Victorian farmer Graham ‘Thommo’ Thomson has been carting bales of hay between his four lots in Condah on his tractor forks for as long as he can remember without incident.
But that all changed earlier this month when a safety and compliance officer from the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator (NHVR) happened to see the hay contractor moving two bales to help a neighbour feed sheep in the state’s dry southwest.
After checking all was clear across the Henty Higway, Thommo said he was stopped by the regulator’s flashing flights and a siren.
Thommo said the officer told him he was facing an expensive fine for carting anything on a front-end loader on a public road, but instead he would only be fined $398 for having bales on the front “not restrained”.
“I’m meant to have a load binder over them,” Thommo told beefcentral.com.
“I’ve been farming for about 50 years and I didn’t know that.
“I didn’t say anything, but one minute he says I can’t carry anything on the road and then he books me for carrying something on it that’s not restrained.
“So that didn’t make sense to me.”
Thommo said the offence recorded was ‘Driver of a heavy vehicle that does not comply with the loading requirements – MINOR Risk Breach’.
He now plans to contest the fine in court and has been overwhelmed by an outpouring of support.
A GoFundMe page set up by supporter Tim Ford from Feed Central had $2020 from 45 donations at the time of writing, easily surpassing the $1000 target for court costs.
Thommo said he will donate any surplus to support the National Centre for Farmer Health.
“Due to farmers experiencing environmental factors, such as drought and floods, I’d like any excess funds to go to farmer mental health, as we need to keep the food chain going,” Thommo said.
The NHVR told Big Rigs it is unable to comment on the case specifics due to legal proceedings.
But a spokesperson said the NHVR’s top priority is safety, and it is committed to playing its role in improving safety outcomes for the entire heavy vehicle industry through consistent regulation, education and enforcement.
“We regulate all heavy vehicles with a gross vehicle mass or aggregate trailer mass of more than 4.5 tonnes, and vehicles like tractors are permitted on the roads if they comply with jurisdictional and Heavy Vehicle National Law requirements, such as holding the correct registration, access permits and safe restraint of a load,” the spokesperson said.
“Any heavy vehicle carrying a load must ensure it is properly restrained using a system that prevents movement during transport, and drivers can use any method of restraint, provided it meets the performance standard.”
NHVR Safety and Compliance Officers (SCOs) will assess a load based on the likelihood of it shifting, falling, becoming dislodged, or making the vehicle unstable or unsafe, the spokesperson added.
“Elements such as location, traffic density, weather, road conditions and load of the vehicle all play a role in determining the compliance action undertaken by SCOs, with these factors weighed against the risk of harm to the public and driver.”
Dead from a falling load is dead. Don’t matter farmer or not.
yep the nanny state mentality has taken over.
why didn’t the “inspector” judge for himself that the load was not going to move?
perhaps education would of been appropriate in this instance,he could of escorted the load either to its destination or back to the departure point,was this done after handing out the fine as a safety precaution?
don’t be silly, the fine made the load safe to continue down the road, like every other fine they hand out
Yep. a classic case of a man with a little dick taking the opportunity for that moment of power over somebody doing his best to help out or look after his stock. The reply from the regulator is the usual spiel of safety bla, bla, bla. It supposedly trumps all arguments except logic. Bullshit but what we have become by stealth
When is the NHVR going to train their staff properly and concentrate on the issues of safety instead of trying to recoup the millions of dollars that have been spent on this farcical set up that seems to be getting worse every day with stories of this sort of behaviour?
It has to stop. This organisation is slowly becoming a laughing stock to those in the industry. I understand that safety is an issue, but after 40 odd yrs in transport, I was really hoping that the NHVR would be different than the revenue raising of the past.
Safety first. Don’t think so at this stage sadly. Train your officers to a standard, not a tally sheet. Train drivers to drive not get a licence. Stop rate cutting. Then we might have a chance.
how big was this tractor as i believe a heavy vehicle has 3 or more axles were will this attack on our farmers etc end
Someone give this compliance guy something to do please.
It is entirely wrong to hit on a farmer taking 2 bails of hay across a road. It’s not like the tractor was doing 80 kph and posing a hazard to other road users.
There seems little danger to an experienced farmer either.
Just an example of an overzealous bureau-nazi action.
He causes us all to lose belief in safety rules when they are applied with stupidity.
I hope the judge throws it out of court and awards costs against the turkey bringing the case.
there will be more and more of this stuff going on the heavy vehicle regulators will be looking to book anyone for any minor little offence because they are trying to raise money for Jacinta Allen’s and labour stuff up to try and dig them out of the red.
I’ve always said: “Give a man a badge and a clip-board, and watch the power go to his head!” Our modern society has become over-bureaucratised and under-brained. The NHVR is just like all other government enforcement agencies: raise as much money as you can; squeeze the little-guy dry. We never had this much trouble back in the 60’s and 70’s.
Most state govt are broke with Qld banking on most drivers to cough up a figure of $3000 on fines to prop treasury!!
What happened to education, a warning before a fine is initiated? And what about the Cost of Living Crisis? I’m afraid “Common Sense” has been disbanded by over zealous inspectors who might get a bonus for getting extra fines on their paddock!