Opinion

Getting With the Program

Mounting a Rational Argument

There was a breath of fresh air with trucking mounting a rational argument on ABC Radio this week. It makes a pleasant change to hear sensible truckie voices being able to discuss the industry’s issues openly with a presenter who was able to empathise with trucking folk.
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Getting With the Program

Promises, Promises, Promises

The trucking industry needs to make sure the latest infrastructure announcements aren’t just promises, promises, promises. The planned improvements are rational and will help trucking do its job into the future, but this is before the politicians have got fully involved.
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Getting With the Program

Reading the Future

We can all speculate about what the trucking industry will be like in the future, and we will all be wrong. There are so many different scenarios opening up at the moment – it is impossible to keep up with any of it. There’s electrification, platooning, autonomous trucks, drones, robots and monster ‘fulfilment’ centres on the horizon as we speak.
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Getting With the Program

Engaging with Trucking

It seems to be about time those with the power to change things started engaging with trucking. They can’t just continue to restrict and regulate us, hand down commandments, without engaging with the trucking industry and community.

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Getting With the Program

Don’t Park the Parking Issue

It is essential that we don’t park the parking issue for trucks in Australia. The issue of truck drivers being able to find somewhere decent to park their truck and get a proper rest is of the utmost importance and feeds into many of the other issues which are causing issues for trucking’s relationship with wider society.

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Preparing for the 21st Century

It’s about time the trucking industry began preparing for the 21st century. It’s no good living in the past, we have to look forward. A couple of initiatives announced this week suggest there is some movement in this direction and we are looking forward, as opposed to looking back. One of the demographic challenges which faces Australian society, generational imbalance, is even more of an issue in the trucking industry. A large proportion of the people working as drivers in trucking are baby boomers, and they are getting older every year. Large numbers of them will retire every year. Not only will all of that experience and knowledge be walking out of the door, but the number of young people starting their careers in the industry is much lower. Hence an imbalance.
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Banging Your Head Against a Brick Wall

For many advocates for the trucking industry it can often feel like you are banging your head against a brick wall. There are some important points we need to get into the public domain and be brought to the attention of those in power. There are also plenty of barriers in the way of anyone trying to speak up for all of the people involved in trucking. The industry faces a number of challenges, all of which have conspired to make it very difficult for the correct information, in the right context, to be laid out in front of people outside the industry.
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The Meat in the Sandwich

The trucking industry is very much the meat in the sandwich, in the ongoing arguments about charges by the big stevedores. So called infrastructure charges are simply price gouging by the very small number of powerful national companies, who are running our ports, to maintain their margins at the expense of transport companies already running on much thinner margins. After the latest announcement this week, the Victorian Transport Association is urging its members to pass on the charges to their customers in order to make the end customer pay for the increased cost for the truckies at the sharp end. Easier said than done!
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Complex Answers to Complex Questions

Some of the issues facing the trucking industry require complex answers to complex questions. There are no black and white solutions available, we need to be smart about the issues and even smarter about the way we solve them. What we are talking about has been sparked by the decision of the authorities in NSW to organise a blitz on all truckies across four states in response to a spike in fatalities in accidents involving trucks in NSW.
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Modernise the Fleet

The increased fatality figures in New South Wales have led to calls to modernise the fleet. The shock of the steep increase in deaths in 2017 has provoked a reaction and a number of different solutions have been put forward, including fleet modernisation. First of all it was Michael Byrne, Toll CEO, in his open letter to the Prime Minister which called for a number of changes. This has been followed by a call from the Truck Industry Council also citing the high average age of the Australian fleet and the corresponding lack of modern safety equipment.
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