Interesting sequel to Hume Highway accident

[Hayden1]

Originally Posted by gtxb67

because the people complaining are the ones who do not drive trucks - they have no idea on what they are talking about
they are blissfully unaware of what happens in most situations - actually no, the media reported on it, which means they know everything

That's the problem right there. It's the problem with everything. People who don't have any experience with what they are talking about seem to 'know what's best' for other people

[G6ET8U]

I love the lack of understanding on this issue with regard to rail.

Think of it this way.

Rail works as ONE train to Brisbane, ONE train to Sydney, ONE train to Adelaide and ONE train to Perth.

You are basically asking all of the transport companies to give away their competitive adavantage with regard to volume delivered at a specified time by just having them all use the only way North, South, East or West.

Yep.

Nice.

How do we get to Tasmania? Why is there is there no money in the Tassie route? Why is it serviced because it has to be?

I have very recently left the transport industry at a management level because it isn't worth the hassles anymore. The long hours, the rubbish. This is a huge part of it.

Jack

[GasoLane]

Originally Posted by G6ET8U

I have very recently left the transport industry at a management level because it isn't worth the hassles anymore.

You forgot the biggest hassle... bloody drivers

[G6ET8U]

Originally Posted by GasOLane

You forgot the biggest hassle... bloody drivers

I started out as a driver.

What got me out in the end is there is only so much blood you get extract from a stone.

Jack

[Feathers]

Originally Posted by b0son

You clearly arent aquainted with concept of context. Read a few of the other posts.

I did. You're still wrong.

[b0son]

Originally Posted by Feathers

I did. You're still wrong.

Then you've either (a) completely missed the point, or (b) cant do simple math.

[b0son]

Originally Posted by G6ET8U

You are basically asking all of the transport companies to give away their competitive adavantage with regard to volume delivered at a specified time by just having them all use the only way North, South, East or West.

They're still free to use trucks if they can do so competitively. However, competitively means standing on its own two feet, not heavily subsidised as it is now.

Rail will never get a look-in while the cards are stacked so heavily in the truck industry's favour. Relying on trucks for long haul work makes about as much sense as removing all our buses and replacing them with lots of cheap taxis.... great for the indivdiual, but not for the collective.

[Full Noise]

Originally Posted by Charliewool

Instead of taking my word, let's hear from Full Noise or GasOLane who do it for a job?

I would have loved to have commented earlier but I’ve just woken up from six days on the road (they could write a song about that) and it takes a bit of time to process a thread with so many narrow minded f-wits who know nothing about what they’re talking about.

I just don’t have the time or energy to argue with complete idiots anymore, and this thread shows that AFF has plenty of them.

Now, as a truck driver I must have my required rest break and pursue my favourite pastimes of clubbing baby seals, duck shooting and completing my teleporting machine before I jump back into my juggernaut, taxpayer subsidised, road destroying, caravan terrorising tanker so the muppets who whinge about trucks so much can have fuel at their local servo.

As a truck driver, I’m currently working on getting all trucks off the road, for the greater good, of course.

As I mentioned previously, I’m working on a teleporting machine, like the transporter room on Star Trek's Enterprise spaceship. The laws of physics may make it impossible to create a transporter that enables a person to be sent instantaneously to another location, but I’m looking at transferring freight, not people.

So all of you people who want trucks off the road, speak up and do something about it. Donate to the Full Noise teleporting machine foundation and become a shareholder in an innovative new way of transporting freight, without the need for trucks.

Donations can be accepted electronically, although I prefer cash and give give give, so we can get rid of these annoying trucks forever. Here’s your chance people, jump on the bandwagon while there are still seats available.

