Opinion

Owner-drivers were the backbone of the industry, but now they’re treated with disdain

When the roadway keeps going around like you’re driving in a circle, they were called a ‘Will he no’ come back again’ in Scotland.  

Do you get the feeling that 2025 will be another industry ‘Will he no’ come back again’? 

Same initiatives, same people receiving grants, same round table discussions, same junkets, same exorbitant amount of money spent on design, impact statements and research?  For what? More drivers dying than last year, more red tape and higher fines for drivers? 

Nothing is truly bipartisan where the associations and National Transport Commission and other “interested parties” are concerned?

How can it truly be when they each have their own agendas. There is so much compromising that the basic goals of increased safety and fair and equitable trading conditions are overlooked for even more compliance obligations. 

Some might even suggest that its individuals’ egos that get in the way in many instances. There is a lot of pimping and preening from some who crow to all those that will listen that they are sole contributor that made the difference.

The reality is that there were thousands of individuals and hours of consultation to make submissions in the hope that just some of the requested changes to legislative requirements are made.  

You would be excused for thinking that many have no personal relationship because if they carried on personally like they do in a business relationship in the transport industry, it wouldn’t last for long – unless you were made of millions of course… lots can be gotten away with if you have enough money. 

Owner-drivers (OD) were the backbone of the transport industry for years and now they are treated with disdain. Blind Freddy can see at every turn on the road, they are making it harder for an OD to sustain a business. This phenomenon is not just in Australia, it’s worldwide.  

We teach our children to stand up and fight for what they want and their rights, passively or aggressively if necessary. What’s happened to the industry? 

We have had a few individuals that have joined or created organisations over the last 20 years, but for whatever reason they’ve been turned and spurned by many. Is that an ego thing too? If it is, is it on behalf of the individual or the organisation that doesn’t want to upset the proverbial apple cart. 

Grass roots are grass roots and that’s where the fight needs to start and finish. There are plenty of legends on social media – just ask them – that seem to have all the answers, but often those answers don’t take into account the challenges faced by others in the industry – individuals and businesses, large and small.

It doesn’t take into account fluctuating business needs, drivers or business owners who don’t care about the equipment but expect to be paid top dollar despite putting in the bare minimum.  

A wish list for 2025 by Jodie Broadbent and published in a recent Big Rigs column outlines the stupidity of ‘national not being national’ when it comes to lifting defects. The lunacy of that alone makes you want to spin right round and no’ come back. 

How do we get all the bureaucratic red tape, ever-increasing fines, over-the-top safety initiatives, insurance company requirements, walking egos and dogmatic approaches to stop?

How do we get off the “will he no’ come back again” in 2025? 

One thing about we BNHs – we support our driving partner and will never have them spinning in circles. 

They will come back but there will be ‘no’ come back again’ on our watch. 

  • Bored Neurotic Housewives are a passionate group of truckies’ wives and partners doing their bit to lobby for positive changes in the industry.

4 Comments

  1. I was constantly being mucked around loading three trips a week to Gladstone Rockhampton and Yepoon delivering polypipe. Tuesday and Thursday was 9am load time and Saturday morning was 5am if possible to comply with my 24 hour break. To get the job done most trip I dropped off a lot of the load in Rockhampton to deliver even though I was on a 14 hour diary.
    Many times I didn’t leave the yard till mid afternoon.
    My wife was concerned about my fatigue management as was my boss. She rang the operations manager and he said she was an ‘insignificant other’ and hung up. I gave her the national transport managers number. He had no idea how she got his number. She said who do you want on your doorstep first? Transport Department? Work Health and Safety? Fair Work Australia? He said he would rectify the bullshit immediately.
    Next load was all picked, packed and processed and I was loaded immediately at 9am! That lasted about 2 months before I was banned from every one of their sites for being within 3m of a moving forklift! Guess who the significant other was behind that?
    I continued delivering their polypipe until 2019 when my boss closed his business. He would load a trailer and I would deliver it. Everyone in the yard and the office knew I was still delivering their products!
    Those doing.that run now take 2 days or more to do it. The driver’s are put up in a motel every night. I slept in my bunk every night except Saturday.

  2. Nhvr can’t do anything right just look at adoubles speed limit 90 yet a a trains is 100 road trains in Western Australia the Northern Territory and parts of south Australia can do 100. It is so deadly doing 90 in a 110 zone when everyone is going at least 10 kilometres an hour faster no one is patient the amount of near misses I have had since Christmas is out of control. And there is no reason why a doubles should not be allowed to do the speed limit and no one can explain why they can’t. But it has a lot to do with the big mobs the more they can disadvantage the smaller fellas the less competition they have. No different to fuel prices the big mobs pay half the price for fuel the little blokes pay so you are allready at a disadvantage

  3. The transport industry is the only industry that I know of that is over regulated, abused, harrassed, vilified, and under appreciated by a thankless country who couldn’t give a rats backside what happens to truck drivers just so long as there is milk for the breakfast cereal and coffee or tea in the morning.

  4. Until this industry sticks up for itself as done years ago, nothing will happen. What this country needs is no trucks on the road for a month…. until the big wigs pushing pencils making up BS fines and rules pull their fingers out, chase the big people running businesses and fine them instead of drivers, up the load rates, lower costs and give us parking bays, decent facilities to shower and get proper meals again, no trucks move… watch how fast the the public’s anger towards the nhvr etc gets a reaction. No longer is the local shops to get their food and goods, drive out to the country every weekend to get your food or help fix a broken industry with the thugs at nhvr who dont care about safety, don’t care about drivers, only care about revenue raising for politicians. Our roads are crap, our facilities are crap….let these nhvr have a long drop at their departments, no running water and no shade for their lunch break. We needs to go back in time to the 80s and early 90s when drivers actually stuck together… I no longer drive, I had a gut full of the BS throughout the industry. We won’t survive these thugs getting away with creating massive fines for drivers following orders from big wigs if drivers have their hands under their bums doing nothing about it. Either ban together or stop your whining about massive fines that don’t match the crime of spelling stupid towns wrong.

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