The police should issue a defect notice to the driver of any truck found travelling on the flat at more than 100 km/h, Australian Trucking Association (ATA) chief executive Stuart St Clair said recently in response to media allegations about truck speed limiter tampering.
“Speeding is a major cause of truck accidents, and every trucking business needs to have a strong speed management policy. It’s a legal requirement, and also good business,” Stuart said.
“The police need to back up the operators that do the right thing with better on-road speed enforcement. The driver of any truck found travelling on the flat at more than 100 km/h should be issued with a defect notice because the vehicle must, by definition, have a faulty or inoperative speed limiter.
“Trucks found travelling at more than 115 km/h should be grounded until the defect is cleared.
“There also needs to be stronger chain of responsibility enforcement against customers that demand unrealistic and unsafe schedules. It’s already against the law for customers to make demands that would require drivers to speed, but the investigations are expensive and time-consuming.
“The National Heavy Vehicle Regulator will start at the end of the year. It will need to have the resources and authority to carry out these investigations and bring customers to account.
“Finally, enforcement authorities need to notify trucking businesses when one of their employees commits a traffic offence in a company vehicle. We have been arguing that this requirement needs to be included in the planned national truck laws,” St Clair concluded.
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