2025 will be the first full year with Australian Trucking Association Chair Mark Parry in the head position. He was elected to the role in May last year after previous Chair David Smith announced he would step down at the end of his term.
Mark joined the ATA following more than a decade immersed in the transport industry, most prominently as Managing Director of Ron Finemore Transport and Deputy Chair of Healthy Heads in Trucks and Sheds, after making the switch from the mining sector.
It has been a dive right into the deep end, in what has been a big year for the progression of reform and regulation within the trucking sector.
“If you take any role, my view is you’ve got to learn the organisation and people first,” Mark tells PowerTorque.
“Between May and now, I’ve really been looking to get to know those people. My role is to ensure the effective functioning of the board and the various councils within the ATA.
“Because the ATA has such an external focus on behalf of the industry, then there’s the various arms of politics that you’ve got to meet and deal with.
“In my previous roles I was certainly aware of the NHVR and similar organisations and dealing with a lot of people, but now I’m coming in with a different role and mindset.
“You have to look at how you support the board, and in particular making sure that CEO Mat Munro and his team have got the resources that they need to deliver on behalf of our members.”
Mark says that he and the ATA have four main areas that will be of vital importance over the next 12 months – driver licencing and Heavy Vehicle National Law changes being top of the pile.
It proposed a split to the MC driver class in order to reflect the extra skills required to drive bigger combinations including triple road trains, quads and quins, which was presented to Parliament in 2024.
This comes in tandem with Austroads’ proposed changes to the truck driver licensing system, doing away with time-based systems and focusing more on training and assessment requirements.
While this will then come with further regulatory changes and the need to develop a greater training system, Mark says that this will be one of the ways that transport can attract new people to the industry.
“I do think that the federal government, opposition and various states are listening to this,” he says.
“I see a very clear connect between training, licensing and safety outcomes helping to attract people to the industry. Given some of the current training and licensing, we risk having drivers that don’t have enough experience or knowledge getting on the road being potentially unsafe.
“That can also lead to turnover, where people get a licence, start work and go ‘you know what? This isn’t for me’. What we’re advocating is that licensing should have much more skill-based training to ensure that people have capability and competence that is assessed under a known and specific set of criteria.”
Changing the National Law
As proposed changes to the Heavy Vehicle National Law continue to progress, the ATA must be prepared to respond to the impact that they will bring to the industry. The National Transport Commission proposed several changes to penalties for offences under the HVNL, with many fines increasing.
The ATA had previously argued for fines related to fatigue and record-keeping be reduced, aiming for an education over punishment model for truck drivers and operators.
Ministers had a meeting in September 2024 where they endorsed 12 changes to the HVNL, covering areas including unfit driving, mass and length increases, simplifying work diaries and a National Audit Standard.
The ATA will be continuing to hear from industry and discussing the proposed changes with lawmakers.
“I think all these things are a step in the right direction,” Mark says.
“When you’ve got any significant change that’s reliant on each state agreeing, it’s always going to be difficult.
“I’m a great believer in continuous improvement, and I think the regulatory framework, particularly associated with fines, still needs more work. We have to realise that we have to do it in a constructive way that provides evidence for people on why we should make the change.”
