TRUCKING INDUSTRY AGREES ON RSRT APPROACH

February 12, 2019 Jon Thomson Truck and Bus News

The Australian Trucking Association General Council has announced it has unanimously agreed on the industry’s approach to the possible re-establishment of the Road Safety Remuneration Tribunal (RSRT).

The ATA which represents the 50,000 businesses and 211,500 people in the Australian trucking industry and has a diverse general council, which includes associations representing thousands of small businesses, elected owner-driver and small fleet representatives, and major logistics companies.

“This unified decision highlights the power of our council,” ATA CEO Ben Maguire said today.

“Through robust and respectful discussion, we reached a unanimous agreement on the ATA’s position and role on this important issue,” he said.

The meeting outcome reaffirmed the council’s opposition to government-imposed price fixing, with concerns raised about Labor’s new national policy of enforcing fixed prices on all parties in the supply chain.

“Our council agrees that everyone in the industry should be paid sustainably and promptly. We particularly support practical measures that would assist owner-drivers and small fleet operators, including mandatory 30-day payment terms,” Mr Maguire said.

“The ATA is keen to work with the Labor Party to make sure its policy approach would improve safety and working conditions for everyone, without creating a fixed pricing regime based on spreadsheets in a Fair Work Commission office rather than real world costs and practices,” he said.

The ATA General Council unanimously agreed on the need for practical safety measures including:

Mandating Autonomous Emergency Braking for all new trucks
Increasing the quality and quantity of driver rest areas, with more support for Rod Hannifey’s pioneering work on marking informal rest areas
Enabling the Australian Transport Safety Bureau to provide independent, no-blame safety investigations for road crashes involving heavy vehicles, and
Reviewing the prescriptive work and rest hours, including work and rest hour tolerances for electronic work diaries.

“The industry’s safety record is continuing to improve, including since the abolition of the RSRT, although we recognise that we still have much to do,” Mr Maguire said.

“The most recent data from the Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics shows fatal crashes involving articulated trucks decreased 16 per cent in the 12 months ended September 2018 compared to the year ended September 2017.[1]

“In NSW alone, we have seen a 28 per cent decrease of heavy vehicle fatal crashes in the 12 months to February 2019,”[2] he said.