Following advocacy from the Victorian Transport Association (VTA), the Victorian Government has extended a Ministerial Order made earlier this year which suspended the application of curfews and loading zone signs on heavy vehicles involved in the transportation of food and personal hygiene products.“We wrote to the Government in August requesting the Order be extended in order to ensure transport operators were able to provide Victorian consumers with uninterrupted access to food, groceries, household goods, medicine and other personal effects, in consideration of the Stage 3 and 4 COVID-19 lockdowns in place throughout the state,” says VTA CEO Peter Anderson.
“Since the original Order was made, the transport industry has demonstrated it can operate safely on roads that have previously had access restricted, which is a credit to the professionalism of operators and their drivers.
“We applaud the Government for heeding VTA and industry advice to extend the Order, which will now expire on 31 December 2020.”