By: Peter Goed

Peter Goed — Fri, 31 Aug 2012 03:42:36 +0000

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

Comments on: LETTER: Truckies should get danger money

By: Peter Goed