respectively). This was followed by turnover/ cash-flow reductions of 50 percent and 30 percent (42 percent and 40 percent of responses) and difficulties in sourcing raw materials (36 percent). These impacts are dramatic and have the potential to stall industry recovery for some time. Business operators have responded to the COVID crisis in different ways. Foremost, three quarters of Victorian automotive businesses have accessed the federal JobKeeper program to support their staff and maintain workforce operations as much as possible.

Source: National Automotive Industry Survey 2020

Many businesses (61 percent) have temporarily reduced staff hours, as well as placed staff on paid leave or unpaid leave, while 12 percent have changed staff work locations (e.g. working from home). Around 22 percent of automotive businesses have reportedly made no changes to their workforce or staffing arrangements.

Other business responses have included: buying less stock/raw materials (46 percent response)

• renegotiating property rent/lease arrangements (33 percent)

deferring/cancelling investment plans (24 percent)

• deferring loan repayment (21 percent).

The biggest threat as seen by Victorian automotive businesses is length of the economic trauma and social recovery associated with COVD-19, along with the restrictions to trade and commerce that have been set in place by the Victorian Government. The longer these restrictions and financial losses are incurred by businesses, the greater the potential for permanent business closures and widespread employment losses across the automotive supply chain. This is a balance that the Victorian Government must get right, particularly as COVID-19 may endure for quite some time.

Property advice, results driven

VACC would like to introduce members to JACX Property, the agency which successfully managed the divestment of the Chamber headquarters at 464 St Kilda Road, Melbourne in 2018 and subsequent acquisition and delivery of the future headquarters on Victoria Street, North Melbourne. The team at JACX, led by Managing Director, Michael Jackson, continues to support VACC with its property requirements and the Chamber happily recommends their services to any member seeking professional and independent property advice. The team at JACX has already supported numerous members with a range of advisory services.

About JACX Property

JACX is a progressive and knowledgeable team of property experts who provide a range of specialist property services nationally. In the last five years, JACX has successfully advised on the valuation and transaction management of over $5 billion of Australian real estate and have negotiated leases across 250,000-square metres of accommodation.

Their client list includes an impressive network of multi-national businesses, Australian-based private and public entitles, local government agencies and not for profit organisations.

How has JACX supported VACC?

When VACC decided to sell its St Kilda Road headquarters it was determined that independent support throughout the important process was required. VACC subsequently engaged JACX Property to lead the transaction. JACX established a very structured and well-considered program, managed the appointment of the real estate agent, provided advice on sales and marketing strategy, and at all times sought to protect the interests of VACC. The process was transparent and very well coordinated. VACC has no doubt the involvement of JACX helped deliver the outstanding sales outcome.

JACX has remained involved in the next phase of works for VACC, acting as its project representative in the delivery of the new head office in North Melbourne. The continuity from the Transaction Management role through to the delivery of the new premises has been beneficial on many levels for VACC.

Key services

JACX is pleased to provide VACC members with the below services, all of which are available at discounted member rates:

Strategy advice relating to COVID-19, including the negotiation of rent relief packages

Property valuations (including rental assessments, rental determinations, valuations for superannuation purposes and valuations for accounting purposes)

Transaction management (acquisition and divestment advice for any client seeking to buy or sell Australian real estate)

Lease negotiation services (assisting both landlords and tenants with the structure and negotiations relating to their leases)

Market searching (facilitate comprehensive searching of the market for clients seeking to lease or purchase a premises)

Advice on outgoings (particularly recoverability of land tax) to protect both landlords and tenants.

“JACX has been greatly appreciative of the opportunity the VACC have and continue to entrust to our team. We look forward to our continued involvement in the delivery of the new VACC head office and will ensure another successful result for the VACC and its members. We welcome any member to contact the JACX Property team to discuss their property requirement. We are delighted to support an organisation with such a proud and rich history,” said JACX Property Managing Director, Michael Jackson.

Castrol expands range with new European approvals

WITH manufacturers doubling down on their efforts to evolve engine technology to meet strict emissions requirements, there has been a dramatic increase in new lubricant specifications intended for use with such highly engineered engine technology.

With Volkswagen Group recently defining a handful of new approvals including VW 508 00, VW 509 00 and VW 511 00, Castrol is excited to announce the launch of two new premium Castrol EDGE Professional product variants to meet the demands of late-model Volkswagen Group vehicles requiring these specifications.

EDGE Professional LL IV FE 0W-20 is a full synthetic engine oil carrying VW 508 00/ 509 00 approvals and has been

developed by Castrol to exceed VW’s fuel economy specification. In fact, in the required test PV1451 to pass the demanding VW specification VW 508 00/509 00, Castrol EDGE Professional LL IV FE 0W-20 delivered more than 4% fuel economy benefit when compared to the test’s reference oil.

EDGE Professional LL IV FE 0W-20 is suitable for use in a range of Volkswagen Group vehicles, including 2.0 TFSI 140 kW and 3.0 TDI CR 160 kW engines.

Castrol EDGE 5W-40 M meanwhile is a full synthetic engine oil carrying VW 511 00 and Porsche C40 approvals, making it suitable for several new highperformance models from VW, Audi & Porsche. This includes the emerging

requirements of new Audi RS6, RS7 & RSQ8 models, as well as Porsche models fitted with GPF’s (Gasoline Particulate Filters). When it comes to European vehicles, Castrol knows a thing or two about unlocking true engine performance. It’s a key reason why Castrol plays an active role in developing products for Volkswagen Motorsport and Audi Sport vehicles, serving as an Official Partner of Volkswagen Motorsport and Audi Sport. Castrol is also serving to push boundaries as it leads the development of advanced e-fluids for the Volkswagen ID.R car and its electric motorsport programme.

To discover the full Castrol range visit castrol.com.au or speak to our Technical Helpline team on 1300 557 998.

Funded infection control training

INFECTION control training is available to Victorian workers, thanks to a joint initiative funded by the Victorian and Commonwealth Governments.

Free of charge, the training involves a mix of online and workplace-based learning and is designed to enable trainees to identify and manage the risk of coronavirus infections in the workplace.

Set to educate 20,000 workers in critical industries across the state, topics covered include: standard and additional precautions for infection prevention and control identifying infection hazards and assessing risks procedures for managing risks associated with specific hazards.

In the first phase of delivery, select Victorian TAFE and eligible Registered Training Organisations have been allocated training places and are taking enrolments.

JobKeeper

Training is available to customer-facing workers in critical industries, and there are also specific module options for the retail, hospitality, and logistics and transport sectors. Automotive business owners are encouraged to take up the training and enrol staff.

Through initiatives such as this, governments are taking practical steps toward fostering a safe and resilient workforce during the COVID-19 pandemic.

To enrol, visit skills.vic.gov.au/ victorianskillsgateway

THE CEO of VACC’s national body, the Motor Trades Association of Australia (MTAA), Richard Dudley, has thanked VACC for its leading part in bringing about important changes to JobKeeper 2.0 eligibility, meaning many more people employed in the automotive industry will now have a financial lifeline into the future.

The news was especially welcome during metropolitan Melbourne’s Stage 4 restrictions and its many business ‘hibernations’.

Mr Dudley singled out VACC’s Victorian Automobile Dealers Association (VADA) members for the highly-valued information they provided through a VACC survey. The information provided much needed granular

detail - and evidence - to influence Treasury to amend eligibility criteria. Mr Dudley said JobKeeper 2.0 was “an extremely important ongoing assistance initiative for Australian automotive small businesses. For many, it is the difference between staying open or closing the doors for good.”

Change lanes to MTAA Super

Australia’s next top model

Toyota’s best-selling HiLux now speaks with a distinctly Australian accent, thanks to local design and engineering input

AUSTRALIAN hearts may no longer swell with pride at the sight of locally manufactured cars on our roads, but the legacy of decades of domestic car-making lingers in the form of significant design and engineering resources at two of our three former car-makers.

That legacy was again on display with the launch of Toyota’s 2020 HiLux, which features significant styling, development and evaluation work performed by Toyota Australia's design and engineering teams.

Like Ford, which is one of the country’s largest automotive employers, Toyota

retains a large workforce and significant infrastructure investments in Victoria, including a 150-strong team of designers and engineers among its staff of approximately 1300.

Toyota’s local design team played a major role in the updated 2020 HiLux’s exterior styling, while its local engineers had extensive input into the mechanical package, contributing to upgrades of the 1GD engine, as well as the new model’s suspension and steering settings.

Toyota Australia's General Manager of Product Planning and Development

Rod Ferguson said the local design team had participated as part of an international team to transform the HiLux styling to align more closely with the global Toyota ute and truck family.

"Being awarded this project was a real feather in the cap for our team – and a tribute to the level of design capability we have at Toyota Australia," Ferguson said.

"In addition, our vehicle evaluation team was instrumental in the global development of the 2.8-litre turbodiesel engine and improvements to the way it rides and handles across a wide variety of conditions," he said.

Speaking of his team’s design work on the wide-body 4x2 Hi-Rider and 4x4 extra and double cab models, Toyota Australia's Product Design Manager

Peter Elliott said the brief was to develop a simple and strong athletic pick-up truck that is both tough and genuine.

"From the beginning, our sketches investigated bold and tough themes that

centred on a larger, more vertical trapezoid grille enhanced by an upper bonnet moulding and lower bumper components that lock into the grille surround," Elliott said.

