Sommaire pour Issue 326 de Owner Driver

IRST THINGS FIRST. Congratulations must go to Peter Yates and his family for taking out the 2019 Owner//Driver Tranzmile Truck of the Year with their Kenworth T909. It was a close run affair with stiff competition from the other 11 contenders who were each featured in a Truck of the Month pictorial throughout the year. These included stunning trucks such as Jamie Redshaw’s 1991 Ford LTL 9000, Michael and Melissa Lake’s White 4000 and Roger Preston’s 1978 R700 Mack. Peter and Sheridan Yates’s T909, however, attracted the most votes online, earning the Tranzmile trophy. As mentioned in our December 2019 story, and again on page 22 of this issue, the T909 was dubbed the ‘Kyecon’ Kenworth, in memory of their late son Kye who passed away at age 10 in…

FATIGUE DETECTION technology is the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator’s (NHVR) next focus in its ongoing deep dive into ways to combat a scourge of the trucking industry. The regulator is to consult with industry on what safety and productivity role the technology can and does play. According to the NHVR, the latest research it commissioned by shows there are considerable safety and productivity benefits for heavy vehicle businesses using technology to monitor fatigue and distraction. The move follows an earlier finding on the performance of Advanced Fatigue Management (AFM) in boosting safety cultures and productivity. Both are part of a five-phase Fatigue Monitoring Trial to gain a greater understanding of the characteristics, performance and utilisation of a range of fatigue and distraction detection technologies (FDDTs) currently used in the heavy…

NATROAD recently presented recommendations for improving safety, efficiency and sustainability across the sector, which largely hinge on improved competency in driving fundamentals through to more emerging skills to the Productivity Commission. The Productivity Commission’s final report will help establish policies that directly affect efficiency and safety. It will help us shape industry policy on career paths and skills development as well as shining a light on the deficiencies in heavy vehicle licensing. The Productivity Commission recognises that the ability of vehicle drivers to implement safe decisions and practices is a key objective contributing to better safety outcomes. About one in five crashes is due to driver error. NatRoad supports greater recognition of the skills and competence displayed by heavy vehicle drivers which are increasingly aligned with understanding digital technology and…

TRAVELLING THROUGH roadworks on the Newell recently, I started thinking of the cost of the three groups controlling the traffic and how and why it is done this way. We will come back to signage, etc. in a bit. There were two blokes standing on the side of the road (only one needed to operate the radio, but maybe they were simply chatting or changing shift?) about 500 metres down from the stop/go lights. They had a UHF and were calling trucks approaching the roadworks telling them: “Traffic stopped ahead, proceed with caution.” Then we had the traffic light controller at the lights and he pushed the buttons to change the lights and held up the stop sign. Then we had the job where due to the dangerous nature of…

LIFE OF THE PARTY Max Jackson Sonic Timber/MGM www.maxjackson.com.au Aussie country pop artist Max Jackson left no stone unturned in preparation for her debut album Life Of The Party. Numerous trips to Nashville, Tennessee and Los Angeles, as well as touring with Gina Jeffreys honed her craft. Definitely an album directed at a female audience, Jackson offers love lessons on ‘How To Love A Girl’, but she darkens the mood on the swamp rock song ‘Jungle’. The slower ‘Time Machine’ is distinctly more pop than country, and Jackson sings of missing her parents on ‘Already Homesick’. The album’s producer, Rod McCormack, co-wrote the slow waltz-timed ‘Carnival Heart’, and there’s some nice banjo touches to ‘Billionaire’. Jackson has a clear, unadulterated voice and is an above average songwriter. CARLY PEARCE Carly…

PEAK TRUCK and componentry bodies Heavy Vehicle Industry Australia (HVIA) and Australian Road Transport Suppliers Association (ARTSA) have formed a new partnership combining their resources and expertise. A memorandum of understanding (MOU) was passed at the ARTSA AGM on February 20 and has been approved by the HVIA board. The MOU will see ARTSA become the ARTSA Institute and its sole purpose will be on policy research – “much like an independent think-tank”, a statement says. “The institute will continue to operate the ARTSA data analytics project and this data will help them service the existing customers and any new customers of that service.” The organisations have many dual members, with one of the benefits seen to be the rationalisation of member-related activities such as training, information, events, conferences, advocacy…

