Truckies Warn Retailers Over Roadkill

Retail giant Woolworths has been put on notice after a Queensland trucking company was found guilty of allowing truck drivers to exceed maximum driving hours

Transport workers are looking to extend the chain of legal responsibility to include major industry clients like Woolworths.

"Ultimately, it's the clients of our industry who control the time slots, rates and delivery deadlines in our industry. It's time retailers accepted responsibility for what is happening to their freight on our roads," says Tony Sheldon, State Secretary of the NSW TWU.

TWU Queensland secretary Hughie Williams told reporters that drivers were being pressured to deliver produce as quickly as possible under the Woolworths "Fresh Food People" banner.

"I know for a fact that drivers that are delivering their produce are not doing it in accordance with the law," Williams told The Australian newspaper. "When the drivers get out of their trucks at their warehouse (in Brisbane) on a Monday morning after a long drive, they just about fall down on their bloody knees."

NSW transport workers said that the successful prosecution of Harker Transport in the Queensland Magistrates Court would send "shock waves" through the industry. Harker Transport was fined $40,000 for breaches of regulations covering management of driver fatigue.

The landmark conviction of the trucking company marked "the start of reducing the carnage of truck deaths on our roads," according to Sheldon. "It sends a clear warning to all other transport industry operators and clients that their days of being able to push drivers over the edge with unsustainable demands to meeting impossible deadlines at the cheapest price are numbered."

Another landmark transport industry prosecution is already under way under NSW Occupational Health and Safety legislation.

The case involves a NSW based transport company owed by Jim Hitchcock who is being prosecuted by WorkCover NSW for failing to ensure the health and safety of his employee following a fatal accident in 1999.

"Forcing drivers over the edge"

The news comes as the TWU reveals that 30% of drivers working in the long distance industry report they are forced to resort to illegal stimulant use to stay awake behind the wheel.

"TWU members in the road transport industry across NSW are currently embarked on a major campaign collecting evidence of all other transport industry operators and clients forcing drivers over the edge," says Tony Sheldon said.

The TWU study showed that our roads are getting increasingly dangerous for truck drivers. In the period 1998-2002, 741 people were killed in truck accidents in Australia, with 14 more people killed in truck accidents on NSW roads this year than for the same period in 2003.

Driver fatigue has been identified as the major cause in almost 25% of truck related accidents.

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Last modified: Tuesday, 15-Nov-2005 20:37:36 EST