[GREGL]

Anyone that believes rail is a viable option for anything apart from bulk frieght is dreaming. Q Rail 20 years ago used to be reasonably popular with country customers because it was cheap and people were willing to wait the 5 days it took to get their goods. In those days shops held decent stocks on hand and only did a monthly order, if any special order came in the end user would be told it will take X amount of working days. Now everthing is based on J.I.T scenerio and they want it TODAY! You can't blame the shopowner he has to compete with the big corporates these days and service is all he has over them.
Okay so rail is the option to get those trucks off the road. In Brisbane the rail head is at Acacia Ridge, all the fresh produce, all the general frieght and whatever else they currently handle ends up here.How much extra time WILL be added to the delivery time of ALL these items because the line up of trucks to distribute will be increase by thousands per day.
They reopen the Northern rivers line N.S.W, nice . Freight from Bris. goes to the murwillumbah rail head and is onforwarded from there. this paticular train will stop at Byron bay to drop off something and proceed in the same manner all the way down the coast to sydney. Relying on trucks to distribute from there. So your running a ******** of trucks into m/bah to a schedule, imagine that scenario down the M1.
The other option is on the inland line direct to sydney, boy the end user is really gunna be happy waiting for that long.
I don't know how that would get any reduction in trucks off the road and in brisbane the rail infastructure is just not there to accomadate a increase in goods trains. The tilt train which was created to make it a quicker trip to rocky even has to give way to suburban trains, because theres not enough lines.
The crux of the matter is in OZ it is not feasible to run rail only at the moment, and trucks are the lifeblood of this nation.Who else would want to put up with the crap that goes on everyday on the road.

[new2ford]

What you guys in the road transport industry have to bear in mind in terms of competitiveness with rail is that all the taxpayer infrastructure investment that's underwritten you over the decades has been poured into roads, not rail. The rail is operating on the equivalent of dirt roads. How would road transport go if you had only single lane dirt roads to run on? So you're comparing with an industry that's operating with one arm and one leg tied behind its back.

Back to topic, all that investment has given the trucking industry super roads to run on yet this clown has manged to leave one side of a top standard motorway, get across a very wide median and kill someone travelling in the opposite direction on separated lanes. How many trains do you see doing that even on substandard, winding single track let alone a high speed multi-track railway? Adds up to the fact that it stands to reason that the rest of us road users are safer with more freight on the trains than on many times more trucks.

[prydey]

Originally Posted by new2ford

Back to topic, all that investment has given the trucking industry super roads to run on yet this clown has manged to leave one side of a top standard motorway, get across a very wide median and kill someone travelling in the opposite direction on separated lanes. How many trains do you see doing that even on substandard, winding single track let alone a high speed multi-track railway? Adds up to the fact that it stands to reason that the rest of us road users are safer with more freight on the trains than on many times more trucks.

firstly, i like how you've added a bit of humour with the 'super roads' and 'top standard motorway'

secondly, have you never heard of a car doing the exact same thing?? why the extra focus simply because its a truck? cars leave the road and kill people every 2nd day. there are way more fatals involving cars than there ever will be involving trucks!!

all i can conclude from this is you expect passenger trains to increase also to get cars off the road as well. hell, why do we even have cars and trucks and roads?? who thought up that silly idea.

[new2ford]

Originally Posted by prydey

all i can conclude from this is you expect passenger trains to increase also to get cars off the road as well. hell, why do we even have cars and trucks and roads?? who thought up that silly idea.

Well obviously you'd want better passenger service to attract people out of cars if you upgraded the rail. The XPT could have done that but was hobbled by single track and 15 chain curves. The regional express trains in Victoria do achieve that. But hey, why does everybody turn it into a black and white argument? There's a role for both modes. All a couple of posters here have been saying is that rail should be given the opportunity to increase its share and take some of the load off the roads.

There's a closed loop effect with improving road capacity. The more you expand its capacity the more users are attracted to it until its capacity fills again. It's a dog chasing its tail thing. Certainly main highways need to be improved to divided road standard and bad curves eased, but I wouldn't complain about the standard of our roads too much. You just need to drive to the conditions. The worst thing about them is when the surface deteriorates because it's pounded to death by trucks - which takes us back around the argument loop.