"The headlamps have been moved outboard and they now connect with the distinctly chiselled bumper corners, linking the design. We progressed through clay models and CAD, evolving the idea to be cohesive with the rest of the vehicle, while maintaining maximum visual impact.

"The final design was milled as a fullsize clay model and shipped to Japan, where it was well received as a bold step forward with a strong Toyota DNA."

Development and evaluation of the 2.8-litre engine, suspension and steering in Australia was conducted in collaboration with teams from Japan and Thailand, as well as representatives from other markets, said Toyota Australia's Vehicle Evaluation Manager, Ray Munday.

Australian road conditions cover more than 80 percent of the different environments around the world, and local customers are some of the toughest HiLux users, Munday said.

Toyota Australia's Accessories Development Manager, Harisch Karki said investment in local development ensured the quality and functionality of components for both models.

The company also redesigned, engineered and tested a range of bullbars, nudge bars, towbars, a hard tonneau cover and other vehicle protective items to complement the new exterior styling of the facelifted models, he said.

This is the first major overhaul of the eighth-generation HiLux, which launched in Australia in 2015. As of July the HiLux retained its place as Australia’s most popular vehicle, with combined 4x2 and 4x4 model year-to-date sales of 25,295 units.

Toyota Australia also announced it had invested more than $10 million and thousands of hours in the design, engineering and prototyping of new accessories and components for the new HiLux and Fortuner wagon.

More than 60 all-new Toyota Genuine accessories have been developed for the new models, from a lockable trundle drawer, to a new tub liner, and a rear chassismounted integrated step.

WinA member spotlight

Words: Isabella Mizzi

A proud member of Women in Automotive (WinA), Jacqui Carroll shares her thoughts and experiences as a woman working in the automotive industry.

Jacqui Carroll’s career has spanned a number of years, from owning a panel shop, Yarroweyah Panels, with her husband back in the late 1970s, to now working at a VACC-member commercial repair shop, Bendigo Accident Repair Centre, and restoration shop, Bendigo Retro Muscle Cars. Jacqui is also involved with motor racing from a grassroots level through the Bendigo Car Club as a committee member, as well as the Touring Car Masters Category – helping with administration and general duties with Gary O’Brien Racing/John Bowe Racing.

Tell us a bit about your current role or involvement in the automotive industry

My title is something like ‘Administration Assistant’ but if I were to explain it, I would say ‘Jill of All Trades’. Daily I could be helping to source parts, placing orders, banking, assisting with IT issues, social media, you name it. I really enjoy getting to try my hand at all these different tasks, it certainly keeps the day interesting.

What was your first professional experience within the automotive industry?

My first real experience working in the racing industry would be when I was assisting Wayne Mercer, a privateer in the Touring Car Masters (TCM) category. I met Wayne through going to the races and I volunteered to help with his team, and it progressed from there. I had a strong passion for retro racing at the time, so it was a natural step. I went to Bathurst with him. I’d drive to Sydney to pick up parts, the whole thing was such a new and exciting experience for me. The love came from there. I didn’t want to drive but I had such a passion for the industry. I liked being in the background. I was lucky enough to do a season of assisting the Drivers Standard Officer Peter Wollerman for TCM and I am now officiating at other events. I was also lucky enough to work with the (now retired) three times Australian National Champion drag racer, Graham Withers. I was helping to get his name out there and assisting

Graham and his staff in different areas. Once again, I was lucky enough to get in touch and we agreed to work together. If I had my time again, I’d like to be in the backstage area of events, making all things happen in the background. Do you have a favourite resource as a woman working in the automotive industry? Maybe a book, event, organisation, mentor, or online platform?

Women in Automotive, 100 percent. It sounds cheesy but it’s true. I go looking for new content from WinA almost daily. I really hadn’t heard much about it until late last year. I knew of a few niche groups for women in the industry, but I love that WinA is so approachable and all-encompassing of

the industry. I always feel welcomed at a WinA event which is nice. Who is your inspiration as a female in automotive?

One of my inspirations is Sally O’Meara. Sally runs the two businesses (Bendigo Accident Repair Centre and Bendigo Retro Muscle Cars) and she keeps them operating successfully. I really enjoy the fact that Sally has gone out and explored the world but chose to come back, which I find very telling of her passion. There are a few women in motorsport who are inspiring, but I just don’t know their stories. That is why I like initiatives like this (WinA Member of the Month articles) where we get to learn more about the real women in auto. These stories are amazing, but they are only just

How to Attract, Recruit and Retain Women in the Australian Automotive Industry

getting the airtime they deserve now.

To read Jacqui’s full profile visit womeninautomotive.com.au

Interested in becoming a WinA member? It’s free and open to men and women across the industry.

Head to womeninautomotive. com.au to sign up now.

Jacqui poses outside Bendigo Accident and Repair Centre (far left and left).

Attending the 2020 WinA International

The smart business guide for increasing female participation in the Australian automotive industry.

Women in Automotive (WinA), a special interest group of the Victorian Automobile Chamber of Commerce, has officially released a written resource providing guidance on how to attract, recruit and retain women in the Australian automotive industry.

Currently sitting at 20 percent, female participation in the automotive industry has remained largely unchanged for the past 20 years. With many businesses reporting difficulties in attracting and retaining talent –both female and male – now, more than ever, it’s important to consider the entire available talent pool.

The WinA guide provides practical and easy to read advice. Each chapter covers a different part of the process, from outlining

reasons why businesses should invest in raising female participation rates, to what an imbalanced workforce means for a business’ bottom line.

Topics covered include:

• Identifying and minimising the ‘unconscious bias’

• Screening process tips and online tools

• Retention strategy advice.

Diverse workforces categorically perform better – the evidence is irrefutable. Higher retention rates, better customer satisfaction, and bigger profits are just some of the potential benefits.

A free resource, How to Attract, Recruit and Retain Women in the Australian Automotive Industry is available to order or download now. Visit womeninautomotive.com.au

WAYNE BRYANT

EXECUTIVE GENERAL MANAGER REPCO AUSTRALIA

Wayne Bryant is the Executive General Manager of Repco Australia and has been involved with the automotive industry for more than 30 years. Commencing his career as an auto parts delivery driver, he has worked across multiple states and roles within Repco before being appointed to his current role in 2017. Bryant is MBA qualified and is passionate about serving the automotive aftermarket.

How is Repco handling the pandemic?

Our support office is in Rowville, but we’ve had 95-plus percent of our workforce working from home since the middle of March. A small number of us have needed to be there a day or two per week, but with Microsoft Teams we’ve been able to keep the wheels turning nicely. Our network of 316 stores are continuing to trade within the appropriate COVID safe ways of working. We’ve all adapted and embraced the challenge presented. We’re in good shape.

A lot of people are saying Teams and Zoom will change the world of business after COVID. Do you agree? Regardless of the sector, we’ve all had to adapt really quickly and embrace this technology. I think it will challenge all leaders’ thinking around the need to be more flexible with their workforce. Some will question the kind of office environment needed into the future, working from home versus working from the office, or a hybrid approach. All of that will play out over time but you get used to having people around and working in an office every day; (Teams) is not quite the same as being around a team of people and having lots of engagement. I’m looking forward to getting back there but I’m sure people will think differently about how they set-up their environment going forward. This has created an opportunity to think differently about it.

A CEO I spoke to said one of the things that he misses most is ‘the morning walk around’ to everyone’s office Being able to say hello and goodbye, bounce ideas off people and have a discussion with them is more natural when you’re able to do that in the office than a call-up on Teams. Definitely that personal engagement is what a lot of people are missing. We just have to adapt

and find ways to communicate with each other and importantly find a way to have some fun along the way, instead of going from one meeting to another all day via Teams. That’s the challenge.

How have you handled issues of staff morale, motivation and anxiety? We’ve had two important guiding philosophies from when we first faced COVID-19; we made two really strong commitments to our crew. One was that

we’re going to do everything we could to keep our crew safe and the other was to keep them in a job. For our Repco stores and DCs (distribution centres), and the crew on the front line, there was a level of concern around the spread of the virus. So, we spent a lot of time working on processes and systems to make sure we keep our crew safe, keep our customers safe, and keep the hygiene up in our workplaces. That has helped address some of the anxiety that existed and still exists in the wider community. The other thing, which is really important for all of our crew, was job security and we made a commitment to our people that we would do everything we possibly could to keep them in a job. That was one of the ways we kept our crew engaged and enthused because they have a sense of security. We all need to carry some of the load at points in time during this journey, but despite being ineligible for the JobKeeper program, Repco self-funded a comparable financial support model for employees during the first rounds of COVID restrictions in April. We have maintained this approach again in Melbourne during the Stage 4 lockdown for all full-time and part-time team members. We also developed a support plan for our casual retail employees, ensuring those working more than 12 hours a week maintain their usual wage. That’s been a huge anxiety reliever for our team. As we moved into April, things started to improve quite a bit and we saw there was a bit of an opportunity to reward our team members with incentives. Our teams knew that if we kept our sales and profits up, they were also going to be rewarded. We’re thrilled we’ve paid out a record level of incentives to our front-line crews in the quarter. We also paid our support office and DC team members a one-time ex-gratia payment as a thank-you for their tremendous support and effort. There were other initiatives as well, and the combination of keeping them in a job, keeping them safe and being rewarded has kept morale up and everyone is very motivated. We have also comprehensively communicated with our team, much more than normal. We had lots of webinars, team conferences, and team events where we’ve had hundreds of people on a call – just like a town hall meeting but everyone’s on the end of a video. We’ve also leveraged our internal Facebook Page, where we’ve provided regular updates on the business

