Appendix C Development of vehicle classification in Australia

This Appendix provides an overview of vehicle classifications in Australia, including the 20 vehicle classification (Thoresen & Ronald, 2002) used in HDM, the Austroads 12 bin classification (Austroads, 2002 and more recently Austroads, 2013b) and the vehicle classifications used in Austroads (2005a).

The Austroads 12 bin classification was developed in 1994 (Austroads, 2002) and then Austroads (2006), with the most recent description of the vehicles in terms of mass and length appearing in Austroads (2013) (column (a) in Table C.1), which also contains references to other vehicle classifications used by the Australian Bureau of Statistics and by State and Territory road agencies. The changes in classification of combination vehicles has changed the most, with extensions of these vehicle types also put forward in Austroads (2002). The 20 vehicle classification used in the ATAP parameter values was based on Thoresen and Ronald (2002) and is also used in HDM-4 in Australia(column (b) in Table C.1). Previous updates of unit values for Austroads (Austroads, 2012a) have used the 18 vehicle classification in Austroads (2005a) (column (c) in Table C.1). Designations based on axle numbers have also been used (Austroads, 2005a) (column (e) in Table C.1), while selected vehicle types (8 vehicle classification) have been used in NIMPAC models (Austroads, 2005a)(column (g) in Table C.1).

Source: ARRB Group Ltd adapted from Austroads