Owner Driver – August 2019

36 AUGUST 2019 ownerdriver.com.au

WILKIE’SWATCH Ken Wilkie

KENWILKIEhas beenan

owner-driversince1974,

afterfirstgettingbehind

the wheelat11.He’son

hiseighthtruck, andisa

long-timeOwner//Driver

contributor.Hecovers

RockhamptontoAdelaide

andanypointinbetween.

Hiscurrentambition

istoseethe world, and

to seemorerespectfor

the nation’struckies.

ContactKenatken@

rwstransport.com.au

Looking at Australia’s road transport industry from

across the seas places it in a whole new light

Fresh view from afar

M

Y REQUIRED READING for
this month is Outback Cop
by Neal McShane. The story
is set around Birdsville and
relates to Neal’s time being
the Queensland Police Force’s
only representative in the
area – a time spanning 10 years.
I’m particularly impressed by Neal’s
acceptance of the fact that heavy vehicle
transport driving is a legitimate and
valued occupation. Not more important
than others but equally as important. I’m
also impressed by his attitude to those who
make errors of judgement in their choice
of decisions as opposed to those who make
deliberately bad choices.
As I said in the July edition of Owner//
Driver, I share Rod Hannifey’s concern in
regard to the difficulty situation imposed
on drivers who wish to respond to the
National Transport Commission’s (NTC)
papers on the revision of the national
heavy vehicle law. The difficulty in finding
the review paper is something akin to
finding a needle in a hay stack.
I’ve no doubt it is somewhere about and I
accept that my online skills are very much
lacking. But, hang about. Computer skills
are not a need-to-know subject in the world
of truck driving. A good many of those of
us piloting the big rigs are getting close
to our use-by dates. That is to say we were
about long before the modern computer
came into being.
In addition, sitting at a stationery place
searching through some weird piece of
technology to find what one is looking
for in the eyes of many truckies is a
waste of time. I’d suggest to readers that
a significant part of a truckie’s psyche
is to get in, get the job done and move
on to the next matter on the noticeboard.
Even when one does stumble across the
article being looked for, it is usually
couched in language that makes
comprehension difficult.
It has even been suggested to me that
there has been an effort made by those
who design this stuff to make reading and
responding difficult to deny us the real
opportunity of making submissions.
I have to say I share that view – for no
other reason than any person wanting
to get an informed view would go to
considerable lengths to ensure rank
and file participation.

VIEW FROM AFAR
Somewhere lately in my computer
travels I found reference to the issue
of the requirements being placed by the
Western Australian government
on those of us trying to conduct a

transport service from the east to west.

Apparently the value of that business is

rated at about four per cent of the total.

Consequently it is considered too small

to warrant much effort to rectify. Not an

attitude that carries much weight with

those who stop us en route.

I’m sorry but at any figure it goes against

the grain with me. Firstly, the Australian

Constitution demands free trade between

states. Secondly, there is the matter of

competitive neutrality which is supposed

to be government policy. My understanding

of a neutral competition policy means that

no business has a competitive advantage

that is brought about via regulation or

government policy to give one business a

competitive edge over another.

The current method of recovering

registration fees by means of a lump sum

charge per vehicle must be judged to be

not neutral, or not a level playing field. One

does not have to be Einstein to calculate

that low kilometre and light load operators

substantially subsidise the high kilometre

and heavy load operators. Needless to say,

those who are currently in receipt of what

is akin to government largesse will not

raise too many concerns.

While giving up my valuable holiday

time trying to find the NTC’s paper on

the National Heavy Vehicle Law (NHVL)

review, I did come across what I think is

the Australian Trucking Association’s (ATA)

submission on one of the issues being

canvassed.

There is talk about removing some

issues from the requirement to go through

parliamentandinsteadhavingthem

dealt with by the executive. Again, this

method will further remove politicians

from having input to legislation and more

importantly, reduce the value and need for

operators to have face to face contact with

their elected member.

The ATA has stated that there would be

consultation. Would that consultation be

along the same lines of the consultation

that took place prior to the NSW Roads and

Maritime Services (RMS) deeming hard-to-

read number plates as being unregistered

vehicles. Or the same imposed difficulties

as applied to the current fatigue legislation

review. The Road Safety Remuneration

Tribunal would have become reality with

all its non neutral competition elements.

It was only when concerned industry

members were able to raise the interests

of politicians that prompted them in some

cases to reverse their previous attitudes.

TRAUMA COUNSELLING

Of that horrible crash in Queensland

some weeks ago resulting in the deaths

of four kids and their mother, at no time

did the media I saw suggest the trucks

were culpable. The question I ask is, what

provisions are in place from an industry

perspective to provide counselling for

operators who have suffered such trauma?

Some time ago Doctor Sarah stated her

concern that such events are far more

common than most expect or realise.

Surely as a support tool for the much

maligned truck driver, automatically

delivered trauma counselling would

be useful? Maybe a national provision

of such a counselling service would be

more beneficial of the $400,000 bucks

recently put into the ATA’s ‘Safety Truck’.

I am sorry, as I’ve previously said that

money was more positive than negative

• but the number of people benefiting is
  insignificant compared to the need.
  The time available in the Safety Truck
  cannot possibly cover the complexity of
  driving. It is something of an insult to
  truckies that ATA officials consider the
  provision of one trailer an alternative to
  high visibility campaigning to have driver
  training adopted within the secondary
  school curriculum.
  Thought I’d include a truck picture from
  the Suez Canal. I’d reckon by the gloss,
  another owner-driver’s rig. And by the way,
  Mercedes-Benz seems to make up the vast
  majorityofprimemoversthere.

BELOW: Happy holiday snap:

A couple of Benz trucks

alongside the Suez Canal

"Light load operators substantially subsidise

the high km and heavy load operators."