[b0son]

Originally Posted by prydey

firstly, i like how you've added a bit of humour with the 'super roads' and 'top standard motorway'

laugh it up. i drive that stretch of road frequently. its a damn sight better than the Sturt.

secondly, have you never heard of a car doing the exact same thing?? why the extra focus simply because its a truck?

because he's supposed to be a professional driver. in the same way you expect a sparky to wire your house correctly so it doesnt burn down, you expect a professional driver not to be killing passers by. they should be held to a higher standard of driving than mums and dads.

[Smoke Pursuit]

Theres always 2 sides to every story... I wish we could get rid of all the f-wits that drive around all day with nothing to do doing 80 - 90 on 100 speed limited highways. I have a truck licence but I rarely drive, (a few times a year), I can see the frustration of truck drivers, they are only doing their jobs. Yes there's some bad eggs out there, but show me an industry that doesn't have bad eggs? I think drivers need to be better educated with respect to trucks, they are not easy to drive, they require alot of space and time to get moving, and to stop. Most truck drivers take extra care, they know their responsibility!

As for truck drivers having a higher standard of driving, well obviously, considering they have to drive a 26 metre truck on the same roads as a 5 metre car, everyone makes mistakes, none of us are faultless..... We have doctors out there who make mistakes and cost people their lives too, and they are "professionals" aren't they?

[GREGL]

Originally Posted by b0son

laugh it up. i drive that stretch of road frequently. its a damn sight better than the Sturt.



because he's supposed to be a professional driver. in the same way you expect a sparky to wire your house correctly so it doesnt burn down, you expect a professional driver not to be killing passers by. they should be held to a higher standard of driving than mums and dads.

Got it one, mums and dads that head off on holiday once or twice a year, drive 10 ks below the the speed limit, 100 in the o/taking lane with no regard for anyone else. Push the limits of thieir concentration by doing 4 hr stints to get to their destination. Proven by the higher road toll at holiday time. It isn't the trucks that cause all the frustration travelling hwys day in day out its the mums and dads that are part of the problem. In a perfect world trucks and cars should be separated, I'm sure the truck driver would be a happy person, however there would some clowns who would believe its his right to drive in that carriageway too. Just look at transit lanes for public transport, or t3 . Oh my taxes paid for it, why should it be exclusive to that mode of transport is basically your argument. It doesn't add up.
In 25 years of dealing wit sales reps who are basically professional drivers too, it's not the trucks they complain about, it's the death defying antics of the car driver that scares them the most!

[b0son]

Originally Posted by GREGL

Proven by the higher road toll at holiday time.

the road toll isnt usually higher during holidays though.... (this has always been a bone of contention where double demerits were concerned)

[graham7773]

There are more crashes during holiday times but the per capita rate is actually less, simply because of the tripling (or more) of traffic numbers depending on which holiday period you are talking about.
Re truck crashes, the below is a quote from a NSW RTA report.
•Compared with percentage of NSW motor vehicle registrations and motor vehicle travel, heavy trucks are over-represented
in NSW road fatalities.
I have only been involved in the fringes of the truck industry, I hold a HR licence. My point would be that a number of truck crashes are simply the driver falling asleep at the wheel...
As I said in a previous post on this thread, the driver involved here was found to have been loaded with Methadone! When I was driving regularly, I was offered speed, (yippee beans) and having seen the affect of that crap on drivers I decided to stay well away from it.

[GREGL]

Originally Posted by graham7773

There are more crashes during holiday times but the per capita rate is actually less, simply because of the tripling (or more) of traffic numbers depending on which holiday period you are talking about.
Re truck crashes, the below is a quote from a NSW RTA report.
•Compared with percentage of NSW motor vehicle registrations and motor vehicle travel, heavy trucks are over-represented
in NSW road fatalities.
I have only been involved in the fringes of the truck industry, I hold a HR licence. My point would be that a number of truck crashes are simply the driver falling asleep at the wheel...
As I said in a previous post on this thread, the driver involved here was found to have been loaded with Methadone! When I was driving regularly, I was offered speed, (yippee beans) and having seen the affect of that crap on drivers I decided to stay well away from it.

