Here’s my wish list for 2025. Hopefully I’ll have the chance to write about all of these being positive outcomes through the year – okay, I’d settle for just one!
- Fair fines – Truck drivers shouldn’t be fined a week’s wages (or more!) where the offence is minor. We saw an NRL player fined $850 after crashing and injuring a child, while high on drugs. If that’s the standard, then an error in a work diary should only be a warning, with education provided to the driver.
- Clear defect notices – photos, and notes about exactly where the defect is, should be mandatory to send to the registered operator. Surely, we are beyond the days of triplicate pieces of flimsy paper!
- A defect that can be cleared by ANY jurisdiction! This rubbish that VIC cannot clear a NSW defect is ridiculous. Again, surely technology can help? I mean, how about one state uses a telephone and call the other state road agency and clear it that way.
- Better roads. While I know that isn’t the domain of the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator, surely they have the ear of transport ministers (both state and federal) and again… have a conversation. This isn’t rocket science, it’s basic common decency. Our drivers and trucks deserve better quality workplaces.
- Less crashes involving trucks. Better driver training (for ALL road users, young and old); better advertising of road safety issues (like the old TAC shock advert days); more police presence targeting cars (drove to Brisbane over the Christmas break, only saw two police cars for the entire trip); and no-fault investigations that provide the real reasons for crashes.
- Jodie Broadbent is the founder of Know the Road, which provides consulting auditing and training services for road freight supply chain partners.
I wish Jodie. And I agree wholeheartedly. Fines are ridiculous for truck drivers regardless of the level of offending. Roads are not built to a standard. They are built to a price and when they fail, the builder should be made to rectify the faulty workmanship. If a truck is not roadworthy the truck is defected and possibly or probably the driver or company is fined. Where are the fines for the substandard roads? I was dine for not starting my work diary. I recorded all necessary information in my day sheet as was only doing local work. As I zig zagged my trip I honestly believed I was within the radius. At the time I had an old flip phone and no internet so I had no idea of the radius from the yard. The transport officer was smart telling me to go online and check the radius from the yard. With an old flip phone. As I recorded all necessary information he could have said fill it in mate. I had not had a single offence in 49 years! And they wonder why drivers are leaving the industry.
Tbh I’m really getting tired of worrying when I’m going to be fined despite doing everything I can to make sure I’m doing the right thing , I’m an owner driver just getting by and try hard to make sure the truck is rwc at all times despite the low income to spend on the truck , I love driving just hate the sleepless nights worrying if I’ve done everything right !!!!