The compact 1967 Championship-winning RBE740 engine (top). The Repco Leyland F5000 prototype (above)

and what the team members can do to help each other, and that’s going over particularly well. We’ve been very honest about where we’re at and what we need to do. We’ve been very clear and honest with our crew, always with an empathetic communication style and that’s resonated with the teams. They have really embraced and appreciated our engagement with them. In addition to how we have supported our team, we are very focussed on how we give back to our community. To that end, our Group Leadership Team is very proud to have launched the GPC Asia Pacific Foundation during the height of this COVID crisis and which will see us ramp up our already significant efforts to give back. There are five pillars to the foundation: a team member hardship fund; a disaster relief fund; a charitable foundation; a third-party charity; and a team member volunteering pillar. What we’ve done has resonated with the team and given them a real sense of purpose and belonging to something important where we can give back to the community. So, despite COVID, morale is in great shape and the Repco crew are up and about and highly engaged – it’s a great place to work. At Repco and GPC Asia Pacific, we are just so proud of the great job all our crew does every single day. They are an amazing group of salt-of-the-earth people who work hard in our stores, DCs and Support Office to serve our customers. Man-alive have they stepped up during this time. The work they’ve done to make sure we keep serving our customers and do the right thing every day of the week has just been incredible. The other thing

quality, and overall supply has held up very well. There have been some challenges with a small number of suppliers, but we’ve worked very closely with them right from the get-go. We were working closely with our international suppliers in January as soon as COVID started to become a concern. The other advantage we have is that we have a major DC in each capital city so even if the Melbourne issue lingers on,

we’ve got stock all around the country that we can move to where it’s needed quickly. We’re in good shape but it’s something we will continue to monitor closely.

How do you forward-plan when no one knows when COVID is going to end?

Through COVID we adopted a four-step framework that will continue for some time. The four steps are ‘anticipate, act, pause, and assess’. Every time we get a new piece of information, we try to anticipate what’s going to occur next and then we model the scenario to determine what that might mean for our business. We then take decisive action, let that action take effect and then pause, take a deep breath, let things play out, and assess what’s going on before we anticipate and act again. That’s held us in great stead all the way through. We’ve already had to adapt two or three times in Melbourne, with the changing environment, and will continue to do so. Our sector is benefiting from the economic stimulus and that may come off a bit as we go further forward. As life starts to return to a new normal post-COVID, people will make a choice around where they go and if they’ll get on the train or bus to travel into the city, or whether they’ll drive the car. We’ll see more travelling in our private vehicles for a while until things settle down. Also, it’s unlikely there will be much overseas travel anytime soon for holidays so there is going to be more local travelling, and we think that’s going to play out well for the automotive market. As a result, we’re quite optimistic about the future of the automotive sector.

At Repco we’ve also worked really hard on our value proposition for our professional workshop and car enthusiast customers and a number of initiatives we’ve put in place are holding us in really good stead. We’re doubling down on those things now, so that as we come through the other side of this, we accelerate. We are staying very focused on our business plan but also keeping an eye on the environment and adapting where necessary. We’re trying not to get too distracted about what might or might not happen in the economy.

Repco will be the Bathurst 1000 naming rights sponsor from 2021. What prompted that move?

There are a few parts to this story. Between Repco and our parent group in Australia and New Zealand, GPC Asia Pacific, we’ve got 6000 team members and most of them are passionate motorsport fans. They work in the automotive game; they love their cars

A team effort to design an engine that combines elegance and power (above). The Bathurst 1000 is the biggest race on the calendar and Repco will be part of the action, thanks to a new naming rights sponsorhship (below)

and their motorsport. The second point is that we’ve done a lot of research with our trade repairers, the technicians who work for them and all of our retail DIY enthusiast customers and it’s really clear that their favourite sport is motorsport, and in particular, they’re pretty passionate about the Supercars category. So, it made sense to us to get back into motorsport and that’s why we became involved with DJR Team Penske a couple of years ago. We contemplated securing Bathurst for quite some time. Repco’s got an iconic history in motorsport and we were really determined to secure the Bathurst 1000 sponsorship. The opportunity came up at the right time and we liked their value proposition; Bathurst has broad appeal, it’s the biggest event on the calendar, it’s globally renowned and we’ve got connections overseas. It’s an iconic event, where legends are made and people talk about it for the whole year. So, it made a whole lot of sense for Repco and Bathurst to come together.

You have a centenary in 2022, so that works well.

We have got a big year planned, lots of events and Bathurst will be one of our big activations in 2022. We’ll have a big conference to start the year off along with a trade expo, and we will bring together people from all around Australia and New Zealand for that event. It’ll be an amazing year for us and we’re really looking forward to how we celebrate across the whole year.

How did the DJR Team Penske sponsorship materialise?

Some of our Leadership Team attended a motorsport Hall of Fame event in 2017, and throughout the night there were many references to Repco and its involvement in Australian motorsport. We were all well aware of Repco’s history but to hear about it that night really got our team very motivated to get back into motorsport in a more meaningful way. DJR Team Penske cold called us not long after that event,

they didn’t know we were contemplating it at that time. It’s a high-quality team, it’s got a strong brand, they’ve got a set of brand values and qualities around the way they run their business, which is a lot like ours. They have got two great drivers. Scotty (Scott McLaughlin) had a good season the year before we joined, so we knew we were going to be at the front of the pack, and the Mustang was arriving, so there was a lot of excitement around the car and the team. We had a really good synergy with Dick Johnson, because Dick actually started his working life as a Repco delivery person on a Repco pushbike and through his early motorsport years he was a Repco customer. The Penske (transport) group is also a good customer of Repco and they are a major customer of NAPA in the United States, which is our sister company in the US.

Jack Brabham in his Repco Brabham BT19 (above). Continuing its iconic motorsport association, Repco is proud to be able to support their crew's favourite sport, through major sponsorships such as the Bathhurst 1000 (far left and below)

Jack Brabham’s World F1 Championship-winning car and a Repco engine are in the HQ foyer. How much does Repco’s racing history mean to the company today?

It’s really important to the company, it’s an important part of our heritage that needs to be celebrated. Every one of our meeting rooms is named after a famous car or track and has some relevant piece of memorabilia or some part of Repco history showcased in it. Without dwelling on the past, we’re proud of the history and we want to keep that alive, so the BT19, the (Repco-Holden powered) Formula 5000s, and the SR4 Matich are just a few of the vehicles that are shown on the walls to keep Repco’s motorsport and manufacturing heritage alive in the building.

100 years old in 2022. What has made Repco such an enduring success?

There are three things that the Repco brand is synonymous with. It’s always had a really strong quality pillar that’s resonated with customers, there’s enormous expertise in the company, and there’s high levels of trust. Throughout history, it’s been a very innovative company, and we have really sparked that innovative culture again. Also, our Repco team members, our Repco crew as we call them, are an integral part of our company’s success. Repco has been through lots of ownership changes over the years, but the crew has never lost their passion, loyalty, or commitment for the brand – the Repco blood runs thickly through our veins. We’ve got an average tenure of nearly 10 years across our 3000-plus Repco Australia team members. They are really passionate about providing great, authentic customer service and that’s held us in terrific shape over the years. Internally, we refer to this as our Repco Genuine Service culture.

Apart from your dual sales channels, what sets Repco apart from the competition?

There is no shortage of good competitors and they keep us honest and focused, but we don’t get too caught up in what the competition is doing. We’ve put a lot of effort into revitalising the Repco brand over the last couple of years and we are ready to accelerate now. We’re on the cusp of something pretty special because we’ve done a lot of work on our brand image – the brand platform being ‘It starts with the parts’. We’ve invested heavily in our network, we’ve got a leading position on B2B – a digital platform that leads the industry, and we’ve got a very effective and compelling retail B2C platform that we’ve activated, plus being involved with DJR Team Penske and now with Bathurst. That gives us a good connection with our customers, and together with our team member passion, we are on a roll and our future is very bright. At the centre of all those things is our customer; we’ve done a heap of work to understand what’s important to both our professional trade workshop and enthusiast customers. We’re really focused on doing everything we possibly can to execute on the value proposition that we’ve created.

Where do you want to take the company in the future?

We’re going to continue to do the research, listen to feedback and adapt our model to suit our customers’ needs. We aspire to see Repco widely regarded as the best places to work in our industry and as one

of Australia’s most trusted brands. We want our Repco crew, suppliers, customers, and stakeholders to be really proud to be associated with the company. We want people at a barbeque on the weekend to talk about what a great place Repco is.

What importance do you place on industry associations?

Industry associations like the VACC and AAAA are really important. Both have their respective roles to play to support our industry, and to provide guidance and support our members, other industry players and car owners. I became involved with AAAA because I was passionate about giving something back more broadly than just inside Repco or GPC Asia Pacific. I’ve enjoyed my involvement with AAAA and look forward to spending more time there. We have a few challenges as an industry where we need associations like AAAA and VACC to walk through the doors of parliament, and work with other industry bodies to help us get the right outcomes for our customers and our supply chain. So, they’re very important bodies and that’s become even more evident through COVID. Some members may at times wonder whether they’re getting value for their VACC or AAAA subscription, but in the last six months, we’ve heard lots of feedback that they’ve benefited enormously. There’s been lots of things that Geoff (Gwilym) has done at VACC or Stuart (Charity) has done at AAAA to help our respective members find a way through this crisis. It’s a good example of the value of being part of an association.

