Well, there’s a turn up for the books, politicians are making parking bay promises as part of the federal election campaign. According to a release put out by Senator Glenn Sterle and Shadow Minister Catherine King this week, there’s $80 million planned to be spent on improving parking bays for trucks in any budget, if Anthony Albanese gets up as Prime Minister in the upcoming election.
Let’s hope this is a sign that the wheels which turn exceedingly slow in Canberra, have picked up on the fact that people in Australia have noticed and understand to a small degree, the importance of the trucking industry to the quality of their lives.
The pandemic did do one good thing, it highlighted how vital to the normal way of life of most people in this country a truck is. If truck drivers hadn’t kept the economy going, there would have been shortages of vital supplies like toilet paper, dog food and lattés.
I have emphasised many times in this column over the past few years that now is our chance to strike while the iron is hot and get some real change happening, before trucking returns to being an invisible industry and only noticed when it’s a menace on the road for car drivers.
Parking bays are an important element in any road forward for trucking. Fatigue management and an improvement in the quality of life of people in the trucking industry is the only way to move ahead.
Just as important is getting the detail right. There needs to be a clear design blueprint which all of those designing and building new facilities have to follow and not compromise. If a rest area isn’t right it will not get used and the drivers which do use it will not be rested.
The rules and regulations around the truck parking bay need to be stiffened up. If you build a facility for people driving A and B-doubles to park and rest up, arriving at various times throughout the day and night, it cannot be clogged up with grey nomads parking randomly, blocking off parking spaces.
We should be grateful there is something on the table, but let’s hope this doesn’t go the way of so many other pre-election promises.
