Delphine Mugridge, the widow of revered interstate driver Neville ‘Slim Mugridge, has scored an early win in her fight to overhaul the licensing process for foreign truck drivers.
Delphine was invited on Friday to present her online petition to SA Transport Minister Tom Koutsantonis who has committed to tabling the petition to state parliament when it resumes in early September.
More than 18,000 people have pledged their support to the cause Delphine started after losing her beloved Slim in a two-truck crash near Yalata on April 8.
Delphine told Big Rigs that Koutsantonis has also invited her to speak in parliament when the petition is tabled.
The minister is expected to announce more details of what the new licensing laws for foreigners could entail at the South Australian Road Transport Association (SARTA) conference in Adelaide on Saturday, August 3.
“They can normally come over here [South Australia] and drive on their international licence for a year, but they’re going to stop that,” Delphine said.
“The minister for transport has got all his other counterparts in the other states watching to see how South Australia changes it and then they’ll come on board. That’s what they want to do.
“They won’t be able to come in with an MC licence and just start driving the highways.”
Delphine hopes Slim would be proud of her fight to leave a lasting legacy in his memory.
She said that if there had been better protocols, he would have still been here to celebrate their 10th anniversary last week since rekindling their teen romance.
SARTA executive officer Steve Shearer, who also meet with Koutsantonis last week, applauded Delphine for her fight for change.
“We’ve been working with Minister Koutsantonis, and our colleagues around the country, for some years [on this issue] and the horrible triple fatality at Yalata certainly provided some added impetus within government.
“It’s safe to say that our understanding is that the government acknowledges that there is a serious issue with some drivers operating on overseas licences and have put in a lot of effort into working out what they can do about it.
“The challenge is that with licences being issued by each jurisdiction, one jurisdiction can’t on its own solve the problem nationally.”
Shearer stressed that the need for changes aren’t aimed at those operators who do the right thing and train and manage overseas drivers “properly”.
“The problem is the individuals who do the least that they can and take advantage of whatever the law allows them to do – that’s the gap that we have to close.”
Delphine’s petition calls for “all truck drivers take the necessary timeframe from car licence” to the following:
· Held a car licence off “P” plates for 12 months.
· LR Light Rigid for one year
· MR Medium Rigid must have held a class “C” for at least 1 year
· HR Heavy Rigid must have held a class “C” for at least 2 years or class LR or MR for at least 1 year
· HC Heavy Combination must have held a class MR or HR at least 1 year
· MC Multi Combination Must have held a class HR or HC for at least 1 year
But Shearer would like to see the SA government go even further and implement competency requirements, rather than just time restrictions.
“This is the problem with the current rules [for all drivers, not just foreigners]. We need to ensure that there are proper competency-based processes in place and shift so we actually get that outcome.”
Shearer would also like to see a guide published to help overseas drivers bridge the cultural divide.
“No matter what country they come from to understand things like the language that’s used by drivers in trucks in Australia, and I don’t mean the sort of slang, I mean, things that we take for granted, like if I get on the radio and say, ‘come round’, you need to know what that means.
“That sort of operational language that they use out on the road to communicate between trucks, but also teach them about the culture of safe driving on Australian roads.”
We need to take the testing of licensing back off the driving schools and put it back in the hands of the state based organisations ie Queensland roads and rms in nsw ect or the nhvr can do it nationally, or as nationally as they are, that way it’s the same Australia wide. It’s too easy to play the system while there are dodgy driving schools out there.