Instead of increasing, rates for a number of owner-drivers have dropped since the Road Safety Remuneration Tribunal was killed off, Rod Hannifey states.
Road transport safety advocate Rod Hannifey says the Road Safety Remuneration Tribunal (RSRT) issue has split the industry, working well for big companies who have always played company drivers off against subbies. And that’s to the drivers’ loss and companies gain.
Hannifey believes the intent of the RSRT was for those behind the wheel to be paid a fair and reasonable wage for the job they do, but that is not the case now, especially now.
“Some will complain rates are the same, or worse, than they were 10 years ago, yet every cost has gone up,” Hannifey says.
“Since the RSRT was killed off some have been told to take what they are offered at a lower rate than before – and some will.”
Hannifey questions who set the RSRT up to fail as it did?
“Someone knew how it would be received by owner-drivers with all the failures inherent within.
“Surely it was not all just bad planning in the delivery, and I think every single one on both sides will say the delivery was just plain bloody terrible,” he says.
“How can so much money be spent and such an outcome happen with no one to blame?
“Was the intent genuine and then it got hijacked?
“Was it planned from the start to split the industry in half and leave us all begging for a fair day’s pay for the next 20 years and, if so, who has benefitted most since its demise?”
Hannifey doubts that, with all the hullabaloo from the recent election outcome, that the industry will never get an answer, at least in the near future.
“And that perhaps is even more criminal than the screw-up that the RSRT became.
“The union struggles to represent those who do not work in a yard and who can attend a meeting and solve a problem.
“The rest of us have only the associations to support us and until such times as drivers and owner-drivers can agree to work together to solve industry problems, we will be held to ransom by those way above and far removed from the road.”
To read more, see the August edition of Owner//Driver for Rod Hannifey’s regular ‘Eyes On The Road’ column.
Photography: Steve Skinner