Liz points out that the inclusion of thermal management is a critical element of the program, given Australia’s extreme climate variability, says Liz, adding that “Research from Europe and here suggests that riders are less likely to ride protected in hot weather.”

Subsequent studies on humans in a climate chamber found that clothing with

that is very similar to ANCAP (Australian New Car Assessment Program). The exhaustive testing process assesses injury protection through impact abrasion resistance, ‘burst’ of seams and fastenings, and the effectiveness of impact protectors and thermal comfort by measuring thermal insulation and breathability,” she explained.

MotoCAP, which launched in 2018, has now independently rated hundreds of jackets, pants, and gloves for their protective and thermal qualities, using rigorous scientific tests. The results are all published and freely available online, so that riders in Australia, New Zealand, and beyond, can check how the gear is likely to perform for protection and comfort. Liz adds this rating approach is more informative than the simple pass/fail system of standards.

“None of my work would have happened without the continued support of the motorcycle community and particularly the Australian Motorcycle Council.

I was really thrilled by the FIM Award. It was the ultimate achievement for all of those involved,” said Liz.

Liz with her Sym VS 125 scooter (below) Making a presentation on impact risk zones –which define the risks and levels of protection required for motorcycle clothing design (above left). Liz at work, testing suits on volunteers for thermal comfort or ‘breathability’. A volunteer is seen riding a stationary bicycle in a climate chamber at Wollongong Uni, to represent the workload of riding a motorcycle in urban conditions (below left)

of road safety stakeholders from Australia

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Can cars and trucks make it worse?

What effect will it have on the economy? How long will it be with us?

WORDS Paul Tuzson

A couple of issues ago we covered the subject of particulate matter emissions and their effects on health. To recap, very small particles from vehicle exhaust emissions are defined by a PM number. PM10 particles are less than 10 microns in diameter. A micron is a thousandth of a millimetre. PM10 particles generally get coughed out of the throat. PM2.5 particles are small enough to reach the lungs. There are also PM1 and PM0.1 particles and these do reach the lungs, from there they can enter the blood stream directly and reach all other organs. These are called ultrafine and nanoparticles, respectively, and any type of combustion causes them. Even tyre and brake wear create such particles.

Francesca Dominici is a statistician at Harvard University and has conducted a great deal of research into the detrimental health effects of fine and ultrafine particulate matter. She, and her colleagues over the years, have found that ultrafine particles can be directly responsible for pulmonary and other diseases, including cancer. Ultrafine particles can also exacerbate the spread and effects of COVID-19. Ultrafine particles are like gasses and can remain suspended in the air almost indefinitely. While such particles are small, they are known to be capable of carrying bacteria and viruses, which are much smaller again. The SARS-CoV-2 virus (which causes COVID-19) can remain active for several hours outside a host. Some scientific opinion suggests that atmospheric contaminants in heavily

polluted and densely populated areas may help spread the virus. Previous exposure to ultrafine and nanoparticles may also weaken a person’s immune system. In turn, this may make the consequences of a COVID-19 infection worse than they may have been in a non-compromised individual. So, transport can have a direct effect on COVID-19 infections.

Apart from health effects, there’s no doubt that COVID-19 has devastated our economy and most others around the world. However, reporting on this aspect of the pandemic has been highly selective and unnecessarily alarmist. Direct comparisons between current economic conditions and those from former periods like the Great Depression may be notionally comparable but there are important differences.

Past economic slumps, slowdowns, recessions and depressions were all caused by market conditions. Things went badly because of underlying economic problems. This isn’t the case with our current economic state. The economy has simply been switched off and although switching it back on will be more complicated and take longer, this remedy wasn’t available in previous economic crises. Despite imposed inactivity, many businesses have retained value to date. The Australian All Ordinaries stock index has proven an interesting indicator of this. When COVID-19 cases first started to rise sharply back in March/April and strong restrictions were imposed, the stock market declined sharply. This is to be expected, but unexpectedly the severe

downturn did not continue. Prices rose and, by September, had returned to levels similar to those in 2018. In fact, the whole thing looks like a COVID-19 induced market correction. Factors that influenced the rally are many and varied but investors don’t buy stocks if they think that underlying economic conditions will lead to collapse. There are dire reports about the US economy. For instance, it’s true that US GDP is down by 33 percent, but that’s an annualised figure. The monthly figure is nine percent, although that is still serious. Another US metric reported to have soared is the number of bankruptcies for this year. In reality, the total figure of around 23,000 is no worse than many previous years and better than most over the last four decades. In fact, the US has always led the world in bankruptcies. Even so, the trend line for the last 40 years has been tracking downward markedly and continues to do so.

None of the foregoing is to suggest that there isn’t a problem. There is. One disturbing fact is the number of US companies valued between 100 million and multiple billions of dollars going broke. The names of most of these wouldn’t be known to Australians but Hertz ($25 billion) and J.C. Penney ($8.6 billion) would be. We are confident the economy can be turned back on, but there will certainly be casualties.

Masks weren’t enough and so almost all workshop activities, except for essential and critical repairs, were banned during Melbourne’s Stage 4 lockdown

In an interview with financial commentator Alan Kohler, the former Treasurer, Peter Costello, suggested it would take 20 consecutive years of surplus budgets to redeem the stimulus bonds. An unheardof feat. Kohler suggested the Reserve Bank could buy all this debt and just cancel it. Costello pointed out with a

wry smile that doing so would devalue the Australian dollar, but both men seemed to acknowledge the notion.

In early July the Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) addressed The Economic Society of Australia and said, in summary, that the RBA wasn’t concerned about Government borrowing through bond issues. It has suggested

Melbourne can’t stay like this and neither can the rest of the world (top). Stimulus packages like JobKeeper and JobSeeker have been vital during the economic shutdown. The Reserve Bank isn’t concerned about the long-term costs of government debt (centre). The stock market is only part of the economy but it’s a good indicator of investor sentiment (above). When restrictions were first introduced, the stock market fell. Then it rallied and climbed back to a sensible level (below)

government spending on economic stimulus is the right path and that it has no concerns about increased inflation, as a result of doing so, because of Australia’s comparatively low debt-to-GDP ratio. This is part of the reason JobKeeper has been extended and other stimulus spending on infrastructure was announced by the Prime Minister in August.

First wave, second wave and maybe even third wave. These terms are bandied about with no consistency and scant analysis of what constitutes a wave. There’s no hard standard for these terms but ‘wave’ implies some sort of natural periodicity. Because of lockdowns, other restrictions and general preventative measures, the progression of COVID-19 in Australia, and around the world, has been anything but natural.

Australian data for new daily cases from January to the present reveals two distinct periods of increased infection. The first occurred between mid-March and midApril, with the second beginning later in June. This second outbreak was expected to be over by early September, if its profile was similar to the first. And that may be so, because our response to it is the same as our response to the earlier outbreak.

It’s important to note that these so-called waves have not waned according to the natural characteristics of the virus.

The reductions in cases have been due to interventions from the Department of Health and Human Services. If not for

these, we would still be in a first wave. It might be said that this is simply first wave interrupted. The question is, will the virus re-establish itself each time restrictions are eased, and do so in perpetuity?

The Spanish Flu of 1918–1919 is commonly considered to have occurred in three distinct waves (four actually) but these weren’t defined by the unfettered spread of the virus either. Public health measures played a significant part in reducing the number of infections in each wave. Still, the virus did disappear but more because of mutation. Indeed, variants of the disease still exist. Interestingly, social methods for mitigating the spread of COVID-19 aren’t very different to those implemented for the Spanish Flu.

Hope for eradication of COVID-19 has lain with the potential development of a vaccine. However, the first scientifically confirmed case of reinfection has emerged. While that sounds bad, and it is, the salient point is that this ‘patient zero’ for reinfection didn’t develop any of the physical symptoms manifested during his initial infection.

Reopening will be slow, and masks will almost certainly be required. However, it’s likely that infections will rise once again. Businesses like cafes and restaurants will be the first to recover as movement becomes possible (above right). Masks do stop wearers spreading the virus. Duke University in the US conducted tests on several types. The bright spots on the screen images are expelled particles. At upper right is the result of no mask. The particles are large and easily seen. Lower right is a cotton mask. Lower left is a surgical grade mask. Upper left shows a fleece mask, which gives worse results than no mask. This is because it divides the larger particles into a greater number of smaller particles, which can all carry viruses. (right). Can government-controlled spikes be considered waves or simply interruptions to the inevitable spread of the disease (below)

The reinfection was only discovered by test. Bad for continued spread, good for individual recipients who survive a first infection. Let’s hope all reinfections are no more serious than this. Only time will tell. All the measures taken to reduce COVID-19 have also reduced cases of influenza this year. In fact, flu infections in Australia are down by 90 percent compared with last year. This is unwelcome news because when restrictions are lifted in time for flu season next year, flu infections will rise once again - along with COVID-19 infections if an effective vaccine isn’t available by then. As has been reported, many vaccinological groups around the world are working hard to develop a vaccine for COVID-19. At this time, the efforts of the Oxford Vaccine Group seem most promising, despite Russian claims to have already developed a vaccine. Regardless of who is first, such a vaccine will be in short supply until international facilities begin mass production – as Australia will, according to a recent agreement with the Oxford Group. Even so, doses will be limited for some time so decisions about who the initial recipients should be will have to be made. We don’t envy whoever will be cursed with making that decision. No matter who is chosen to receive early treatments, someone else is going to be unhappy. Older people are most likely to die from the virus, as are those with underlying health conditions like diabetes or heart disease, so maybe they should be first. Then again, COVID-19 can cause permanent lung damage, so perhaps children should get it first to protect their future health. Alternatively, giving young people priority might be wise because of their propensity to socialise in large groups and spread the disease. The only universally acceptable group might be front-line medical staff.

