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No owner driver joy in Payment Times Reporting Bill

OPINION: For owner-drivers, the act of juggling regular bills while waiting on overdue payments will continue

 

The Payment Times Reporting Bill has now passed through parliament. You may not have noticed, because for owner-drivers the bill offers no significance.

This was an opportunity for the federal government to fix one of the most common bugbears in our industry by enforcing 30-day payment terms. Instead, they’ve passed a bill that simply requires companies that have turnovers greater than $100 million – so likely only around 3,000 companies across Australia – to report their average payment times twice yearly.

The bill is not worth the paper it’s written on. However, what is worth noting – for when elections come around – is that the Liberal and National parties voted against amendments put forward by the Opposition that would have secured 30-day payment terms, and fines for late payers.

This is the second time the LNP government has forcibly denied us the right to 30-day payment terms, after first tearing down the Road Safety Remuneration Tribunal in 2016, which enforced such terms.

We are constantly fed lines from these politicians that they’re for small business. They tell us that they will stand up for owner-drivers when no one else will. But they’ve proven time and time again who they really stand for – the big end of town. Even when an amendment to this worthless bill is put in front of them that will actually offer solace to owner-drivers while simply pushing wealthy companies to pay what they owe, they’ll vote against it to protect their rich mates.

This ‘name and shame’ game they’ve instead passed offers nothing to owner-drivers struggling to stay afloat. What difference will it make to a driver who can’t buy fuel for the next run because he hasn’t been able to pay off his credit card from the last? He already knows that it’s because the company is late paying him. He needs the company to be held to account, not simply to report the late payment in a few months’ time, at which point the driver may well have gone out of business.

Waiting game

Most of us already know who the bad payers are. We also know who will push us to meet unrealistic deadlines, and whether they’ll pay us enough to turn a profit. We are always weighing up whether a job is worth the wear and tear on our trucks or the risk to our safety.

I have, over the years, built up a circle of operators I trust. I have come to realise that if they have no work for me, I am better off sitting and waiting than using my working capital to pay off the debts of wealthy clients until they decide to pay me what I was owed months previously. But not everyone has that luxury – especially younger drivers entering the industry who haven’t the contacts or experience to pick up good, safe work.


TRANSPORT INDUSTRY HIT HARD BY LATE PAYERS


The worst of it all is that late payments hit those who can afford it the least. Drivers forced to accept jobs from clients who will leave them hanging are unlikely to have the capital to sustain the delays. They’re stuck in a vicious cycle – unable to buy the fuel for the next job until they’re paid for the last. Meanwhile, insurance companies and banks care little if you haven’t been paid. They still expect their monthly payments to be met or else suddenly you’ve lost your insurance and can’t work anyway.

Labor Senator and former national secretary of the Transport Workers’ Union Tony Sheldon addressed this issue in parliament. He said: “Small business cannot afford to miss payments to their suppliers. Delays can put them out of business, while the clients – the ones that have the market power and supply chains — can do what they want. Transport companies are not price makers; they are price takers. They are at the mercy of the client’s gross economic power.”

Timetable pressure

Once again, the LNP government is giving cashed-up companies an easy way out, while piling all the responsibility onto owner-drivers. The longer they refuse to hold rich clients to account, the more drivers will be forced to accept late and low payments, and pressure to speed or drive fatigued. We know that this is a major cause of the high death toll in our industry, the deadliest in Australia. So why is the government refusing to do anything about it?

When it comes to wealthy companies, the government is content with simply asking them to be honest about bad behaviour, with no consequence for such behaviour or its impact on others. But when it’s truck drivers, we can be parked up on the side of the road watching our deadline draw nearer while our truck is searched for any small reason to issue us a fine.

My message is this: next time you find yourself paying the debts of the clients out of your own working capital, you know who’s to blame.

*Frank Black has been a long distance owner-driver for more than 30 years. He is the current owner-driver representative on the ATA Council.

 

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