Hundreds of caravans and camper trailers crash every year. Police in Queensland say about 90 per cent of recreational vehicles weigh too much, creating a safety hazard and potentially voiding the owners' insurance.
Apparently, 90% of caravans are overloaded in QLD.
Unfortunately, our society demands that everybody has a licence.
The social expectation is that if you do have a licence, you automaticly have the ability to drive a vehicle with a 3500kg GVM with a 3500kg Trailer at 110km/h, even if you are hardly competent enough to drive an Automatic Nissan Micra.
Add the fact that most drivers aren’t even able to change a tyre, let alone calculate GVM, GTM, ATM, ball weight, etc and you have a major traffic disaster on your hands.
I don’t see any reason that towing could require a separate class of licence from the general open licence. As this original article and the comments in this post show, it requires more specialist knowledge that isn’t required for driving a normal car.
Realistically, either the basic knowledge to tow safely should also be required to obtain a normal licence (which would be problematic because as you suggest, we build our cities and towns to be incredibly car-dependent and it would be imposing a significant extra toll on people), or towing should require passing a separate test with towing-specific knowledge. The majority of people won’t need that, so don’t need to worry about studying for it. Easy.
I’m not one for unnecessary legislation, but at some point, we have to ensure that people appreciate that they are in control of 7 tonnes of moving vehicle.
I think that classes of heavy vehicle licence should be introduced; Light Combination and Medium Combination.
Light Combination would include using anything outside the factory dimensions of the vehicle; bike racks, roof racks, unbraked trailers.
Medium Combination would include anything requiring electric brakes.
The problem is that caravan/trailer manufacturers would be very unhappy about these restrictions to their customer-base.
I’ll admit I’ve never actually driven with either, but because they don’t have their own separate contact with the ground, and the added weight is extremely low (less than the weight of a child), it doesn’t require any extra knowledge to be able to actually drive it safely. So there’s no case to be made for requiring additional training and licensing.
I have seen plenty of clueless drivers with roof racks, awnings, roof-top-tents, etc. who are not qualified to drive with these additions.
Customers smash sunroofs, drive into underground car parks, mount 120kg roof-top-tents on vehicles with a 50kg maximum dynamic roof load.
There are even hard-core off-roaders who don’t understand that when a vehicle is driving on uneven terrain, that you can’t carry the same roof load as on flat paved roads.
Other people carry 130kg dirt bikes on hitch bicycle trays on towbars with a 75kg ball weight.
There needs to be a minimum level of training for people to carry anything outside the footprint of their vehicle.
GVMs need to be included in basic driver training.
If you can’t understand the Mechanics of why all of the cases I have described are bad, you are in the class of people who need more training.
There has to be a minimum level of training in order for anything outside the standard footprint of the vehicle.
There is no licence requirement to know anything about towing.
Own a car/truck with a tow bar?
Fill your boots.
Unfortunately, our society demands that everybody has a licence. The social expectation is that if you do have a licence, you automaticly have the ability to drive a vehicle with a 3500kg GVM with a 3500kg Trailer at 110km/h, even if you are hardly competent enough to drive an Automatic Nissan Micra.
Add the fact that most drivers aren’t even able to change a tyre, let alone calculate GVM, GTM, ATM, ball weight, etc and you have a major traffic disaster on your hands.
I don’t see any reason that towing could require a separate class of licence from the general open licence. As this original article and the comments in this post show, it requires more specialist knowledge that isn’t required for driving a normal car.
Realistically, either the basic knowledge to tow safely should also be required to obtain a normal licence (which would be problematic because as you suggest, we build our cities and towns to be incredibly car-dependent and it would be imposing a significant extra toll on people), or towing should require passing a separate test with towing-specific knowledge. The majority of people won’t need that, so don’t need to worry about studying for it. Easy.
I’m not one for unnecessary legislation, but at some point, we have to ensure that people appreciate that they are in control of 7 tonnes of moving vehicle.
I think that classes of heavy vehicle licence should be introduced; Light Combination and Medium Combination.
Light Combination would include using anything outside the factory dimensions of the vehicle; bike racks, roof racks, unbraked trailers.
Medium Combination would include anything requiring electric brakes.
The problem is that caravan/trailer manufacturers would be very unhappy about these restrictions to their customer-base.
https://www.vicroads.vic.gov.au/licences/licence-and-permit-types/heavy-vehicle-licence/how-to-get-a-heavy-vehicle-licence
https://www.nsw.gov.au/driving-boating-and-transport/driver-and-rider-licences/heavy-vehicle-licences/getting-a-heavy-vehicle-licence
https://www.qld.gov.au/transport/licensing/driver-licensing/types
https://www.mylicence.sa.gov.au/my-heavy-vehicle-licence
https://www.transport.wa.gov.au/licensing/upgrade-add-a-licence.asp
Eh, I wouldn’t be supportive of this.
I’ll admit I’ve never actually driven with either, but because they don’t have their own separate contact with the ground, and the added weight is extremely low (less than the weight of a child), it doesn’t require any extra knowledge to be able to actually drive it safely. So there’s no case to be made for requiring additional training and licensing.
I have seen plenty of clueless drivers with roof racks, awnings, roof-top-tents, etc. who are not qualified to drive with these additions.
Customers smash sunroofs, drive into underground car parks, mount 120kg roof-top-tents on vehicles with a 50kg maximum dynamic roof load.
There are even hard-core off-roaders who don’t understand that when a vehicle is driving on uneven terrain, that you can’t carry the same roof load as on flat paved roads.
Other people carry 130kg dirt bikes on hitch bicycle trays on towbars with a 75kg ball weight.
There needs to be a minimum level of training for people to carry anything outside the footprint of their vehicle. GVMs need to be included in basic driver training.
If you can’t understand the Mechanics of why all of the cases I have described are bad, you are in the class of people who need more training.
There has to be a minimum level of training in order for anything outside the standard footprint of the vehicle.