Like every interested group in the run-up to a federal election we are all looking for big spending promises from the next potential government to throw some cash in our direction, in return for our support over the next few weeks in the run-up to May 21.
David Smith, Australian Trucking Association Chair, has come up with some big proposals as part of the ATA’s Election Policy Charter. First thing to say is, good luck David, getting you voice heard in the cacophony which is already filling all of our news bulletins and newspapers.
He is calling for a policy reset, good word, excellent sentiment. The fact of the matter is we do need a radical change from the governments of Australia in the way they interact with, regulate and provide services for the trucking industry.
Unfortunately, as we know trucking doesn’t get much of a look-in during elections. The pollies are too busy pork-barrelling and trying to catch each other out with weasel words.
That is not to say this is a pointless initiative to put forward, far from it. Putting the safety of everybody front and centre is vital when we are looking at any possible change. Our roads, and trucks are many, many times safer than they were 10, 20 30 or 40 years ago, we have come on leaps and bounds and drastically reduced the road toll.
The next improvement in safety is going to be harder to achieve, we have picked all of the low hanging fruit. The problem is that the trucking industry has done most of the things it could do itself, safety awareness is a big ticket item at most trucking operations.
The hard yards are when we try and get people and organisations outside the industry to help get the road toll down even further. David lists some of them in the Charter.
Having one authority, the federal government, responsible for all of the major freight routes of the country would get a better and more co-ordinated outcome. With funding centrally controlled there would be none of the arguments between state and federal, where they hold each other to ransom over funding. The roads would be of a better quality and, therefore, safer.
$5 billion over ten years would go a long way to activate a paradigm shift in rest areas. Currently, the provision of decent facilities for truck drivers to get proper rest, ranges universally, from poor to terrible to nonexistent. Once a driver is fatigued they need somewhere safe to get a proper rest and they constantly can’t find one.
Government incentives and tax breaks to bring the average age of the truck and trailer fleet down, would have widespread benefits. Not only would the vehicles be safer with modern safety systems, the stimulus to the industry would flow through to the economy more generally.
When trucks are involved in an accident the level of investigation and analysis is patchy, but if air crash style investigations were mandated for the more serious events, then an independent body would be able to cut though and recommend improvements in truck or road design, or identify potential issues for the future.
And while we’re at it, how about adjusting the fuel tax credit system so the trucking industry can access the cheaper fuel everybody else is getting.
