BY SAM WAINWRIGHT
SYDNEY — Around 200 Transport Workers Union (TWU) members and their families attended a combined protest and service of remembrance outside NSW parliament on November 3. The action was to highlight the number of deaths in the heavy-vehicle road transport industry and to demand mandatory safety codes to protect drivers and the public.
Speakers from the union outlined the high levels of accidents in the industry. In the last 12 months there have been over 1500 serious heavy vehicle accidents, producing 171 fatalities. One third of the fatal accidents were caused by fatigue. The TWU believes that a third of all long distance drivers take stimulants to enable them to drive the hours needed to keep their jobs.
NSW Labor Premier Bob Carr took the microphone and made general statements of concern about the need for a coordinated approach by governments. He said he would raise the matter at the premiers conference. The fact that his government has cut public transport funding this year by more than 30%, forcing more commuters on to the roads was an irony that escaped him.
Following the service of remembrance, a representative of Concerned Families of Australian Truckies (CFAT), addressed the crowd. She explained that the current voluntary safety code defended by the trucking bosses was useless. The trucking bosses increase their profits by playing owner-drivers off against each other, she said, and drivers are forced to accept lower and lower job rates.
The CFAT speaker explained that in the last 15 years the average rate paid by trucking companies for a load carried from Newcastle to Melbourne had fallen from $54 to $45 per tonne. Inevitably, this means truckies have to work longer hours to maintain income. This problem has been exacerbated by the recent increase in fuel prices.
Wayne Davidson, a member of the TWU's Long-Distance Owner-Driver Committee who helped organise the recent blockades at Albury, explained that the industry also needs legislated minimum rates for jobs to prevent drivers undercutting each other and driving down safety standards.