Point taken, any vehicle driver under the influence of drugs is a danger to anyone on the road, and yes trucks are most likely over represented in statistics per % registrations. Has anyone done a study comparing Kms travelled in relation to % of accidents.
I'm not by any means pro heavy vehicle, it just gets up my nose when some people dump on all drivers when in fact it is a small % (very) who actually cause a accident and them advocate banning them. It is this crazy attitude that has become all to common nowadays, kneejerk reactions to a problem without a viable solution.

[sudszy]

Originally Posted by GasOLane

How would you propose getting freight from Melb to Bris ?

For freight to go to Syd from Melb it has to be containerised in melb and be at the rail terminal by 12:00 for delivery at the Syd rail terminal at about 12:00 the next day.

If it could be done quicker and cheaper (rail is MUCH cheaper than road) Toll, Patrick, Linfox, Startrack etc would be already doing this.

Rail is brilliant for bulk goods like Coal and Steel but not for general freight. All the above companies have tried sending things via rail but gone back to road.

It is true there is no way we can send the majority of the stuff by rail with the present rail infrastructure and method of funding road transport/infrastructue and I dont think anyone is arguing that case.

What people are wanting is for that situation to change(unless they drive a truck for a living) to a more efficient and safer system, yes it would take a strong willed government to do that.

[Jim Goose]

Originally Posted by sudszy

It is true there is no way we can send the majority of the stuff by rail with the present rail infrastructure and method of funding road transport/infrastructue and I dont think anyone is arguing that case.

What people are wanting is for that situation to change(unless they drive a truck for a living) to a more efficient and safer system, yes it would take a strong willed government to do that.

In the "good old days" there were rail sidings running to almost every major and even minor businesses....

I can recall Townsville had rail lines all over south townsville and even had one through the middle of the show grounds to the old linfox timber yard...

Somehow all that changed (obviously a semi was cheaper to run then a shunting loco and quieter) and it was all ripped up slowly and trucks became the major player.

[aussiblue]

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/national/...-killing-three

A truck driver who swerved his B-double into a family of three and killed them instantly had taken a "potentially fatal" dose of methadone, a Sydney court has heard.


Vincent Samuel George, 36, pleaded not guilty to unlawfully killing Donald and Patricia Logan, both 81, and their son Calvyn, 59, when he veered onto the wrong side of the Hume Highway near Menangle, southwest of Sydney, in January 2012.

In his opening statement, Crown Prosecutor Philip Hogan said the court would hear evidence of George's "naïve" drug use and driving history.

"The methadone concentration was toxic and potentially fatal," Mr Hogan told Parramatta District Court today.

"His driving ability would have been quite substantially impaired."

The prosecutor said George had taken a dangerous amount of methadone and was heavily fatigued at the time of the accident which occurred when he should have been on a scheduled rest period.
The prosecution said George had less than the standard seven hours of rest on the day of the crash, putting him at "high risk".

He had also been caught speeding the night before and had allegedly blacked out during while unloading his truck only weeks earlier.

George had also rolled his truck in the year previous to the fatal accident, the court heard.

The Logan family's remaining son, Gary, shook his head as he listened to the prosecution's evidence.

The trial will continue tomorrow when the defence is expected to make its opening statements.

Georges remains in custody.



Source: Daily Telegraph

[2011G6E]

The present rail infrastructure is fine. And I can assure you that, in Queensland at least, there's plenty of gaps in the system to allow dozens of freight trains of various sorts to be running day and night. 365 days a year.

