Owner/Driver #328

WILKIE’S WATCH Ken Wilkie
What price AFM?
Will enforcement officers be up to speed on who is
AFM compliant and who is the rogue?
INTERESTING TIMES! I received a
notice from Queensland Transport
advising that I am to undergo an
appropriate medical to renew my
licence this year. Yes, that has been
a yearly requirement for the last 23
years. And it was that medical that
found I am diabetic. Good, but the yearly
medical did not reveal that I was a drop
dead candidate from heart issues. That
was only revealed by a stress test prior
to walking Kokoda.
The stress only indicated an issue –
but it did prompt further investigation.
And I have walked the track twice since
my bypass.
In Owner//Driver’s April issue
regarding diabetes (page 33), I don’t
recall any reference to stress as being a
risk factor. However, in my experience,
stress is also very much a contributing
factor. Stress creates a fight or flight
mental reaction which in turn impacts
on glucose release.
Frequent road side interviews have
always caused me stress – not being a
confident person and being nervous
under interrogation – and the blood
sugar rises. Frequent interactions with
enforcement with nit-picking and
serious monetary consequences for
what I’d consider to be frivolous issues
– in my case – have taken a toll on my
health. I was once advised not to make
a hobby of my health. Well now it has
become a bloody obsession.
FACILITIES LOCKOUT
On toilet issues: these days as a
subcontractor I have to bite my lip far
more than in days past when I was
prime contracting. I’ll coin a new term
– sub customer. I have call from time
to time to deliver or collect goods from
a customer of my work provider. These
people have to rely absolutely on road
transport to conduct their business.
This conceited, obnoxious organisation
point blank refuses truck drivers any
access to their toilet facilities. They are
big on driver safety but the health side
is completely missing.
Employers and companies are subject
to legal consequences if they are found
to breach safe practices. I haven’t heard
of any being hauled over the coals
for breaches of health-related issues.
Racial discrimination? How about
occupational discrimination!
Interesting times: I had a phone call
from my federal member of parliament
the other day. What was my experience
with access to shower and toilet
facilities? Hey, we’re now an essential
service and they care for us. I have to
say my federal bloke is one of the good
guys. He has always supported me in
my endeavours. To get recognition from
the general media though is something
different. Let’s not stuff that up by being
obnoxious ourselves. Who was the idiot
who abused service station staff doing
what they thought was the right thing
under the new laws?
It has been difficult for all to
understand what is in and what is out
with so much uncertainty across the
board. While we in the industry have
always recognised our service to be
essential, we must never let the rest of
society forget that road transport is on
that list. And more so, we must never
defecate in our own nest.
AFM OFFER
I received correspondence from the
National (that is not national) Heavy
Vehicle Regulator (NHVR) the other
week. The correspondence was in
regards to offering operators an
option to take up Advanced Fatigue
Management (AFM). Thanks for the offer
KEN WILKIE has been an
owner-driver since 1974,
after first getting behind
the wheel at 11. He’s on
his eighth truck, and is a
long-time Owner//Driver
contributor. He covers
Rockhampton to Adelaide
and any point in between.
His current ambition
is to see the world, and
to see more respect for
the nation’s truckies.
Contact Ken at
ken@rwstransport.com.au
"I support engine-off
cooling but there needs
more thought on what is
acceptable."
and I accept that I am a wet blanket, but
somebody has to offer food for thought.
Most other persons are so engrossed
with sucking up to bureaucracy that
they are too frightened to stick their
heads up.
My concern is with what is being said
in providing this avenue to greater
flexibility. I have an inherent difficulty
with the idea of any government
instrumentality playing any role in any
private enterprise competition balance.
To promote AFM as being a means to
gain a march on your competition just
does not sit well with me. A nominal
fee? My dictionary describes nominal as
“small in relation to real value”.
One of my friends spends a week
wandering around north Queensland
doing sometimes oversize and at others
multiple trailer work. The oversize is
time consuming owing to daylight-only
requirements and there is a lot getting
around with the multi trailer stuff. He
sometimes finds himself back on the
Darling Downs at the end of his six
days. A couple of hours on the seventh
day would have him at home with all
those advantages. The NHVR’s “nominal”
fee plus the thousand dollars or more
for audits?
While I detest on-road interrogation
– it’s an insult to my professionalism
– if we are going to see a rash of AFM
operators, who is going to tell the
enforcement brigade who is compliant
and who is the rogue?
I have a friend who jumped ship
from any organisation that has PBS
accreditation – prescribed routes
and the like – because the principal
either couldn’t or wouldn’t enforce his
drivers to be compliant. So much for
GPS tracking.
I feel AFM is too much between the
operator and HVR (notice I’ve dropped
the N) with the driver seeming to be
relegated to the role of computer or
some programmable machine. Just
give it oil and check the water type
of discussion.
The notes talk about fitting Ice Packs.
Noisy bloody things – good for the one
sleeping but a pain in that other part
for those nearby. Of course I support
engine-off cooling but there needs
more thought on what is acceptable.
And there is talk about safety. Surely
with all the bureaucratic hoo-ha around
the current crap, one wonders how any
other system could be safer.
The accredited AFM operators will not
be able to use their approved systems
in Western Australia or the Northern
Territory. National? In spite of my
constant criticism of being subject to
roadside enforcement, I consider that a
better way to go but with more realistic
regulations.
The NRFA’s position is much more
user friendly. The industry might be
able to attract the new young drivers
it so desperately needs without the
driver persecution that is so much part
of the current occupation prejudice.
Responsible, sensible people would have
nothing to fear and the industry would
be freed of more expensive overhead
for little financial gain. Ask George
Birbeck to provide a copy of National
Road Freighters Association’s (again
the national bit is more ambition than
reality) position on fatigue.
28 MAY 2020 ownerdriver.com.au