Experienced river Greg Fuller rates the home comforts of Hogan’s Heavy Haulage’s Iveco Powerstar highly. Not so the industry’s inconsistent regulations.
Owner//Driver recently caught up with Hogan’s Heavy Haulage driver Greg Fuller in Adelaide where he was waiting for approval to travel to the Challenger Gold Mine. The route includes a 160 kilometres of dirt.
Greg was behind the wheel of an Iveco Powerstar powered by a 600hp Cummins Gen 2 driving through an 18-speed Eaton Fuller Roadranger. According to Greg, the truck’s long wheel base, ride comfort and excellent handling in all conditions was well suited to the road train and long-distance work being undertaken with Hogan’s.
He also enjoys the luxury that the recently purchased Iveco provides, saying that the ease of a walk-in sleeper complete with clothing hanging space, drawers, caravan size fridge/freezer, TV and ice pack made long distances and living on the road a lot less difficult.
“An ice pack should be standard equipment in all vehicles running interstate,” Greg says.
Although he has worked for much of his life in the construction and mining sectors, Greg comes from a family of long distance heavy transport drivers. His father drove the Sydney to Melbourne run for Panucci Transport in the days when trucks were still running on petrol, and both of Greg’s brothers are heavy transport drivers.
Industry issues
Hogan’s Heavy Haulage, a family company business, is based in Wyong, NSW. As far as Greg is concerned, the company ticks all the right boxes.
“All the equipment is late model and well maintained,” Greg says. “Drivers are called each night to enquire about their welfare and to ensure they are not fatigued and have had a quality feed and somewhere quiet to rest.”
Greg, however, is less than enthusiastic about the industry in general.
“The rules and regulations governing the industry nationally seemed to have been drafted by lawyers and bureaucrats who have little understanding of how the industry operates in practice,” he states.
“This, combined with the inconsistent state laws applying to the industry makes compliance overly complex and leaves drivers at risk of breaching regulations that vary from state to state.”
Moreover, Greg would like to see rules and regulations simplified and made consistent across states and for those regulations to be widely advertised on company noticeboards, in roadhouses and in industry publications.
Some of his main concerns include the need in South Australia to have a current doctor’s certificate in your possession when driving a road train from Adelaide to Port Augusta. Another involved speed variations from state to state, with Greg citing the example of an oversized load being able to travel at 100km/h in NSW but only 90km/h in Queensland.
Greg also mentions his experience with having low loaders with multi rows of tyres needing to have one row of tyres lifted in Queensland.
“These types of inconsistencies make little sense and only served to catch drivers out when operating across different states and jurisdictions,” he says.
Work diaries
The other matter Greg is passionate about relates to work diaries. He suggests those who develop the work diary system do not fully understand sleep patterns and driver needs.
“Drivers are being forced to sleep when not tired and drive when weary, with no consideration being given to shift patterns or rotating shifts used so effectively in other industries,” he remarks.
An example that Greg reflects on was being in the position of being forced to either sleep in the truck or breach the rules when only a very short distance from home. Also, to assist with driver’s frustration he suggests that signposts indicating the name of the truck parking bay need to be installed at the exit point of all bays.
However, while Greg is philosophical about the positives of long distance driving, other than the freedom of the open road, he says the long-term pain of enduring the road works on the Pacific Highway was now really starting to pay off as more sections of the dual lane highway are being opened.
Photography: Peter Schlenk