Scania ZONE: From eScooters to Trucks.

In-depth

10 Sept

Anyone who has ridden an eScooter, as I discovered in Brisbane earlier this year, will have experienced the machine either slowing down or stopping. As a newbie to this form of transport, I thought that I’d paid out good money to hire one with a dud battery.

But no. It was the scooter’s geo-fencing technology letting me know that I was in a ‘no-go’ or ‘go-slow’ area. Clever stuff indeed.

Now Scania have adopted the geo-fencing system into their telematics. Called ‘ZONE’ the system is a wonderful safety aid for both drivers and the public.

Well-established Landsdale, WA, transport company J.J. Hawkins & Co is one of the first operators in Australia to adopt the Scania Zone concept, to enhance safety for all road users around its trucks.

Scania Zone is a location-based telematics system that enables automatic vehicle adjustments, including the ability to automatically regulate vehicle speed in predefined areas.

This is particularly useful for school zones where the limit is reduced at drop-off and pick-up times, because the Scania Zone allows the operator to set the limits by time as well as location.

Scania Australia’s recently announced partnership with the Australian Road Safety Foundation highlights a shared vision for enhancing road safety nationwide.

“By integrating technologies like Scania Zone into everyday operations, we’re not just meeting regulatory requirements, we’re setting new benchmarks for proactive safety measures,” said Benjamin Nye, Director of Truck Sales at Scania Australia. “Everything we do, from designing our trucks, to the way we act in our company-owned workshops, is focused on promoting safe outcomes and avoiding injury.”

David Hawkins, who currently runs the 51-year-old family-owned business with his son Troy, and father Joe, says, there are wider benefits to Scania’s Zone concept, too: “It’s not just about setting speed limits to avoid speeding fines, but it gives our drivers and our management confidence that a moment of inattention won’t lead to a fine or cause an incident.

“Safety has always been a top priority for our business. With Scania Zone, we are working to ensure our trucks operate safely and responsibly, especially in areas where children and families are present, it offers peace-of-mind to me as a business operator while also ensuring compliance,” David said.

“Scania Zone is a good feature. It seems to be working fine. We’ve designated areas we know can be potentially risky, including a stretch of road with a history of speeding incidents. It's a straight road where drivers might unintentionally exceed the 70 km/h speed limit. Scania Zone promotes compliance by helping drivers maintain safe and legal speeds automatically."

“Scania Zone is better than just relying, for example, on speed sign recognition systems. We can also set it for our yards or customers’ yards if they have a speed limit, to ensure we don’t upset a client by driving too fast through their premises. So, from a safety perspective, I think it's great,”

“If a driver advises us of an area on his run that he sees as a potential problem, I can just activate the Zone for that stretch, and the truck will only do as it’s told. As a result, we don’t have to worry about getting a complaint from a resident saying: ‘your truck has been speeding on our roads,’ because we know he can only go so fast,” he said. “We have initiated Scania Zone on all our nine Scanias and it will be used on the new R 620 V8 we’re having delivered very soon, as well.

“Our drivers have accepted the Scania Zone idea, because I think they recognise it will save them from being fined,” he says. “Additionally, Scania Zone does not require any input from the driver. “From a corporate perspective, our trucks are painted bright red and are well signed so if we’re seen to be doing the wrong thing people notice, but Scania Zone helps reduce this potential. We don’t want to get calls complaining about drivers and we’re enhancing our reputation as courteous drivers,” David continued.

“The Scania Zone goes well beyond just school zone limit issues. There’s one country town our trucks travel through, there’s no alternative route, and they are big trucks with multi combinations, so we have set the speed limit below the posted limit, which is good. There’s another shire council that has limited the hours that trucks can pass through, so we load that into the Scania Zone as well, to ensure we don’t do the wrong thing.”

Scania Zone Icon on digital dashboard.

Aside from warning the driver on the road, if he does do the wrong thing it is recorded in the Scania Fleet Management Portal also known as ‘My Scania’, so the operator can see it straight away.

**Scania Zone on fleet monitoring screen at J J Hawkins.**

J.J. Hawkins & Co has had a good run with Scania for the past five or so years, having shifted from another brand after a relationship lasting almost half a century. A trip to the Scania factory helped to tip David into the Scania camp.

“We have been pleased with the Scanias’ performance. We are replacing the earliest trucks now, after four-four and half years, and they have been on a Scania repair and maintenance contract over 650,000 km. Historically, we kept our trucks much longer, but we can see the benefit of turning them over earlier and replacing them with new trucks with the latest systems,” David said. “I would say predominantly the Scanias are doing a good job for us and I'm very happy with them.

“The R 620 V8s have been returning about 1.8 to 1.9 km per litre in our heavy applications, which is far better than some of our older trucks, albeit with much higher km under them. But the difference is significant, and I watch it every day. It means we use about 100-litres of diesel less per 1000 km trip, and there’s the cost saving of course, but no trip time penalty.

“Within the 27.5 m length limit we can run two B-trailers or a two-trailer road train at 36.5 m. Sometimes we run for example a prime mover towing a semi-trailer and B-double (under 36 m), and the heaviest loads are up to 120-tonnes gross weight. We’re transporting all types of freight, from road-base to general freight and machinery. We also do a lot of different transport-related tasks. We just try to be busy all the time.”

For the Hawkins family, running a family business is about more than just delivering goods; it's about making a positive impact on their community," said Adam Brockman, Scania WA Aftersales Account Manager.

"By adopting Scania’s exclusive technologies like Scania Zone, J.J. Hawkins & Co is not only prioritising safety but also highlighting how innovation can reinforce timeless values of care and responsibility.

"At Scania, safety is one of our highest priorities, and it’s rewarding to partner with a customer who shares this commitment and takes proactive steps to make roads safer for everyone. Together, we can drive safety forward and make a meaningful impact on Australian roads."