The Department of Health keeps a National Medical Stockpile which is, according to the website, a strategic reserve of drugs, vaccines, antidotes and personal protective equipment for use in national health emergencies. A 2004 review paper called Australia’s capacity to respond to an infectious disease outbreak suggested that such supplies would be preferentially utilised for first responders, front-line medical staff and other essential personnel. However, more recent bulletins and releases suggest that the application of treatments held in the stockpile would encompass the entire population. So, that’s nice.

Australian vaccinologists are also in the race. The University of Queensland, for instance, began trials of a vaccine back in July. Interestingly, the Public Health and Wellbeing Act 2008 says in section 19C, subsections (a) through (d), in paraphrase: The Head of the Department of Health and Human Services may, on behalf of the Crown, acquire, sell or exploit any patent, copyright or intellectual property right. Subsection (a) lists the means of acquisition as: creation, lease, license, receiving the assignment or grant of, or otherwise. A vaccine for COVID-19 would be very lucrative so the ‘otherwise’ in subsection (a) might give pause to any Australian entity working or investing in this area, particularly if part of its strategy included holding out for the best deal. Just a thought. The Act grants very broad powers under a declared state of emergency, and rightly so. But it must be said that the government would be highly unlikely to sequester any patents or intellectual property underpinning a vaccine. To do so would be a tremendous disincentive for medical research. However, desperate times call for desperate measures and legally loose definitions are never welcome, particularly in such powerful legislation. We’re all living in the hope of a vaccine, but it’s not as simple as that. The efficacy of vaccines depends upon more than just availability. If there’s no vaccine, or if it doesn’t work, or if its effects are only short-lived, we may be stuck with the virus until mutation renders it less harmful. Of course, mutation could make it worse. Either way, COVID-19 will simply work its way through the

Despite the efforts of the world’s best virologists we may have to face the fact an effective vaccine can’t be created. Hopefully, that’s not the case, but it could be

entire population until it’s done with us. The so-called waves might be nothing more than human induced blips in the data that really defines one great big wave encompassing all of humanity. Sweden hasn’t implemented many of the compulsory and highly-restricted measures enforced in the rest of the world, and the country has seen high numbers of infections. The United States was later than some countries in applying restrictions and disparate attitudes across the states have contributed to the high numbers of infections seen there. It could be that the sorts of numbers seen in those countries will appear everywhere, eventually.

The lifting of restrictions anywhere in the world will see significant rises in the number of cases of COVID-19. Lockdowns can only be applied for a limited amount of time. Eventually, governments may have to abandon restrictions and let the virus run its course. No one wants to talk about that possibility, but it may turn out to be necessary to avoid complete economic ruin. However, not to throw water on perfectly good paranoia, we need to remember that most people who develop COVID-19 actually get better, albeit after much suffering. The new normal may not be perpetual lockdowns but humans carrying around a disease that has, as far as most people are concerned, ceased having a harmful effect.

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You’ll probably go electric eventually, although choices might be a bit limited

THE ute is the backbone of Australian industry. Whether it’s a tradesperson’s mobile factory or a factory’s mobile support vehicle, there’s always a need for transport with a tailgate. It’s the same story in the US. Whether it’s toolboxes or gun-racks, Americans love their light trucks – or pickups, as they’re called over there. The bestselling vehicle in the US last year was the Ford F-series truck. In the same period, the Ford F-150 was the bestselling light truck and also the secondbest selling vehicle in the entire world. Unfortunately, it won’t be the best-selling pickup in Australia because the company has no plans to sell them here. About the only hope seems to be if a local outfit secures approval to import and convert them. Still, that wouldn’t make enough available for a substantial presence here. Ford’s plans for the F-150 are an indication that things in the world of pickups are changing. Plans for the F-150 in 2021 and 2022 show that the change is going to be electric. The idea that Australians won’t be able to buy them is a bit bleak. It may just take longer for Australia to see them. Hearteningly, the Rivian pickup is supposed to be coming here in 2022 or a bit later.

Why would anyone choose an electric pickup over the proven technology of a conventionally fuelled version? Well for one thing, cost. Although electricity is far from free, it’s still much cheaper than diesel or petrol per kilometre. Service costs are also much lower. Of course, electric pickups will be more expensive than conventionally powered models, but the overall numbers still stack up. Battery life and replacement costs will also be issues along with range. Despite all that, electric ute/pickups are the way of the future.

Radically altering a tried and tested product formula is rarely a wise move. So, the Ford F-150 EV looks virtually the same as its predecessors. It’s safe marketing and also pretty logical from an engineering and production point of view. In fact, almost all of the upcoming electric utes have the same basic form as most liquid fuelled models. However, not all companies have followed suit.

Tesla unveiled its radical Cybertruck in late 2019. It and the F-150 EV (along with its stylistic cohorts) are polar opposites in terms of styling and engineering. Because the Cybertruck is a completely new product it doesn’t have to reference the past. But it does need to win the future, which is as much about marketing as engineering and design.

Tesla Australia was taking deposits for the Cybertruck but that was misleading because the Cybertruck hasn’t been designed for Australia. However, Musk says a version of it might be sold here but later than the US release. Still, the F-150/ Cybertruck rivalry makes for an interesting study of automotive marketing.

The Rivian R1T is one of the new pickup/utes that may come to Australia (below). Rivian R1T battery modules being tested (top). Assembled Rivian battery packs (above)

Perceptions of strength and toughness are strongly linked to pickups and large utes. As a show of strength, Ford used an F-150 EV prototype to tow 10 train carriages weighing more than 450 tonnes. While this seems impressive, it’s far from unique. In 2006 a Volkswagen Touareg towed a 155-tonne Boeing 747. In 2017 a Porsche Cayenne towed a 285-tonne Airbus A380. In 2018 a Tesla Model X towed a 130-tonne Boeing 787 Dreamliner and in 2019 a Mini Cooper EV towed a 136-tonne Boeing 777. While the train carriages were considerably heavier than any of the aircraft, it’s worth remembering that all of the aircraft had pneumatic rubber tyres with considerable rolling resistance. Despite the fact that 450 tonnes is much heavier than any of the aircraft, the steel wheels of the railway carriages rolling on steel rails would have had a much lower rolling resistance. So, towing heavy loads on wheels on flat surfaces is impressive but it’s not as amazing as the spectacle of doing so suggests. Tesla famously responded to all this by using a Cybertruck to win a tug of war with an internal combustion powered F-150. If an F-150 EV can tow a train and a Cybertruck can tow an F-150, the Cybertruck must be stronger and tougher than the F-150, right? Well, no not really. The thing to remember is that the F-150 that the Cybertruck towed wasn’t an electrically powered unit. Also, the front wheels of the F-150 during the test weren’t spinning and smoking like the rear-drive wheels because it was probably a 2WD unit. Even more relevant was the fact that the front wheels of the F-150 were turning backwards as the 4WD Cybertruck pulled it backwards. A 4WD vehicle wouldn’t do that.

So, it seems that the electrically powered Cybertruck, like other EVs, simply has more torque but again, not exactly. Torque figures quoted for internal combustion vehicles are engine torque figures. This is also true for electric engines. EV motors generally drive through just one gear while combustion powered vehicles need many gears. Low gears increase the torque output of an internal combustion engine. Torque converters also increase torque. Therefore, internal combustion engines have plenty of torque available at the wheels. So, what happened?

The towing ability of a vehicle is dependent on the weight of the vehicle. The Cybertruck simply weighed more than the F-150 and therefore had greater traction. Also, the Cybertruck was said to be pulling

the Ford up a hill. Frankly, it doesn’t look like that’s happening in the video. Rather, the camera seems to roll to the right which makes it look like there was a hill involved. Since the stunt, Ford has challenged Tesla to what it considers would be a fairer rematch, but the electric carmaker has not replied. Interestingly, there have been a number of private tests between Ford F-series trucks and Tesla cars. Cars have been used because as yet there are no Cybertrucks available. Even so, the Tesla cars have performed well. Sometimes they’ve lost, sometimes they’ve won. That a car can have any measure of success against a much larger truck is testimony to the design of Tesla cars.

The Rivian R1T is built on what’s become known as a skateboard platform (above). Electric pickups will be great for work but they’re as much fun as conventional utes off-road (below)

Resisting operational damage is one area in which the Cybertruck excels. Most people would know that the exterior of the vehicle is made from a type of custom stainless steel designated 30X. It’s 3mm thick (in this application) and very strong. Tesla refers to it as an exoskeleton and points out that it’s a stressed member. As the sledgehammer demonstration shows during the unveiling, it’s extremely tough.

The stainless steel the Cybertruck is made from is one of the reasons for the strongly angular appearance of the vehicle. The sheets from which it’s

The Tesla Cybertruck is nothing short of radical, but we probably won’t see it here in this form. The Cybertruck is rumoured to have T-slots in the bed, but it doesn’t (above & right)

TRANSPARENT ALUMINIUM - Is it real?