TRANSPORT WORKERS UNION (TWU) of New South Wales has accused Holcim Australia Readymix and, Fairfield City Council of imperilling the safety of a concrete agitator owner-driver. The union’s ire is raised especially towards Fairfield as Holcim had the driver working on a council project when he copped a traffic infringement fine from a council ranger while being parked up waiting to unload. “In the view of the TWU, Holcim Australia Readymix and Fairfield City Council have failed in their duty of care towards our member when it came to the safe delivery of concrete to a Fairfield City Council worksite,” state secretary Richard Olsen says. “Our member, an owner-driver has been driving a concrete agitator as a contractor for Holcim for 32 years with a clean driving record. “He attended…

FORGIVE ME FATHER, for I have sinned. I have no doubt that the Lord will forgive me as my sin was committed through ignorance and accident. Sure, I haven’t studied the form four requirements for oversize loads as in depth as I should have done. But my sin was purely accidental and there was no attempt to denigrate, deride, take unfair advantage of or put other road users at risk or inconvenience. Having said all that in my self-defence, I would not be surprised to get a bluey in the mail for this revelation. You see, the enforcement people of this industry have no Christian attitude of forgiveness of past sins. There is no role for the confessional box in their attitudes. Note the recent report issued by the ‘National’…

RECENT conversation has left me thinking about how important it is to be precise when discussing driver fatigue laws. A I was speaking with an owner-driver about his work diary. As we chatted, we both slipped into the casual short hand of discussing “how many hours did you drive?”. Towards the end of the conversation, the driver rightfully pointed out that really, the question isn’t how long he was driving or not driving, but for how long he was working and resting. For experienced people in the industry, this may be obvious. But, it made me realise that sometimes we assume that we are all on the same page about what a term means and so don’t discuss it more deeply. It’s important to take a moment every so often…

The National Diesel Dirt & Turf Expo is not only Australia’s largest construction and earthmoving equipment Expo; it’s also a time when the industry meets, networks and experiences a great feeling of fellowship. Australia’s disastrous fire season has seen much personal tragedy and when volunteer firefighters lose their own people in the line of duty, families are seriously impacted. This year, all proceeds from the National Diesel Dirt & Turf Expo golf day will go directly to the families of Geoff Keaton and Andrew O’Dwyer, the two fire fighters from the Horsley Park Rural Fire Service and the family of Samuel McPaul of the Morven Rural Fire Brigade who all lost their lives earlier this year. A tradition of giving Established in 2018, the Diesel Dirt & Turf Expo golf…

SEND YOUR LETTERS TO: greg.bush@bauertrader.com.au or fax: 07 3101 6619 Level 5, 451 St Pauls Terrace, Fortitude Valley, Qld 4006 We prefer letters by e-mail, but handwritten letters will be accorded the same opportunity to be published. FED UP WITH UNPAID HOURS Right, all you truckies out there; it’s time we all stood up and said what we all know is the truth. Stand up and say what’s real about the transport industry – no more mixing of words no more pussyfooting around it. All of us are sick and tired of being pushed into doing hours that we are not getting paid for and not only are we not getting paid but we are breaking the law to keep the boss happy. Grow some balls, people. Hands up who…

IF JOACHIM ROSENBERG doesn’t play poker, then he probably should. I Like, across a table in a quiet upstairs meeting room at UD headquarters in Japan late last October, he sat confident, considerate and calmly poker-faced as questions were dealt. Simple enough questions at first, but as the interview moved up a few notches and Isuzu came casually into the discussion, his manner and mannerisms didn’t flinch. Not one iota. It was much the same in mid-December when he visited Australia for a media event at the handover of a big batch of UD Quons to Linfox chairman Peter Fox. Despite the pleasantries and the plaudits, there was absolutely nothing to even remotely hint that little more than a week later, massive moves would be announced. It’s questionable whether even…