It puzzles the hell out of us out here to see fleets of cattle and grain trucks and fuel trucks going 24 hours a day back and forwards on the highway heading out west and going back towards the coast...and there sits the massive railway network that goes all the way out west which, beside coal trains, sees maybe one or two freight trains a week and a couple of trips of the Spirit of the Outback passenger train. Very sad, and surprising that no private company has thought "Hmm...we could put a few tankers at strategic locations out west, and run one fuel train a week and do away with all those dozens of b-double fuel tankers".

Governments long ago dropped the ball here on rail transport, and if any country should have embraced rail transport and travel, it's Australia with our widely spaced towns and remote communities.

In the USA, there are dozens of private rail companies, and if you have to move a lot of stuff across the country, rail is your first choice. Yes, they have semis, but rail is the "normal" way of moving a lot of produce or stock around the place.

Australia made a big mistake long ago, especially by ripping up rail sidings and lines to individual small towns out west...and there's no real cheap way they can fix it now, sadly, leaving us stuck with highways infested with more and more larger and larger trucks that the road system simply wasn't designed for...things will only get worse.


As for roadside checks, just recently the police had a set up in our town, and pulled up every truck coming through, checking log books and going over the trucks. it was a smart move as there is literally no way to avoid them, and being set up in the middle of the day when the trucks are busiest means it's hard to pull over when warned on channel 40 (apparently cops were out from Rocky cruising the highway and if they saw a truck stopped somewhere they would check it to see if he was avoiding the stop).
We noticed a few trucks which were still sitting there the next couple of days with service vehicles beside them doing repairs, a cattle truck which had a new prime mover arrive and take over from the one hooked up to the original b-double, and a truck loaded with tyres changing several tyres on the trailers. Not exactly comforting to think these huge B-doubles are flying down the highway at 120 to 130 (yes they do...don't be naive) with faults bad enough to have them put off the road until fixed...

[mechanic]

2011G6E, agree absolutely entirely 100%.
What happens though is the heads of transport companies have lunch with the prime minister on a very regular basis and nudge nudge wink wink we're starting to lose regional rail systems.
Same story with developers, anybody been reading the media reports on the ICAC scenario in NSW ??

The very best example of this was Jack Boot Joh, "don't you worry about that."

[Road_Warrior]

Originally Posted by 2011G6E

The present rail infrastructure is fine. And I can assure you that, in Queensland at least, there's plenty of gaps in the system to allow dozens of freight trains of various sorts to be running day and night. 365 days a year.

It puzzles the hell out of us out here to see fleets of cattle and grain trucks and fuel trucks going 24 hours a day back and forwards on the highway heading out west and going back towards the coast...and there sits the massive railway network that goes all the way out west which, beside coal trains, sees maybe one or two freight trains a week and a couple of trips of the Spirit of the Outback passenger train. Very sad, and surprising that no private company has thought "Hmm...we could put a few tankers at strategic locations out west, and run one fuel train a week and do away with all those dozens of b-double fuel tankers".

Governments long ago dropped the ball here on rail transport, and if any country should have embraced rail transport and travel, it's Australia with our widely spaced towns and remote communities.

In the USA, there are dozens of private rail companies, and if you have to move a lot of stuff across the country, rail is your first choice. Yes, they have semis, but rail is the "normal" way of moving a lot of produce or stock around the place.

Australia made a big mistake long ago, especially by ripping up rail sidings and lines to individual small towns out west...and there's no real cheap way they can fix it now, sadly, leaving us stuck with highways infested with more and more larger and larger trucks that the road system simply wasn't designed for...things will only get worse.


As for roadside checks, just recently the police had a set up in our town, and pulled up every truck coming through, checking log books and going over the trucks. it was a smart move as there is literally no way to avoid them, and being set up in the middle of the day when the trucks are busiest means it's hard to pull over when warned on channel 40 (apparently cops were out from Rocky cruising the highway and if they saw a truck stopped somewhere they would check it to see if he was avoiding the stop).
We noticed a few trucks which were still sitting there the next couple of days with service vehicles beside them doing repairs, a cattle truck which had a new prime mover arrive and take over from the one hooked up to the original b-double, and a truck loaded with tyres changing several tyres on the trailers. Not exactly comforting to think these huge B-doubles are flying down the highway at 120 to 130 (yes they do...don't be naive) with faults bad enough to have them put off the road until fixed...

