Former Cootes Drivers Theory on Hot Brakes

• General News
• 7th February 2014

Following the controversial fatal crash involving a Cootes fuel tanker in NSW in October we received an interesting call from one of the company’s former drivers.

Cootes, Australia’s biggest fuel transporter, came under heavy scrutiny and there was speculation about whether the trucks brakes had failed.

Our caller wanted to talk about Cootes GPS tracking system and the firm’s policy on speeding.

He had worked for them over here and said they were a good company but had got his back up over their zero tolerance to their drivers exceeding 103ks.

“Whenever we went over that limit a light would flash in the firm’s Melbourne office,” the veteran truckie told me.

“Then on Mondays they would tally up your over-speeds for the week and tell you how bad you've been.

“One driver had 43 breaches and he was given a directive that if his name came up again he would be asked why he should still be working for the company.

“So naturally a driver trying to avoid the sack ensures no over-speeds.

“It occurs to me that when you get a bit of speed up on a downward incline you're constantly looking at your speed instead of the road.

“And everyone knows it wears the vehicles brakes out much quicker than normal and it heats them up.

“Personally, I’d rather have brakes cold and ready for use when I need them.

“And anyway, not many of the tracking systems are accurate, and they are easily thrown out.

“For example the GPS speed gets buggered up when tyres are changed.

“Put new tyres on with 22ml of tread on top and and 22 ml on the bottom that’s 44 millimeters more tread than a bald tyre.

This unquestionably throws out the distance the tyre travels in each rotation which throws out the GPS speed.

“But the biggest issue is brake wear and the enormous cost to companies of replacing them because of the GPS regulation.”