RMS boss wants industry to work with NSW road authority to target rogues that continue to flout the law
By Brad Gardner | March 12, 2013
New South Wales is planning to target its roadside enforcement activities at known trucking offenders in 2013 as part of the next stage of a campaign to improve compliance with heavy vehicle laws.
NSW Police and the Roads and Maritime Services (RMS) joined forces last year in a number of highly publicised campaigns to enforce speeding, fatigue and load restraint laws.
The blitzes led to a sharp decline in road transport offences in the state, and RMS General Manager of Compliance and Enforcement Paul Endycott says the department is aiming “to take it further this year”.
Endycott says the RMS wants to target “the 10 percent” of offenders that haven’t heeded warnings from authorities that speeding, fatigue breaches and unrestrained loads will not be tolerated.
He says a targeted approach means trucking operators complying with transport laws can get on with the job without being pulled over all the time.
“We don’t want to see you if you’re doing the right thing. I don’t want my inspectors on the side of the road stopping you and delaying you. We want you to get on with it,” Endycott says.
“I suppose if we focus in on the 10 percent, either they stay in the industry and improve or, I’m sorry, perhaps they might need to find something else to do.”
Endycott says the roads department will be looking to partner with compliant operators as part of the campaign and that investigators will be working their way higher up the chain to enforce compliance with transport laws.
He says there are investigations currently underway into supply chains linked to trucking operations charged with traffic offences last year.
“Those inquiries are coming to a head. In one particular matter I’ve had two investigators working full-time throughout the year just on one company,” Endycott says.
While adding that investigations are coming to the point where authorities may be able to take action, Endycott has emphasised the need that the process cannot be rushed.
“We have to get it right because the last thing we want to do is fail,” he says.
RMS Director of Customer and Compliance Peter Wells says speeding trucks have become “a real drag on the industry’s reputation”.
“The thing that we’re really after in the long term is a professional industry with a good culture and we want people to do well and be productive but also to take safety seriously,” he says.