Kind of. A company called Surmet Corporation manufactures it in America under the trade name ALON, an acronym of aluminium oxynitride. It’s not aluminium but it contains aluminium. Trying to find out exactly what it is and how it’s made is not so easy. ALON is said to be made of aluminium, oxygen and nitrogen all mixed together as a powder, pressed into a mould under great pressure and then heated to about 1750 Celsius for several hours. How can oxygen and nitrogen be powders? Obviously, they can’t, but we found the answer in the patent for ALON.

The oxygen and nitrogen are bound up in molecules of aluminium oxide (Al2O3) and aluminium nitride (AlN). The proportions of these powdered constituents, and also the temperature and pressures used in the process, can be varied to achieve different

results. When it is removed from the mould ALON is translucent. It must be polished to achieve full transparency. ALON is much stronger than armoured glass. A slab of armoured glass 75mm thick will stop most bullets but a .50-calibre round punches straight through it. However, a .50-calibre round is stopped by just 38mm of ALON. The military is examining it for armoured windows and NASA is looking to replace the windows in the International Space Station with it. ALON would make a brilliant replacement for any application that requires armoured glass. It’s perfect for automotive windows. The only problem is that it’s extremely expensive because of the intense pressures and temperatures required in its manufacture. Hopefully, as more companies adopt it for various purposes the costs will drop.

formed are too thick, strong and too heavily cold-worked to be formed in a conventional stamping press. So, the very few lines seen on the body are folds.

The large front windscreen would create the feeling of expansive openness that it does in other vehicles. Its size makes it susceptible to damage, so Tesla has elected to make it, and all the other windows in the Cybertruck, from armoured glass. Famously, this failed twice when front and rear windows were broken during the launch event. What went wrong?

It is suggested that the armoured glass needs to be evenly supported around the edges to be effective. When the doors were being hit with the sledgehammer, the windows are said to have dropped a little in the runners leaving the upper edges unsupported. This rendered it susceptible to failure. This will be fixed in the production model, but it brings us to a subject we’ve been wanting to look at for some time –transparent aluminium (see breakout).

During the launch event, Musk referred to the windows as transparent aluminium. However, it’s unlikely that this is the material used in the Cybertruck. For a start, Tesla describes the glass used as a custom Tesla formulation. However, the patent for ALON is owned by the Surmet Corporation. Further, had the windows been made of ALON they almost certainly wouldn’t have broken, regardless of peripheral support. Despite the embarrassment, it’s still fair to rate the Tesla as tougher than the F-150 and all other electric pickups. Although the F-150 and the Cybertruck are unlikely to be available in Australia, they represent opposite approaches to the big electrical ute market, in the US at least. There are, however, a bevy of contenders poised to enter this space. The thing they

all have in common, including the two discussed above, is that none of them are in production at this stage. The F-150 is slated for 2022, as is the Cybertruck. Tesla has a terrible record of delivering on time, but it will have to make deadline this time because Ford certainly will. Whichever company brings their pickup to market first is going to have a huge advantage, particularly if it’s Ford because of its solid reputation. Still, pre-orders for the Cybertruck have exceeded 750,000 which shows that Tesla has a solid fan base and that people are definitely looking for something new. So maybe they’ll wait for a Cybertruck, as so many Tesla customers have for its cars.

There are more contenders than just the Ford F-150 and the Cybertruck. The Rivian R1T is certainly one of them. The company is working on right-hand drive and intends to bring it to Australia.

The EV version of Ford’s hugely popular F-150 isn’t going to grace our shores (top). The new electric GMC Hummer is likely to come to Australia, but the reveal has been pushed back to later this year (above)

Unfortunately, we’ll have to wait until it has been released in the US. It has a silhouette closer to a conventional pickup but contains a completely original driveline design. Aesthetically, it’s a very stylish and refined vehicle.

The Rivian is so impressive that Ford has seen fit to invest significantly in the company, hoping for synergy between its EV products and those from Rivian.

The R1T is designed as an up-market vehicle so it nicely complements the workhorse underpinnings of the F-150.

Jeff Bezos is desperate to beat Elon Musk at something, so even he has tipped money into Rivian. That these two investors, and others, have chosen Rivian bodes well for the company’s future.

Some of the other contenders are the GMC Hummer EV SUT for 2022. It’s possible that this vehicle will also come to Australia. The reveal date has been pushed back

to later this year. It has a standard form factor but there are no images available yet except for the teaser of the grille. There are notional statistics available for the Hummer but, as we said, it hasn’t been revealed. In fact, most of the vehicles that will enter this class will have similar specifications. They’re all designed to suit the same basic tasks, and they will. The Atlis XT will offer the possibility of different body styles. It’s designed to be a no-frills inexpensive work truck. It makes big promises for charging times and service life, but the proof will be in the driving. The XT will have a motor at each wheel, however, it doesn’t boast the rapid 0-100km/h figures many of the other pickups are offering. It’s a work vehicle. One specification we’re eager to see proven is the claimed 100 percent recharge time of just 10 minutes. The Atlis probably won’t be available in Australia.

The Bollinger B2 ute and B2 Chassis Cab are a pair of unusual vehicles. They’re pure work units and suit about any configuration required. The rear window and bulkhead fold out of the way, to allow really long loads. However, they’re expensive and unfortunately don’t have airbags. So, in its current configuration it won’t be coming to our shores. Let’s hope that limitation changes. It’s a shame because the Bollinger models are ideally suited to serious no-fuss work. Things in the big EV ute category are getting interesting but it seems like Australia will miss out on much of it. This is a shame but even if the full range of vehicles doesn’t come here in the immediate future, there should be at least a couple of options for us. As this category grows it’s likely that big, righthand drive EV utes will eventually become available here in one form or another.

We probably won’t see Atlis pickups in Australia (above right). Bollinger has interesting ideas but apart from the fact that they’re left-hand drive they don’t comply with Australian regulations (below left & right)

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RUN-FLAT TYRES: THE BASICS

SSR and MOE... What does that mean? It means that this Mercedes-Benz has Run-Flat Tyres fitted. There are many ways that these tyres can be marked, as shown in the table on page 50.

Many refinements have been made over the years to improve the performance and safety of vehicles. One of these refinements is the humble tyre, which keeps the vehicle on the road and under control while dealing with all steering, braking and power delivery. There have been changes in design (cross-ply to radial to tubeless), but tyres are still basically inflated bags of air that are vulnerable to a slow leak or catastrophic failure that can put the safety of the vehicle occupants at risk.

THIS risk has led to the development of various run-flat tyre systems to keep the vehicle under control with no air pressure in the tyres. This requires some extra awareness around the information you will need to provide your customers about some of the hidden costs of this safety feature. This will hopefully prevent possible misunderstanding when the time comes to repair or replace the tyres. There are three main advantages of using run-flat systems.

Increased safety for the vehicle occupants

No need for a spare wheel and jack which saves weight, increases luggage space and improves fuel efficiency

Increased driver convenience, as they can avoid changing a flat tyre on a cold, wet night on the side of the road with overtightened wheel nuts.

The Systems

There have been two main types of runflat systems that have been available:

• Self-Supporting Run-Flat Tyres. Constructed with reinforced sidewalls

Supporting Ring System. A ring mounted on the inside of the rim.

The supporting ring was the Michelin PAX System and it was used on a small number of vehicles in the USA and Europe from 2000 to 2009. PAX used metric tyre sizing (e.g. 245-680R460A) which made sourcing replacement tyres difficult and required special equipment to fit. The PAX system has been discontinued for the mass market. However, the idea is still used in military and some heavy industry applications.

The Self-Supporting System, using tyres with reinforced sidewalls has

become very common, especially from the European manufacturers. With these types of tyres fitted, it could be possible for the driver to continue on without noticing that they have a flat (some don’t notice with conventional tyres). This is why all vehicles fitted with run-flat systems must also have a Tyre Pressure Monitoring System (TPMS) fitted, to warn the driver that there is a fault with the tyre pressure.

Another safety feature of this system is the modified wheel rims that have extra humps inboard from the bead seats. The humps prevent the tyres from coming off the rim when driving with no air pressure. The rims are marked as EH2 or EH2+, which stand for Extended Hump and Extended Hump 2+. When the TPMS indicates that there is a problem, the driver must then reduce speed and travel no further

Tyre type and cross sections

Conventional tyres

Supporting Ring System

Self Supporting tyres

Normal/conventional tyres will crush the side walls and make the car hard to control with no air pressure. If driven like this, the tyre will be destroyed quickly. When they have no air, it is obvious that they are flat.

than approximately 80km to get to the nearest tyre repair business to have the problem fixed. This is where the trouble can start.

Repairing

If a conventional tyre has a puncture, you can inspect the inside of the sidewalls for obvious damage caused by being driven flat. If no damage is seen, you can repair the tyre and everyone is happy. However, the reinforced sidewalls of a run-flat tyre will not show possible internal damage from being driven flat for an extended period. You now have to rely on the word of the customer, which could be inaccurate. This is why many run-flat tyre manufacturers say that these tyres are NOT repairable and should be replaced once punctured (you should contact the tyre manufacturer for their recommendation).

These tyres are more expensive than conventional tyres, and you really

The supporting ring is mounted inside the tyre on the rim. When the tyre deflates the weight of the vehicle is supported by the ring and control is maintained.

These tyres had conventional sidewalls but the system had other issues, which caused it to be no longer used by vehicle manufacturers.

should replace the opposite tyre on the same axle, to make sure that they wear the same. Then you notice that the vehicle is AWD, so you should really replace all four tyres because the front and rear tyres are different diameters, which might destroy the transfer case (see Tech Talk May 2016). If the vehicle is a BMW with AWD, the tyres will need to be run-flats, with the BMW ‘Star’ symbol so that they are compatible with xDrive system (see Tech Talk September 2014).