We used to have spur lines and sidings everywhere out in the wheatbelt here, which were progressively closed over the past 20 odd years. Liberal governments in Wait Awhile historically have not been kind to rail infrastructure. It used to be called the WA Government Railways Commission (WAGR) then Westrail, once Westrail was sold off then the rot started.

Now called “Tier 3” lines is what remains of that once expansive secondary rail network and it seems like it is an ongoing battle every 4 years to keep them open. Only lobbying by all the cockies via the Nationals in the bush here has deferred closures for another 3 or so years until someone comes up with the money to fund repairs and upgrades to them.

That said, there is no logical reason to have spurs and sidings going to every hamlet and town out here. There are still enough railheads left to avoid the need for big wheat trucks to drive all the way into the city, or Albany or Geraldton, yet some farmers still choose to do this. I think now they are putting heavy vehicle restrictions in place to force more farmers to use the railheads.

[MattSAU2XR8]

Originally Posted by 2011G6E

Why don't cops stop them at radar traps?

In the words of my nephew who's a cop in Brisbane, "Would you step out in front of him and wave him down when you ping him for speeding on the highway...?"
The cameras, from what I've heard, are a big issue...they take the photo of the trailer...unless they get a picture of the front of the prime mover itself, the company can simply say they don't know who was driving the truck pulling that particular trailer, or which prime mover was doing it. It was happening in Bundaberg a few years back, frustrating the cops as when they would visit, everyone would magically "forget" who had been pulling that trailer in the photo...

Whatever happened to the strict roadside checks of logbooks and tachygraphs (or whatever they're called now)? You used to be able to tell out here when the scaleys were set up in a big stop point just east of Dingo...from Dingo down to Rocky and from Dingo westwards inland, you would see masses of trucks stopped at the side of the road "having a sleep", or "checking the truck over" until they were gone...bit of a dead giveaway that they were all hiding something...

This issue of companies not knowing who's towing the trailer should be easily enough sorted, just put the trailer off the road until the company nominates a driver. There's no way they really wouldn't know who has the trailer - if this was the case a driver could theoretically collect a trailer, sell off the goods and sell the trailer to Simsmetal for scrap the trucking company wouldn't know who did it. Ridiculous. And if it's someone elses trailer still put it off the road and then the trucking company has to provide an alternative trailer for the owner to use, or compensation, until it is released :-)

Not that I'm a massive fan of speeding fines in general, most of which seem to be concentrating on minor transgressions to generate revenue. But if my car is 'unsafe'at 63 km/h then a semi doing 115 for example is considerably more unsafe.

[aussiblue]

http://www.9news.com.au/national/201...amily-in-crash

AAP

Broken specs, an Armani purse, a wallet. These few personal effects scattered across a southwest Sydney highway formed a grim inventory, cataloguing three lives lost: 59-year-old Calvyn Logan and his 81-year-old parents, Donald and Patricia.

"Nothing of any consequence - except perhaps for the ring that my father had put on my mother's finger just four months earlier, on their 60th wedding anniversary," Gary Logan told Sydney's District Court on Friday.

Mr Logan said the loss of his brother and his parents - killed when a drug-affected, sleep-deprived truck driver slammed his B-double into their sedan in January 2012 - haunted him.

The man responsible for the smash, Vincent Samuel George, was found guilty earlier this year of three counts of manslaughter.

Blood samples revealed the 34-year-old had methadone in his system when he veered onto the wrong side of the Hume Highway near Menangle, in Sydney's southwest, and crashed into the Logans' car.

Patricia and Donald Logan on their 60th wedding anniversary. (Supplied)

Patricia and Donald Logan on their 60th wedding anniversary. (Supplied).

