Owner/Driver #328

EYES ON THE ROAD Rod Hannifey
No rest for the worthy
We have our truck stop dining facilities back, but
there’s still a way to go for adequate rest areas
THANKS TO THE government, the
Australian Trucking Association,
the Transport Workers Union,
NatRoad and the National Road
Freighters Association (and if
I left anyone out, sorry) for the
exemption allowing us to eat
in a roadhouse. I did a couple of radio
interviews too, but we would all have
got sick and far less healthy if we had to
eat takeaway for the next two months or
more. It is easy to say they overlooked us
and with the current environment, not
only it is a big ask to change the world in
a month and get it all right, in hindsight
what you think should have happened is
always better than what did.
Another group overlooked may well be
the vanners who live on the road fulltime.
With the caravan parks now closed, those
who do not have a home to go to, where
do they go? They may have travelled round
doing the fruit picking most others won’t
do – so who will do that now? So many
questions and so few answers.
BERSERK BEHAVIOUR
One long-time truck stop attendant,
having had a couple of blokes go ballistic
when they could not sit for a meal, said
they are the one per cent and you get
them in every group. He went on to say
that the vast majority of customers,
including those in cars, have shown
perhaps more respect and recognition for
his job than normal. While he said one
of the berko fellas mentioned above may
have had a bad day (and others may well
have made it even worse), most truckies
do the right thing.
Being denied toilets though must stop.
We can’t have a porta-potty in the cab like
a VicRoads fellow suggested to me years
ago, and we don’t have cabs like in the
United States for a kitchen and shower, so
we need facilities on the road.
How can anyone expect you to visit their
site, carry and deliver their freight, wait
sometimes hours to get loaded with no
facilities and then refuse you the right
to use a toilet? If they can’t or won’t clean
them for their own staff, do they expect us
to hold it for hours, or do we just pee in
the driveway or simply squat (only if you
have your own paper of course)?
(Dear editor, do we need a name and
shame list printed here or will you accept
nominees?)
Those in offices have all the facilities
they need, but simply forget about us. Why
ROD HANNIFEY, a transport
safety advocate, has been
involved in raising the
profile of the industry,
conducting highway truck
audits, the Blue Reflector
Trial for informal parking
bays on the Newell, the
‘Truckies on Road Code’, the
national 1800 number for
road repairs proposal, and
the Better Roadside Rest
Areas Group. Contact Rod
on 0428 120 560, e-mail
rod.hannifey@bigpond.
com or visit
www.truckright.com.au
“We have
a flash
system
that could
send
a tired
driver on.”
not then go the whole hog and say if you
want us to load and deliver your product,
then for OH&S reasons, we should be able
to do it under cover, out of the sun and
the wind or rain. Their workers are mostly
on forklifts or watching us get soaking
wet in the rain, but they then have the
chance to get dry or have a shower. If you
are in the dust and dirt as in some sites,
we have to get loaded and get going to
deliver their freight. Why is it so?
FULL UP SIGNS
It is good to see the Truck Rest Area
Vehicle Information System (TRAVIS)
project finally working on the
southbound section of the Hume in
Victoria. It seems like years (it is) since
we were told New South Wales would
trial one system – a phone app that only
worked for those with it. It had other
flaws, including scaring many blokes into
believing they would be captured in rest
areas and that Victoria would spend their
part of the $4 million-plus on these signs
to tell us how many spaces were free in six
rest areas.
I did ring and chase VicRoads a couple
of times over the ensuing years to be
told they were having problems with the
sensors, but now it is working. However,
what if you are travelling down the
Hume tired and you see the sign, ‘full, no
spaces’? At Chiltern particularly, when we
got all that money spent to get only one
more space in the upgrade, I have seen 20
B-doubles in there and yet the sign only
covers the 10 spots. What I am asking
again, and did at the time, are we getting
value for the money spent? I said they
should have spent that money on more
rest areas and helped save tired drivers
then, instead of now years down the track
we have a flash system that could send a
tired driver on because he read the sign,
but there was room for him.
Of course the next step would have been
to include us in the process so we actually
got what we needed, not what someone
thought we needed. We now have a set of
guidelines for heavy vehicle rest areas and
yes, we do need to get people to read and
understand them, but we need a national
rest area strategy, not a piecemeal ‘we
might build one here this year’ plan that
will never deliver what we need, to safely
and suitably manage our fatigue.
This question has been asked for years
by those with more knowledge and
skill than me. Why does everything we
need and use get designed, controlled
and unfortunately often botched (or at
the very least have less than good value
delivered) by those who will never use any
of the things we require for our safety and
amenity? Perhaps in this climate of us
being recognised as an essential service,
we can gently ask to be more included in
such projects.
50 MAY 2020 ownerdriver.com.au