LETTER: Truckies should get danger money

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Sir,- I’m currently running THE TRUCKIES DANGER MONEY PETITION to have danger money incorporated in our award system as we have the highest rates of death for any occupation in Australia.
I have lost many mates over the past 20 years as a professional truckie and this is being funded by me and done solely by myself and my wife Tonilea.
She is a Workplace Health and Safety advisor with over 10 years experience. So far I have had around 1500 people sign my personal petition including Federal Members of Parliament. There is Facebook Group (Using your facebook Australia login go to search look up truckies danger money you will see it as a closed group. Then ask to join we’ll add you).
It has over 1000 members from every state of Australia and around the world , USA , EUROPE , CANADA.
The petition can be printed from TRUCKIES DANGER MONEY and also I have handed out thousands of petitions to truckies on my way to Alice Springs, and I’ve visited over 400 roadhouses over 4500 km so far.
I’m trying to Meet 5000 Truckies and so far am just over 3000!
My phone number is 0409619838 and my email address is steven_tonilea@yahoo.com.au
Steven Corcoran

1 COMMENT

  1. Anyone involved in the trucking sector at the front line would be able to empathise with Steven Corcoran’s comments in his letter of 25th August 2012 re a “danger money petition”.
    There is a sense of frustration among many truck drivers and owner operators who just want to get on with what they do best, moving freight and keeping the supply chain moving in and out of the NT.
    The added impost of complex regulations and often recalcitrant enforcement methods by authorities has been effective in maintaining a combative environment on the road that has been in place since trucks hit the Australian roads post WWII and they began to compete with the state owned railways who believed they had a god given right to haul freight.
    Governments back then perceived truckies as a threat hence they followed the American example and introduced log books and road tax (later replaced with a fuel tax) to restrict truck activity and make it harder to compete with the failing railway system.
    If safety had been an issue back then petrol engine trucks (many drivers incinerated while trapped behind the wheel) would have been in the spotlight and prescriptive driving hours that put added pressure on drivers to meet timelines would never have been introduced.
    The truck driver’s memorial wall at Tarcutta lists hundreds of names of drivers who have died on Australian roads and is a sad reflection on how badly we treat these people who keep this vast land supplied with goods and services, frustrated by the constant battle with over enthusiastic enforcement people, poor road infrastructure and a lack of facilities that no other worker would tolerate.
    Trucks in 2012 are of course far better than they were back then, better braking, diesel engines, more horsepower, more comfortable, but with life on the road now micro managed by authorities and southern politicians who are perceived to have succumbed to the big end of town, along with the various associations around Australia that claim to represent the trucking sector and who in reality appear to be little more than lobby groups, life is unlikely to get any easier for Steve and his hardworking mates.
    So I say good luck with the petition, mate.
    Cheers, Peter Goed
    Darwin NT

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