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The NHVR has congratulated Chief Engineer Les Bruzsa on winning the prestigious Castrol Vecton Industry Achievement Award at the ATA’s Technical and Maintenance Conference in Melbourne last night.
NHVR CEO Sal Petroccitto said the award, which recognises technical innovation and achievement within the Australian trucking industry, acknowledged Les’s passion and expertise as Australia’s foremost authority on high productivity freight vehicles.
“Les has a reputation for heavy vehicle innovation that not only extends across Australia but across the globe where many international organisations seek his advice,” Mr Petroccitto said.
“Australia’s Performance Based Standards (PBS) program is one of the most progressive heavy vehicle design and regulatory schemes in the world, thanks to Les.
“The Australian PBS industry has grown significantly to the stage where we saw 1403 combinations approved last year, which is a 23 per cent increase on the previous year.
“Les has been at the forefront of advocating for PBS since the early 2000s and taken a lead in pushing the boundaries of innovation, which is absolutely necessary to manage the increasing freight task.”
The PBS program allows the heavy vehicle industry to develop vehicles and technologies that match the right vehicles to the right freight tasks and networks.
Les joined the NHVR in January 2013 from the Queensland’s Transport and Main Roads, and previously the National Transport Commission. He studied at the Technical University of Budapest, Hungary specialising in automotive engineering within his Mechanical Engineering degree.
Legend has it that he made the move to Australia when he saw a B-triple drive past the Walkabout Creek Pub while watching the opening scenes to Crocodile Dundee in a Budapest cinema 30 years ago.
“That was when I knew I wanted to work with trucks in Australia,” he revealed in the NHVR’s staff newsletter earlier this year. “It could be a PBS truck and dog combination right outside the office carrying gravel, a livestock B-triple in Warwick, an ABB-quad in Darwin, a container truck in Melbourne, a PBS A-double running from Toowoomba to the Port of Brisbane or a beautiful XXXX quad-axle beer truck in Hendra... I can tell my grandkids that I was involved in the development of that vehicle.”
Les is affectionately known as the Quadfather. When he isn’t thinking about heavy vehicles he also enjoys rally and truck racing, history, politics, Irish whiskey and cigars.
For more information on the PBS program visit www.nhvr.gov.au/pbs
Contact: Andrew Berkman | 0429 128 637