Interesting article, and well worth a read, but I disagree with the main conclusion.
AS 5100.7 defines the Load Rating Factor as:
3.10: A ratio of the available bridge capacity for traffic load effects to the traffic load effects of a nominated rating vehicle (see Clause 14).
To find that you need to find the combination of effects (bending moment, shear, torsion and axial load) that cause the most severe combined effect, and then find the factor on the vehicle loads that would cause the combined effects to reach the section's Ultimate Limit State.
Where the capacity depends on the combined loads, such as combined bending and axial load, or combined bending and shear, then the loads need to be factored to get an accurate value for the capacity.
To do this it seems to me that the simplest approach is to plot an interaction diagram of section capacity, then plot all the load points for different vehicle positions, and for different sections with the same capacity. It is then straightforward to find the minimum load rating. This is standard practice for combined bending and axial load, and I don't see why you wouldn't adopt the same approach for combined bending and shear.
One other point: For checking the shear effect on longitudinal reinforcement in AS 3600 all the effects are combined to find the total force on the tension steel, and the applicable capacity reduction factor is the factor for bending capacity. In AS 5100.5 the steel capacity for longitudinal force due to shear is factored down by the shear reduction factor, which doesn't make sense to me, since the steel will be equally ductile no matter where the force is coming from.
Doug Jenkins
Interactive Design Services