Christopher de Saxe

• PhD, PrEng
• University of Cambridge

Data on the location and size of logistics sites is essential for the accurate system-level modelling of transport and logistics operations. This is becoming increasingly important to support governments and industry transition to a net zero future which will feature new operating models and vehicle technologies, particularly for electric vehicle o...

p>Electric heavy goods vehicles (HGVs) are a key step towards reducing road freight emissions. However, they require large batteries and fast chargers. There is interest in exploring high-capacity chargers at warehouse docks that can charge at a rate of 1 MW. These chargers are expensive and complex but are needed to run big-battery electric HGVs w...

p>Electric heavy goods vehicles (HGVs) are a key step towards reducing road freight emissions. However, they require large batteries and fast chargers. There is interest in exploring high-capacity chargers at warehouse docks that can charge at a rate of 1 MW. These chargers are expensive and complex but are needed to run big-battery electric HGVs w...

South Africa's national power utility, Eskom, is under growing pressure to increase its power generation capacity in the face of national rolling blackouts while also containing costs, increasing revenue, and reducing its environmental impact. While the entity embarks on an ambitious $ 10 billion 2050 decarbonisation plan, there are short-term oppo...

The substantial road maintenance backlog in South Africa, coupled with an inadequate budget allocation, requires high impact solutions in order to preserve the 158 000 km paved road network. Focussing efforts on the heavy vehicles operating on these routes, by ensuring they are more road friendly and payload-efficient, could potentially preserve an...

Previous research investigating the dynamic road wear produced by heavy vehicles has not included the effect of road crossfall. This study shows that road crossfall, even at values as low as 1%, has a significant effect on the predicted dynamic road wear. A model of a rigid vehicle that includes rolling and pitching motion was developed for the ana...

Understanding the precise movements of different commodities on South African roads can help in not only describing the logistics sector more accurately, but also in the planning of road infrastructure maintenance and investment. Truck combinations can be classified into several classes broadly associated with different commodity groups, including...

The paved road network is a critical asset to any country and its economy. South Africa's paved road network has an estimated value in excess of R2 trillion. This asset is threatened by a backlog in maintenance of more than R416.6 billion, estimated in 2018. Overloaded heavy vehicles can cause more than 60% of the road wear on a road network. Most...

South Africa's national power utility, Eskom, is under heavy strain to maintain an undisrupted electricity supply and contain costs, while at the same time reducing its environmental impact. In 2018/19, Eskom acquired 118 Mt of coal, at a purchase cost of approximately R 47 billion, of which around R7 billion (15%) can be attributed to the transpor...

Road transport is a highly competitive industry and is renowned for low profit margins. Road transport however accounts for almost 6% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and is the backbone of the economy. The Performance-Based Standards (PBS) or Smart Truck Pilot project has existed in South Africa since 2007 and monitoring data has shown substant...

Articulation angle sensing is an essential component of manoeuvrability and stability control systems for articulated heavy goods vehicles, particularly long combination vehicles. Existing solutions to this sensing task are limited by reliance on trailer modifications or information or by measurement accuracy, or both, restricting commercial adopti...

Articulated heavy goods vehicles and long combination vehicles offer improved efficiency and emissions but reduced low-speed manoeuvrability and high-speed stability compared to rigid lorries. Active control systems can help to address these issues but require additional instrumentation, particularly articulation angle sensing. Existing commercial...

Heavy goods vehicles are overrepresented in cyclist fatality statistics in the United Kingdom relative to their proportion of total traffic volume. In particular, the statistics highlight a problem for vehicles turning left across the path of a cyclist on their inside. In this article, we present a camera-based system to detect and track cyclists i...

The road space utilised by a heavy goods vehicle during low-speed manoeuvring has direct safety and operational implications. This is especially true for vehicles which are longer/wider than usual, such as abnormal loads vehicles. The same applies to vehicles that are required to meet certain performance-based manoeuvrability criteria, such as thos...

High Capacity Vehicles (HCVs) have been shown to be highly effective in reducing emissions associated with road freight transport. However, the reduced manoeuvrability of long vehicles often necessitates the use of active trailer steering. Path-following trailer steering systems are very effective in this regard, but are currently limited to on-hig...

High-capacity vehicles have been shown to be highly effective in reducing emissions associated with road freight transport. However, the reduced manoeuvrability of long vehicles often necessitates the use of active trailer steering. Path-following trailer steering systems are very effective in this regard, but are currently limited to on-highway ap...

Application of articulated and Long Combination Vehicles (LCVs) in challenging off-highway applications is possible with the use of path-following trailer steering. This requires an accurate estimate of trailer off-tracking, but it has been shown that that existing methods for this are not applicable on roads with low friction or significant camber...

Active control systems for heavy goods vehicles (HGVs) are becoming more sophisticated, necessitating more extensive and sophisticated instrumentation. For articulated HGVs, articulation angle sensing is crucial for most such systems and existing and proposed sensing methods are limited either in terms of commercial feasibility or measurement accur...

As part of a performance-based standards (PBS) research programme for heavy vehicles in South Africa, a need was identified to design, manufacture and operate a number of PBS or Smart Truck demonstration vehicles. The purpose of the demonstration programme is to gain practical experience in the PBS approach and to quantify and evaluate the potentia...

Until recently, South African car-carriers operated under the abnormal load permit system allowing an additional 300 mm height and 500 mm length. Because car-carrier payloads are divisible and abnormal load permits are usually granted for indivisible loads, these permits were granted only as a special concession to the car-carrier industry. This pr...

Until recently, car-carriers in South Africa operated under abnormal load permits allowing a finite relaxation of legal height and length limits. This practice is being phased out, and exemption will only be granted if a car-carrier complies with the Australian Performance-Based Standards (PBS) scheme. A low-speed turning model was developed in Mat...

The practice of issuing of abnormal load permits to South African car-carriers (allowing a 300 mm increase in height and 500 mm increase in length) is being phased out. Such allowances will only be granted if a car-carrier complies with the Australian Performance-Based Standards scheme, which is currently the basis for a PBS demonstration project i...