Western Roads Federation has expressed serious concern at the on-going operational costs and impacts on driver welfare of servicing Western Australia.
In a release from the federation today, CEO Cam Dumesny said the operational costs are caused by the often chaotic nature of WA’s border entry processes and the impacts on driver welfare are created by the severe Covid compliance rules applied to drivers once in the state.
Big Rigs was alerted to the growing logistics nightmare by both the Queensland Trucking Association (QTA) and the Western Roads Federation (WRF) earlier this week.
“Given the national shortage of drivers and the growing freight task elsewhere, companies that traditionally serviced WA are now considering redeploying their transport to other non-WA tasks,” said Dumesny.
“Already a number of companies have begun to downscale east-west operations leading to rapid increases in freight rates, which ultimately means WA businesses and consumers will be paying more this Christmas.”
With WA already facing major issues with sea, air and rail supply, any loss of east-west road transport capacity will severely impact WA consumers and business community, especially in the lead up to Christmas, he added.