Recommending to the customer that they need four new tyres because they ran over a nail is going to be a hard sell.

Replacement

Run-flat tyres are the same size as convention tyres, so why can’t you retrofit convention tyres, as they are cheaper (and some say give a smoother ride)? The first reason why you should not is because the vehicle’s suspension and brake systems have been tuned

Self-supporting run-flat tyres have reinforced sidewalls that can support the weight of the vehicle with no internal air pressure. They are used with a modified rim system with extra humps to keep the bead in place and TPMS to warn the driver of a tyre pressure fault as it is not obvious that they are flat.

RSC in a circle stands for BMW Runflat System Component.

SSR stands for Continental’s SelfSupporting Runflat tyre system.

The “Star” indicates that the tyre is compatible with the BMW xDrive AWD System.

The Tyre Pressure Monitoring System has sensors in each wheel to check the pressure. If the pressure is low, it will turn on the TPMS warning light on the dash (above). The driver should reduce speed and go to the nearest service station/tyre repair workshop. How many ignore it and keep going?

Tyre marking table

Manufacturer Marking on Tyre Marketing Description

Bridgestone MOE or MO

Bridgestone RFT

Continental SSR

Dunlop DSST

Dunlop ROF

Firestone RFT

Goodyear EMT

Goodyear ROF

Mercedes Original Equipment Extended Mobility

Run-Flat Tyre

Self-Supporting Runflat

Dunlop Self-Supporting Technology

Run-On-Flat

Run-Flat Tyre

Extended Mobility Technology

Run-On-Flat

Hankook  HRFS  Hankook RunFlat System

Kumho XRP

Michelin ZP

Extended Run-Flat Performance

Zero Pressure

Michelin PAX  -

Michelin RSC

RFT is fairly straightforward, as it stands for Run-Flat Tyre

Pirelli RFT

Pirelli SSRF

Toyo TRF

The International Organization for Standardisation (ISO) has developed a universal symbol for self-supporting run-flat tyres, however its use is not enforced

BMW Runflat System Component

Run-Flat Technology

Self-Supporting Run Flat

Toyo Run Flat

Yokohama Run-Flat -

Yokohama ZPS

to work with those tyres, so you may be compromising other aspects of the vehicle’s safety performance. Secondly, the car has no spare wheel, jack or wheel brace and will probably have nowhere for any of this to be stored. Then they could be caught out with a flat tyre, very inconvenient.

Recommendation

If you are presented with a vehicle, you must first check if it is fitted with runflat tyres, which is not straightforward. The International Organization for Standardisation (ISO) has developed a universal symbol for self-supporting run-flat tyres. However, its use is not enforced. This has led to each tyre manufacturer marketing run-flat tyres in their own way. Some clearly indicate that they are run-flat tyres, others not so much. A list of the runflat tyre markings has been compiled for this article, and should help you identify the tyres before you proceed (see the above table). If in doubt, it is recommended to contact the tyre or vehicle manufacturer for the correct repair or replacement procedures for the tyres. This will make sure that you are covered, and giving the customer the best service.

Zero Pressure System

The Future

Tyre and vehicle manufacturers are continuing to develop the selfsupporting tyre system, by creating tyres with better comfort while retaining run-flat safety. Vehicle manufacturers are refining the suspension systems so that the driver should not be able to tell if they have run-flat tyres fitted.

The pressures on vehicle manufacturers to reduce emission and production costs, while improving safety and performance will lead them to cut weight where they can. Air pressure is the weak link in the tyre system, so many tyre manufacturers are developing nonpneumatic (air-less) tyres. With no air, there is no need for TPMS, and with new materials and 3D printing, airless tyres would again reduce costs and weight. We are many years away from airless tyres becoming mainstream. However, it appears that run-flat tyres are here to stay for the foreseeable future, and with the increasing number of vehicles coming from Europe, we will be seeing more of them.

LEFT AND RIGHT-HAND THREAD CONFUSION

When you get down to it, your average automotive technician has a toolbox full of tools that loosen and tighten nuts and bolts of different sizes. 99 percent of these nuts and bolts are right-handed. It is that 1 percent that can cause some headaches.

LEFT-HANDED threads are commonly used for safety purposes, such as gas fuel fittings to prevent the incorrect lines being attached (e.g. acetylene for welding and LPG for your BBQ). Left-handed threads are also used on rotating components where the forces of acceleration or deceleration could cause a right-handed thread to loosen. In some cases, they can be identified by grooves cut into the corners of the hexagon. Some of the common applications for left-handed threads:

Holden Colorado RG with 2.5L LVN and 2.8L LWH engine crankshaft pulley bolts

Mitsubishi Triton and Pajero 4M40 and 4M41 engines camshaft sprocket bolts

VW / Audi 1.8L and 2.0L TSFI coolant pump sprocket bolts

Spinning shafts on lathes and grinding wheels

Left pedal on bicycles

Left-hand side wheel nuts on some commercial vehicles, trucks and old Valiants (look for an ‘L’ stamped into the end of the stud or nut)

Idler and tensioner pulleys for serpentine belts

Grooves on the hexagon are used to show that this is a left-hand thread nut

If you look closely, there are small grooves on this fan hub that indicate it has a left-hand thread

Belt driven viscous fan hubs. Some viscous fan hubs are starting to catch people out as they could be a left or right-hand thread, as it all depends on which way the drive belt is spinning the pulley.

If the cooling fan pulley is travelling in the same direction as the crankshaft with the engine running (e.g. clockwise), there will be a left-hand thread on the shaft. If the cooling fan pulley is travelling in the opposite direction to the crankshaft (e.g. anti-clockwise) there will be a right-hand thread on the shaft.

VACC has received many calls from members in relation to the Ford and Mazda 3.2L and 2.2L Duratorq turbo diesel engines in the Ranger and BT50. These engines have a serpentine belt

Viscous fan hubs are still in use for many vehicles. However, the thread to mount them could be left or right handed

This fan pulley is rotating clockwise (same as the engine), so it will be a left-hand thread.

which uses the back of the belt to drive the pulley, and as a result, the direction of travel is anti-clockwise. Therefore, its fan hub will have a right-hand thread. If you are having trouble removing the fan hub or idler, have a look at the belt routing and see which way it will turn in normal operation. If any other bolt is not coming undone check the tension specifications, as your assumption could be wrong and it might be a left-hand thread.

This tensioner pulley is rotating anticlockwise (opposite to the engine), so its

Ford/Mazda: 3.2/2.2L

This cooling fan pulley is being driven by the back of the belt, so it is rotating anti-clockwise (opposite to the engine), so it will have a right-hand thread

BMW X5 Series E53, 3.0i, 3.0L M54 (6 Cyl) 2001 - 2006 Serpentine Belt

Water Pump

Crankshaft

Idler pulley

Ford Ranger PX, 3.2L Turbo Diesel 2011 - 2018 Serpentine Belt

Steering

Tensioner

Tensioner Pulley 1

Tensioner Pulley 2

Cooling Fan

BMW: M54 Engines

Diesel

Cooling fan

Crankshaft

Crankshaft

Cooling fan

• OEM level access to module programming, resets, relearn; key programming and normal diagnostic functions

• Covers a large range of vehicles worldwide

• Capable of performing a vehicle health check on all systems on late model vehicles (checking all computers on vehicle)

• Dynamic vehicle health reports

• Ability to send email reports to customers

• Regular software updates

• Reads live data and graphs information for comparisons

• Alarms can be set for range sensor problems

• Has quick resets of fault codes

• Automatic vehicle model detection on late model vehicles (mainly European)

• Does your workshop need more leads and customers?

TNT Express Welcomes

TNT is one of the country’s largest providers of business-to-business express delivery services. TNT provides on-demand, time-critical door to door express delivery services for documents, parcels and freight, worldwide and locally.

VACC members

TNT has an extensive regional, national and international network of warehouses, sortation hubs and depots all linked by sophisticated technology. TNT has provided the Australian market with distribution services for more than 60 years.

For more information on TNT’s services and solutions, please call 13 11 50 or visit tnt.com.au

Becoming a VACC or TACC member opens up a wide range of special offers and discounted products and services for you and your business. VACC and TACC have collaborated with organisations which provide essential services to your business to offer special low rates for members. Couple the savings from discounted products and services with the subsidised services which VACC itself offers to members, and your annual membership can easily pay for itself. Everything from IR advice, to cheaper EFTPOS terminals to technical solutions is on offer. This guide gives you an idea of the offers which you can access, as well as a number of other collaborations.

Workplace/IR Advice

Members can access services including a call centre for employment-related questions, a web page with award rates and policy and employment fact sheets, writing of employment contracts, handbooks and policies, and member and industry representation.

03 9829 1123 ir@vacc.com.au vacc.com.au

Auto Apprenticeships

VACC takes the hassle out of hiring trainees and apprentices, as businesses are matched with high quality candidates who meet strict selection criteria. VACC also looks after all administration aspects of the apprenticeship, including visits by Field Officers.

03 9829 1130 autoapprenticeships@vacc.com.au autoapprenticeships.com.au

Technical Information

VACC MotorTech brings together VACC’s Tech Online, Times Guide, Tech Estimate, Technical Advisory Service and Tech Talk products with Haynes’ international knowhow, to provide an enormous amount of technical service and repair information to subscribers.

