The Australian Trucking Association (ATA) has taken a non-partisan stance in regards to the Australian Government’s Road Safety Remuneration Bill (RSRB), saying it will neither support nor oppose the legislation because it is not an industrial relations organisation.
“The ATA focuses on improving the safety, viability and professionalism of the trucking industry, and our members include both the TWU (Transport Workers Union) and employer associations,” said Stuart St Clair, chief executive of the ATA.
“We do not deal with industrial relations which is what the Government’s bill is clearly about,” he emphasised. “It includes all the usual provisions you would expect to see in an industrial relations bill, including the right of unions to enter businesses and inspect documents.”
He went on to sing the praises of the ATA’s TruckSafe safety accreditation program, which could be perceived as an implication from the ATA that if every truck operator in Australia was TruckSafe accredited there would be no need to introduce legislation such as that proposed by the RSRB.
“The ATA will keep its focus on measures that will improve the safety of the trucking industry, including the TruckSafe safety accreditation program,” St Clair continued. “Joining TruckSafe is the best way that trucking businesses can improve their safety and ensure they comply with the road transport laws. Independent statistics show that TruckSafe companies are twice as safe as non-accredited operators.
“For the industry’s customers, using TruckSafe businesses is a simple way to deal with their obligation to take reasonable steps to prevent breaches of the speed, fatigue, and mass, dimension and load restraint laws.
“Customers can get on with their core business, without worrying about the details of road transport law. The TruckSafe tick is all the detail they need.
“TruckSafe has even been recognised as an industry code of practice by the Victorian Government, which means that complying with the letter and spirit of the TruckSafe standards is legal evidence that a business has met its obligations.”
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