The owner of the Mortlake Roadhouse in Victoria, Dion Symons, has won praise from truckies for a small but thoughtful gesture that aims to make their lives easier.
The roadhouse is now offering supplementary log book pages free of charge – which could come in handy for drivers who are at the end of their current log book but haven’t had a chance to pick up a new one yet, or those who have lost their log book.
Symons told Big Rigs: “It seems that all the places that sell log books, like VicRoads, operate during normal business hours, which isn’t always convenient for truckies.
“These places are also usually in the middle of cities or major towns, so it’s not easy for a truck to park there.
“I have printed out these supplementary log book pages to get truckies out of a jam.”
Symons said truckies have been asking him for years if he could start selling log books, and he’s been trying to arrange this.
“It’s a really hard thing to do outside of VicRoads – I’m trying to get that checked out,” he said.
“I have to go through the NHVR to work out if we can sell them on their behalf.
“I guess I’m just an everyday Joe Blow and they’ve got to make sure that everyone who sells log books is following the rules.”
Once Symons realised that making supplementary log book pages available to truckies would be a helpful quick fix, he printed out 500 pages and stapled them in sets of seven.
“You can only use the supplementary pages for seven days in between log books,” he explained.
“The pages are undated, so truckies are welcome to take some and keep them in their truck in case they ever need them.
“They are available free of charge at the counter, just ask!”
Symons has already given some pages out to truckies and had lots of positive feedback.
“Truckies love it,” he said. “They’ve all said how handy it will be.
“If they are struggling to get to a VicRoads in working hours, or they go through their log book faster than they think they will, it will tide them over for a few days.
“Then they can get to a VicRoads on their day off or a Saturday morning.”
The NHVR website says that drivers can use a supplementary log book page when a log book is completed, lost, stolen or destroyed.
A supplementary record can be in any format, including copies of the Daily Sheet downloaded from the NHVR website, or other written or electronic record.
Supplementary records must record all the information you would normally record in your work diary.
Drivers must notify the NHVR at www.nhvr.gov.au/contact-us within 48 hours of becoming aware that their written work diary is completed, lost, stolen or destroyed.