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Roads turning to ruin

It’s time that the taxes and fines extracted from the trucking industry went into fixing our roads

 

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I have been asking the Queensland Department of Transport and Main Roads (TMR) to fix a bit of road south of Aratula and another at Yelarbon for over four years now. My last complaint drew a surveyor out who watched trucks go over the savage dips south of Yelarbon. I was told “it is bad but there is no money till next financial year”.

I am sick of waiting. A big part of this column will be going to the Queensland Transport Minister, the opposition transport person, TMR, the Queensland Trucking Association and the Warwick Daily News.

We are, it seems, more compliant than we have ever been. No one I know now runs two loads on one truck. The overloads are minimal and normally a mistake rather than a deliberate attempt to earn more.

We are given a mass allowance, not a tolerance, of 250 or 500kg depending on the group or the weighbridge and yet the bumps above are all over 2g impact into the truck and trailers and the driver, let alone back into the road. The Newell Highway is full of others like them too.

 

Duty of care

The road is our workplace yet it is still not recognised as such. We are told to be safe, to operate safely, to manage our fatigue (but without enough and/or suitable rest areas let alone toilets) and yet we are expected to drive on roads that are not safe, or are not getting fixed in a reasonable timeframe. I do not expect to be able to ring up today and have a road fixed tomorrow, unless it is very dangerous, but road authorities do have a duty of care to us as road users.

They have large networks of roads and cannot be expected to know about every dip or failure that occurs across possibly thousands of kilometres of roads. However, once they are told, they do have that duty to act and inspect and repair if needed within a reasonable time. We need to report what we see and feel because we feel it first, more than car drivers do. And car drivers are far less likely to report it.

We need to help road authorities be aware, as again, it could be miles from anywhere and they do not have crews covering every road every day. That would be a waste.

We do not have a national road standard and I aim to have one in place for three reasons:

  1. We are a national and cross border industry and our roads need to keep us safe, not make our job even more dangerous than it already is, let alone try to destroy our equipment
  2. Currently as above, I have done my part to report a number of sections of road (and this is not just Queensland, other states have similar bad bits of road and all must be a part of this) and the roads are still not even touched, let alone repaired to a safe standard. These impacts, irregularities and failures should not be there and should certainly not be allowed to remain for years on end until they contribute to a crash and or a death
  3. The authorities and the road builders are not held to account for bad roads, bad repairs, nor the damage to our drivers and trucks and trailers, yet they are all more than happy to fine us and defect us for things damaged by poor roads.

 

Road warranty

There must be a change and some balance brought to bear. I recognise we cannot have perfect roads everywhere, we do not have the population and we have a large land mass. But we must have a national standard that will see road authorities and those who build and repair the roads give us good value, improved safety and, if you like, a warranty on that work. Again, I am not an engineer, just one of the poor saps who have to live and survive on our roads.

We need a national standard as a break point that means a road which does meet the standard must be repaired in a timely manner. If a road is built or repaired, it must give good life or be fixed under warranty.

We are being asked to pay more for the roads we use, yet we have already been paying. But that has been going into general revenue for years instead of the funds going into roads. Now we are being told we must pay ahead, but my view is we should not pay a cent more than we do now until we have a national road standard and a means to ensure our roads are safe for all.


Hannifey takes trucking message to the masses. Read here!


Cars do not feel or cop the impact trucks do and that is why we currently pay a tax on fuel and substantial rego costs to cover the wear and tear caused by trucks. But that must work both ways and, from where I sit and bounce and bang along the road, not only are we being ripped off, we are being both charged and then not given value in return. What do you think?

Car drivers use our roads for work and play, visiting and having fun. With the exceptions of events like Convoy for Kids and the like, we use the roads to deliver to all Australians, the things they need to have a life and survive. We do not go to visit grandma in our big truck; we are supplying her food and medicines, her clothes and the fuel you use to visit her.

Yes, we are earning a living and surely you do not begrudge us that. But it is work, not play. It is for your benefit and the more those costs rise, the more it will cost you to live anywhere but the major cities unless you can grow all your own food, make your own clothes, create your own fuel and car parts.

These are all things you expect delivered now for you to use. Can you live without us?

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