03 9829 1268 info@motortech.com.au motortech.com.au

Health Insurance

NIB has a mission and vision of people enjoying better health. VACC and TACC members (including their staff) receive a corporate discount on nib’s retail health insurance products.

1800 13 14 63 nib.com.au/corp/vacc

Website Services

OurAuto Digital provides a one-stop solution for your business’ website, including a custom design, rendering for smartphones and tablets, email accounts and hosting. Businesses are able to update web content themselves. VACC and TACC members receive these services at a discounted rate.

1300 687 288 ourautodigital.com.au

OurAuto iStore

Businesses can purchase a wide range of items, including personalised stationery, consumables such as floor mats and seat covers, workplace safety signage and much more. Member businesses automatically receive a discount on purchases.

03 9829 1152 autoistore.com.au

A Grade

The A Grade Automotive Network is a network of VACC member businesses that are dedicated to providing customers a better quality experience across all aspects of vehicle maintenance and repairs. Participants are contractually bound and VACC certified, and are publicly promoted in various forms of advertising.

03 9829 1202 goagrade.com.au

Technical Solutions

Technical information is available to all automotive businesses through the OurAuto Tech-Centre. Subscription includes access to Tech-Online and the Times Guide, Tech-Advisory phone services, and the Tech Talk publication. The Centre uses the largest technical library in the Southern Hemisphere.

1300 687 288 tech-centre.com.au

EFTPOS Facility

Commonwealth Bank offers competitive financial solutions for businesses in the automotive industry. VACC and TACC member businesses can access a discounted rate for EFTPOS merchant facilities. Contact VACC for an application form.

03 9829 1152 vacc.com.au

Training & Education

Members can access automotive industryspecific training programs in business management, industrial relations/human resource management, technical and OHS & Environment. Skills Development Centre also facilitates short courses, online programs and diploma and degree qualifications.

03 9829 1130 info@vaccsdc.com.au vaccsdc.com.au

Freight Services

VACC and TACC members receive discounted rates and benefits, including trace and track capabilities, one number to call, one easy-to-understand invoice, and online job quoting, booking and tracking. Contact VACC for an application form.

03 9829 1152 vacc.com.au

Environmental Advice

VACC members can benefit from environmental compliance advice, briefings, training and on-site assessments. Green Stamp is an accreditation program that recognises and promotes businesses which have implemented sound environmental practices.

03 9829 1117 environment@vacc.com.au greenstampplus.com.au

Superannuation

MTAA Superannuation is the super fund for the automotive industry. MTAA has low fees, is run only to benefit members and offers a range of investment options. It allows employers to make all super contributions with just one transaction.

1300 362 415 mtaasuper.com.au

Energy Bill Savings

Smart Power offer a free bill comparison service. It will enable you to evaluate your current energy bills. They will do a comparison with VACC’s approved electricity providers. Contact VACC for an application form.

03 9829 1152 vacc.com.au

Waste Management

Remondis Australia is VACC’s preferred provider of general and prescribed waste services. VACC members benefit from a customised waste management plan and discounted rates.

03 9829 1152 vacc.com.au

Visa Checking Services

VACC Helpline offers a quick visa checking service through the Department of Immigration. VACC members and non-members can access the service to ensure an applicant on a Visa has appropriate work rights in Australia. Don’t be caught out.

03 9829 1133 autoadvice@vacc.com.au vacc.com.au

JobFinder Services

VACC Helpline provides a free job advertising service on the JobFinder website. Any automotive business, VACC member or not, can advertise qualified and apprenticeship vacancies. All enquiries go direct to you for screening.

03 9829 1133 autoadvice@vacc.com.au vacc.com.au

OH&S Services

Members can access consultation and advice on OHS issues, including incident management, policies, workers’ compensation and more. OHS specialists provide workplace assessments and training, and administer the HazCheck management system.

03 9829 1138 ohs@vacc.com.au vacc.com.au

Payment Plans

Superannuation

GoPay allows your customers to spread out the cost of their service and repair bill. They pay one-third on the day and the balance over the next two months interest-free.

MTAA Superannuation is the super fund for the automotive industry. MTAA has low fees, is run only to benefit members and offers a range of investment options. It allows employers to make all super contributions with just one transaction.

1300 467 292 gopay.com.au

1300 362 415 mtaasuper.com.au

Office Supplies

Winc offers a convenient single source for business and workshop supplies. VACC and TACC members have access to discounts on WINC supplies. Contact VACC for an application form.

03 9829 1152 vacc.com.au

Apprentice Support

VACC Helpline provides apprentices and businesses a free automotive apprenticeship signup and advisory service to assist all parties at any time. With years of experience and knowledge, it’s well worth a quick phone call to put you in the right direction.

03 9829 1133 autoadvice@vacc.com.au vacc.com.au

Australian Automotive

Members automatically receive Australian Automotive magazine. The bi-monthly publication offers the latest industry news, reviews, industry comment and technical articles. Australian Automotive is the most widely read automotive industry publication in the country.

03 9829 1247 australianautomotive.com

Auto Workplace Assist

A convenient go-to solution for supporting automotive workplace compliance needs. Health and Safety can be a complex, high risk and costly area for workplaces. AWA offers ready-made, industry-specific compliance products, so that business owners can get on with the job at hand.

1300 585 136 autoworkplaceassist.com.au

TACC

Founded in 1930, TACC serves the automotive industry in Tasmania and amalgamated with VACC in 1999. TACC members gain access to all of the same products and services as VACC members, however TACC also has a number of additional services for its membership.

03 6278 1611

tacc.com.au

Insurance Brokers

TACC members can now access business insurance solutions through OurAuto Insurance. Specifically designed to meet to the unique risk profile of the automotive industry, OurAuto Insurance can help your business access the best cover at an affordable rate.

1300 441 474 ourautoinsurance.com.au

Graphic Design

VACC’S Marketing department can assist members with their graphic design requirements at a subsidised rate. Services include business cards, logo re-designs, corporate image overhauls, brochures and advertisements.

03 9829 1189 creativeservices@vacc.com.au

Advertising

All members have access to advertising in VACC publications at preferential rates, including Australian Automotive with a national readership exceeding 20,000. The VACC marketing department can help members by designing advertisements at a heavily subsidised rate.

Matt Healey 0407 343 330 matt.healey@cameronmediasales.com

VACC Update

All VACC and TACC members receive VACC Update on a monthly basis via email, with issues also available on the VACC website. The publication provides the latest news and information regarding workplace and industrial relations, OHS and environment, business obligations and training opportunities.

03 9829 1123 vacc.com.au

Tech Talk

Included in VACC/TACC membership is a subscription to the Tech Talk publication, the premier technical publication of the VACC Technical Services Department since 1986. The journal is printed 11 times a year, while a back-catalogue of articles is available as part of the Tech Online website.

03 9829 1292 vacc.com.au

Test and Tagging

ETCS offers TACC members electrical service state-wide, including installation, testing and tagging, and assisting with OHS requirements. TACC members can access special member rates.

1300 724 001

ects.com.au

TACC Apprenticeships

TACC takes the hassle out of hiring trainees and apprentices, as businesses are matched with high quality candidates who meet strict selection criteria. TACC also looks after all administration aspects of the apprenticeship, including visits by Field Officers.

03 6278 1611

tacc.com.au

Roadside Help

TACC members who want to reward their loyal customers can do so though TACC’s Roadside Help program. Members purchase vouchers to give to customers, which customers can use for free help for a flat battery, tyre change, fuel or a tow back to the member’s business.

03 6278 1611 tacc.com.au

TACC Accreditation

TACC Accredited Repairers are promoted to the community as a group of professional businesses who deliver high quality repairs and services. Participating members enter into a contract with TACC to deliver a more professional level of service. TACC promotes these members.

03 6278 1611

tacc.com.au

OurAuto Insurance

Comprehensive Insurance Cover

Insurance matters when things go wrong and when they do, it’s important that you have the most comprehensive insurance cover possible.

We work with you to understand and manage your risks and then provide Policy options that address your specific insurance needs.

OurAuto Insurance understands the importance of providing the right insurance that matches your needs.

Competitive prices

We are a broker and therefore not tied to a single insurance company. This means that once we understand your insurance risks, we can shop the market on your behalf to achieve a competitive price.

Cover for all automotive businesses

OurAuto Insurance has a goal to seek insurance for all businesses operating in the Australian automotive industry regardless of size and risk profile.

Challenge us to find a better deal

Contact us today and challenge us to find a better insurance deal for your business.

recent

“I received great service from OurAuto Insurance. The representative Dean was very helpful and conducted a thorough analysis of my previous quote. I discovered that I didn’t have the coverage my business needed and was able to get full coverage with OurAuto Insurance, while still making a significant saving. Overall it was a 10/10 experience.”

Joe Defina, Defina Automotive

“OurAuto Insurance promised to look into my insurance after I told them I had a claim and my existing insurer had increased my premium to the point it was unaffordable. The advice and the service I received was outstanding. They identified areas I wasn’t covered and helped me understand where my business was vulnerable. They provided outstanding service and came back to me with a real saving, something that made a real difference to my business and with greater overall cover.”

Gentile, Generals Automotive Nunawading VIC

Any advice in this document is general and may not be suitable to your circumstances. VACC may earn commission as a direct result of your insurance placement with OurAuto Insurance.

Call 1300 441 474 or visit

VACC MOTORTECH brings together VACC’s proven suite of technical products with the might of Haynes’ international know-how.

Let us show you how it can drive your business forward...