"Death is inevitable in this world. But for my parents and brother to be killed so senselessly and so violently is too shocking, too reprehensible to contemplate," Mr Logan said.

"They did not deserve to die in such a horrific way."

The afternoon of January 24, 2012, should not have been remarkable.

Mr Logan's parents and brother were on their way home after a trip to Canberra to meet a loved one's newborn.

They'd planned to call in for lunch at Mr Logan's Campbelltown home.

But when they didn't show at midday, Mr Logan began sending a series of text messages that grew increasingly frantic.

Aerial view ofthe fatal collision between a semi-trailer truck driven by Vincent George and the Logan family’s Ford Mondeo car. (Supplied)

Aerial view ofthe fatal collision between a semi-trailer truck driven by Vincent George and the Logan family’s Ford Mondeo car. (Supplied)

At five o'clock, Mr Logan glanced at an online news story and saw a photograph of the carnage.

"I immediately recognised (my brother's) car. I scanned the story. Elderly woman deceased in the back of the car, two other bodies uncovered in the front," Mr Logan said.

"Location: about five minutes' drive from our front door."

What should have been a pleasant family day ended with a trip to the morgue on the other side of Sydney, and the loss of three people so well-loved that 1300 people turned out to their memorial service, either in person or via video-link from New York or Sri Lanka.

George sat with his head bowed in the dock as members of the Logan family held hands in the public gallery, entering the witness box himself only for a moment.

"If there was some way I could've went off that bridge myself, to save a family, I would have," he said.

"I never meant for anyone to get hurt."

Outside court, Mr Logan questioned George's remorse.

"Just to say it shouldn't have happened doesn't really mean a lot, does it," he said.

District Court Judge Stephen Hanley took aim at the driver's employers.

"It seems to me they must have known he wasn't compliant with his sleep requirements," he said, adding that George appeared to have made little attempt to hide his drug use.

"I just find it extraordinary that they either weren't aware of it, or if they were aware of it, they didn't do anything about it."

George will be sentenced on September 12.

© AAP 2014
New South Wales
Crime

Read more at http://www.9news.com.au/national/201...ihWgoJoFqRS.99

[DanielXR8]

Originally Posted by prydey

How about explaining your position?

[MercurySilver]

^^^ from two years ago? lol

every truck that leaves our site fully loaded is weighed (unless it has mass management) and trailer numbers are all recorded and everything is loaded under CCTV
our company covers their ***

[EA30TH]

The on topic story here is that the RTA / RMS have targeted trucking companies extensively for actions of drivers and ruined businesses. later when the accusations of the RMS and journalist are proven to be lies there are no headlines or apologies.

The headlines are all about safety but the hypocritical nature of the argument is astounding. For trucks the defect of a marker lamp or a slightly frayed brake hose is reason to run a massive sting, but the same authorities turn a blind eye to cars saying maintenance is not a contributor to the road toll.

For me the whole Cootes thing, Lennons, etc is enough to show these government people have no accountability for their actions and little regard for chasing the real reason for the incidents.

Before we get the idiots who read the Courier Mail and Daily Telegraph cutting back, I'm agreeing to throw the book at the idiot driver of the Cootes truck who ran down a hill in the high box. But that incident had nothing to do with the maintenance issue crackdown that followed which crippled a company renowned for safety. A company that has gone years without ONE SINGLE DEFECT in its main state of operation. Fact is that in a perfectly maintained truck that tanker crash would still have occurred. In the same case the crash of the Lennons truck would still have occurred.

[EA30TH]

May is use one example truckies would understand.

The authorities issued a defect to one of the companies in the news for having two brake boosters on one axle with air supply hoses that were a different length, i.e. one hose hung lower than the other. The brakes worked fine, the balance was fine. the only issue is that in maintenance the hose was cut a different length.

The operator has no recourse on the mongs that write these defects for sensationalism and to justify their overtime.