Archive for the ‘Letter of the Week’ Category

Despite all the ‘meejah’ hype, especially from our old favourite, the telerag, leading the cause for Nathan Rees to fall on his sword and take his ‘guvmunt’ with him, I have to confess, I couldn’t give a damn which jackass we have in there, as far as I’m concerned I hold them all in equal contempt. (Maybe that’s a bit harsh, so I’ll just respect them all equally, on a scale of 1-5, they’re all in the red).

To my way of thinking, all a ‘polly’ means to me is another stumbling block in a continuing campaign of trying to get some sense into the regulation of an industry which has proved over decades that it is incapable of helping itself or controlling anyone involved in it, at any level, while to their agencies, it is just a fatter cash cow than the ordinary motorist. So fat, that it can afford to tear apart the lives of the very people that do most of the paying, by simply taking away the right to work by canceling their licence if they pay too much toward the money tree.

In another cause, to which I am dedicated, it is the same story. They scream from the balconies of their castles about the welfare of the people and yet spend our taxes on more and more consultants, contractors, schemes and ideas, all leading to their own demise through privatization, on the premise of working toward a lower road toll.

Look, for example, at the old favourite, under a different name depending on what area of the state you are, Operation (North, South or West Roads), helping to cut the road toll.

Now this one gets rolled out every year, the same banners on the same posts, unless, that is, that they are just replacing the old banners that have been there all year and have deteriorated so badly they no longer exist. Well you may ask, how is a banner on the side of the road helping to cut the road toll and what exactly, is Operation North, South or West Roads, anyway, and what does it do?

If we get rid of the long term ‘guvmunt’, they never seem to do any more than their predecessor, anyway, and you never hear of one new ‘guvmunt’ undoing anything the other did.

Tonight, in a moment of madness, I sat down, (with a calming elixir), just as one of the current affairs put on a story about kids being forced to take driving lessons in high school…., What was that, turn it up, listen. Yep! I heard it right.

How good can this be, I thought, has somebody been reading CtoC100?

Well all the discussions were there, interviews with a parent who is also waging a campaign to educate ‘P’ Platers after losing her son, on ‘P’ Plates, even statistics on how one in eight ‘P’ Plate drivers lose their licence and how many lose the next biggest thing, well that’s how they seem to prioritize it, and then an interview with our esteemed premier.

This has got to be good even he is on the band wagon…, wait a sec…., what did he say?

And I quote, what I first thought I misheard…., “I would be more concerned if the road toll was going up, but it’s not, it’s actually coming down.”

I’ll write that again, in case I’ve got it wrong!

“I would be more concerned if the road toll was going up, but it’s not, it’s actually coming down.”
I don’t have the figures in front of me right now, and I don’t have time to dig them out, but, I am almost sure, at last count we were worse off than last year, however, in the context of this point, rising or falling is not the issue.

Again we have a case of  the ‘leader’ of the state having a problem brought to his attention, but not with just a cry to do something, but with actual meaningful, positive suggestions on how to actually treat the root cause, and remember, we are talking about lives here, precious, young lives.

The reaction from our illustrious leader, there’s not enough deaths to make it worth our time.

The fact that kids are not taught to drive and hence are killing each other, is not an issue because there is less people dying each year and that makes statistics look good.  Next time a car load of young ones are killed through inexperience, irresponsible or just plain bad luck, just remember, it’s not so bad, that’s not as many as last year.

Let me tell you, Mr Rees, ONE young death, in fact one death of ANY age is too many deaths. There are people out here, Mr Rees, who are not interested in your statistics, have no faith in you’re economic solutions anyway, and who are not convinced that you’re replacement will be any better, but, we believe the deaths have to stop and we believe we can help achieve that goal, and we believe the government needs to take this to heart!

May I suggest, even if the toll is coming down, that our solutions and by ‘our’, I mean everybody who has something to offer or is already fighting this cause, can not just keep it coming down, we can get it down a whole lot quicker, and that means that fewer people will die. I apologise if that goes against the agenda of our ‘pollies’, but that is what the people want and the will of the people, under the Constitution Of Australia, is the SUPREME AUTHORITY, in this country.