TO SINGLE OUT one trucking company never seems quite fair, because one cannot ever say with complete certainty that they are the first, and there is no way to know they will be the last. With that being so, it would be sensitive to say that there is a very large and long-established trucking company that has been plying their trade up and down the Pacific Highway and hold the respect of most clear-thinking transport people. But it comes as a great shock to hear they are seeking to have their drivers accredited to take on the unnecessary and quite dangerous can of worms titled Advanced Fatigue Management (AFM). Now, not to point the bone at any one company, except to use this situation as an example of at what…

SENATOR GLENN STERLE has used the ongoing ‘wage theft’ issue to warn what he sees as supply chain predators that they will be exposed. Sterle, the Shadow Assistant Minister for Road Safety who chairs the Senate inquiry into road transport industry, was reacting to a report in the West Australian newspaper that reflected the federal government’s stated attitude to worker underpayments. “I read with interest in the West Australian that the Minister for Industrial Relations, Christian Porter, has put corporate Australia, or as I like to refer to them, the economic managers at the top of the supply chain, on notice amid more news of wage theft overnight,” he says. “After it was revealed that Coles ripped off more than $15 million from its staff, the Minister warned companies that…

IT’S IMPORTANT to focus on what’s going on in our own yard, locality, state and nation but with the globalised and changing nature of work it is also vital to engage in what is happening internationally. It’s not just enough for us to aim to raise standards in Australia. Hard won reforms are too susceptible to a federal government that is willing to sacrifice good regulation aimed at the raising standards and saving lives. Pressure also comes from wealthy international corporations wanting to set the clock back on working practices and industry standards to make big profits. This is why it is important for the international community to come together to ensure the problems in transport are solved in a globally binding way. This is how many of the big…

I HAVE NOW been on the General Council of the Australian Trucking Association (ATA) for a total of approximately 14 years. Throughout that time I have made my position clear that one man is not enough to represent the entire fleet of owner-drivers in Australia. Even if I were the most influential man in the country, neither I, nor anybody else that held the position, could speak on behalf of thousands of owner-drivers across six states, a variety of sectors and all with their own unique concerns. It hadn’t even occurred to me that my role as the sole owner-driver representative could expand even beyond that. I now find myself feeling somewhat responsible for speaking on behalf of all truck drivers in Australia, including the employees. This has been the…

THE SLOW RUSH Tame Impala Island/Universal official.tameimpala.com Psychedelic music advocate Kevin Parker, better known as music project Tame Impala, had the hard task of bettering his previous album, 2015’s Currents. But his fourth studio album, The Slow Rush, continues the high standard. The opening track, ‘One More Year’, is a tripa-thon, and he’s drifts along, seemingly aimlessly, on ‘’Instant Destiny’. Parker’s high-pitched vocals get into full swing on the poppy ‘Breathe Deeper’, although ‘Borderline’ beats it in the radio-friendly stakes. Swirling effects are abundant on soft-rocker ‘Lost In Yesterday’, and there’s a dance element to ‘Is It True’. The mood is quieter on ‘Tomorrow’s Dust’, a song about past reflections, while ‘Glimmer’ boasts a mid-paced disco beat. ‘Posthumous Forgiveness’ is one of the album’s best as Parker sings of a…

HARDEN TRUCK & TRACTOR SHOW March 15, 2020 – Harden Murrumburrah Showgrounds, NSW Presented by the Harden Historic Truck & Tractor Club. Displays of all makes of vintage, classic and working trucks, buses, fire engines, military vehicles, tractors, stationary engines and classic cars. Plus food stalls, market stalls, model trucks, dolls and quilts. Entry by donation. Free Saturday night BBQ for exhibitors who stay overnight. For info phone Kevin Sharp on 02 6386 5136 or email sharpfergy@hotmail.com or check out the club’s Facebook site at www.facebook.com/Trucktractorclub KYABRAM MACK MUSTER March 21-22, 2020 – Kyabram Showgrounds, Vic. Celebrating 50 years of the Australian R700. Featuring all Mack models and associated brands. Also open to all truck makes. Free entry for exhibitors. Friday night barbecue offered at showgrounds and Saturday night meal…