I am prepared to now do my bit for this government and the next if need be,  I will gladly donate my time and skill to sharpen the sword for you Mr Rees!

Cheers Westy

Owen there are many valid points you have outlined.  I would invite you at any time to come on a trip with me to Perth.  We will do the trip at the suggested speed of 89 klms per hour because its only 10% right which would only turn a four and a half day trip into a six day trip and because we have been loaded by some 18 year old kid at any one of the major freight companies, we will probably be overweight and top heavy from his lack of knowledge of the loading dynamics and weight distribution of b doubles and mezzanine floor loading in drop decks, so we will spend another 4 hours reloading the a and b trailers before we travel to make the vehicle safe for us so we can travel around some of the totally pristine camber perfect roads between Brisbane and Perth.  How can we lose control then dopey?

And bring your sleeping bag because most of the rest stops we wont get to because they wont be open or are filled with tourists. We wont get a hot meal either within the time frame provided because the tourist trade is all year and they would rather look after a bus load than you and me mate so we will have to do a cook up on the side of the road but only after we change the 6 tyres that had blown during the day because of the hot conditions.  Then we can get some quality rest time in the bunk being eaten by every bug and other creepy crawly known to man.  But how can we blow 6 tyres with the perfect road conditions?  That will eat into the bosses profits mate.  Hey no bonus for me at the end of the year mate.

The whole structure of road transport in this country is based on heavy vehicles doing the speed limit with relation to time frames for log book hours and fatigue laws so you can get the job done in a safe manner but we can save fuel and moving parts on our trucks and cause untold frustration to other road users by using the speed you mentioned and creating road hazards when vehicles that are faster which would be everybody attempting to pass 26 meters of unstable flailing b trailer on those wonderful well maintained skinny strips of road.

Owen I don’t know what road you travel on mate but they must be just perfect.  The ones that I travel on in my b double are poorly maintained.  They have cutaways, washouts and potholes.  You could loose a whole house in culvert dropaways and very little passing opportunities but mate how could you loose control of your vehicle?

I acknowledge that some of the points that you have made in your letter with respect to idiots are true and money can be saved by taking care of the gear and this response is not an attempt to belittle you in any way but I drive with men of great driving skill and I am proud to call them my friends.  They show incredible caring, patience and forward thinking every night to achieve the things they do to get their freight there and are true kings of the road.

Try surrounding yourself with some of them and you will realise how proud I am to have known them and travelled with them

Nitro

Why is it that any heavy vehicle that is intended for use on public roads in this country is capable of exceeding 100 km/h?

What people fail to realise (or just don’t give a damn about) is that a mere 10% increase in speed equates to a 40% increase in stopping distance which can make all the difference between a ‘near miss’ or a major impact event which, when related to a fully-laden truck, has the potential for carnage on an unimaginable scale. At the least, the truck driver will probably end up dead and at worst, who knows how many innocent families will suffer?

In 1994 the EU required every heavy vehicle (>12 tonne GVM) to be limited to an absolute maximum speed of 89 km/h. The resultant reduction in fatal accidents alone has proved the worth of that decision.

I can hear the ranting now, “There’s no bloody way we’ll be limited to 90! The country’s too big, the distances are too great”. Sure, a lower limit will add about 10% to your driving time, but that will be more than compensated by the savings you will make in fuel consumption. Besides, just one high-speed fatal crash and all your previous tear-arsing around will have been for absolutely bugger all!

There was a time when truck drivers engendered respect, when they truly were ‘kings of the road’. Sadly, for the most part, this is no longer the case.

Listen (if you get the chance) to these latter day self-proclaimed ‘truck drivers’ as they comment over the airwaves about every other vehicle on the road.  If you’re not pushing six hundred horsepower with your right foot flat to the floor, you are considered to be vermin with no business being on their road.

Reports of banked up traffic are met with replies of “no worries, I’ll push through the c***s, f***’em, there’s not one of them knows how to drive!”   Listening to a report of a truck crash I was amused to hear “bet it wasn’t the truck driver’s fault.”  I had to agree but I haven’t observed a ‘fair dinkum’ truckie on our highways for many a long year.  I’m not saying that they are not out there somewhere, it’s just that it seems like they’ve been out manoeuvred and their ranks are getting very thin.

It puzzles me when I hear that a truck has crashed because the driver ‘lost control of the vehicle’. How do you lose control of a vehicle? The very purpose of your being in vehicle as a driver is to control it! The only way you lose control is by being negligent or inattentive, neither of which has any part in driving any vehicle.

The real reason is more likely that the driver was simply going too fast for the conditions (negligence) or was not paying enough attention to the road. “I just lost control on the bend, mate” is not an excuse and certainly is not a valid defence. Any driver who admits to losing control is admitting that he/she is not worthy of holding a licence.

Let’s look at speed limits: ‘Limit’ means “to the utmost extent”, in other words, maximum, no more, do not exceed! Speed limits are not suggestions, recommendations, minimums or averages.  A road with a 100 km/h limit means that at no time, for any reason or excuse, is any driver legally permitted to exceed that posted limit! (Authorised vehicles responding to an emergency are excepted.)
Drivers are seemingly allowed to ‘get away with’ exceeding the limits because it’s claimed that speedometers are not correct. What a load of crud! If you are overtaking everything in sight and your speedometer is only showing 100 km/h, shouldn’t that tell you something? 

There is a simple way to check your speedometer; all you need is a stopwatch.   Have a passenger start the watch when 0 ticks over on your odometer and stop it when it registers one kilometre.  It takes exactly 36 seconds to travel one kilometre at 100 km/h, if the watch shows anything other than that, adjust your driving habits accordingly; that’s what a responsible driver should do!

If you think you are being smart by ‘getting away with’ speeding, think about this:  Most people who break the law do so for some perceived gain, whether it is possessions, money, drugs, etc. Let’s look at what you are really ‘getting away with’…

The faster you drive, the energy required to propel you increases and this requirement builds exponentially with your speed.  For example; from 90 km/h if you increase your speed by only 30%, you increase your fuel consumption by 50%.  Put simply, the fuel that you just begrudged paying $1.60 a litre for is effectively costing you $2.40 a litre while you drive at that increased speed.

Every moving object is affected by wind resistance or ‘drag’, so no one is immune! If you need proof, stick your arm out of the window while driving at 100 km/h and see what happens! By the way, these figures are based on a still, windless situation. Drive into a 10 or 20 km/h headwind and the fuel usage soars dramatically.

Of course, increased fuel usage also translates to increased output of pollutants; hydrocarbon output in this example is doubled, along with 30%-50% increases in amounts of nitrogen oxide.  (If you Google – MUARC 188 you will be able to read all these facts.)

So, what you are really ‘getting away with’ is foolishly burning your hard-earned money and adding dramatically to the world’s pollution problems! Well done, dopey!

High speed driving also accounts for increased tyre wear and general wear and tear on your vehicle, but, what the hell? Your behaviour indicates that you obviously have money to burn!  Of course, you may be one of the privileged who has a company vehicle or a fuel card, so this is all irrelevant to you isn’t it? Not so, every dollar your employer pays out for fuel is a dollar less that will be available for that ‘end of year’ bonus that you believe you deserve!

Regards Owen

I wake up at 5 in the arvo expecting to leave Sydney at say 6.   Time and time again I will leave at ten thirty so the loads are always late so by then I am 5.5 hours awake and haven’t left Sydney yet to go to Brisbane or Mildura.

I don’t tailgate on the M4 or F3 but I am desperate at this stage to get going and I regret I do exceed the speed limit way more than I should.

5 days in a row of leaving late, five months in a row …..  trust me you will ahve that truck boppin along more than you should. 

I never take drugs for obvious reasons.  I am driving local now to get my body right for a month or two and will be driving long distance again.  Not enough hours in local – I only take home $800-$900 driving doubles local but $1200  to $1300 interstate.

I turn my exhaust brakes off not to wake people up while they are sleeping.  Its frustrating, we do the wrong thing in one sense but do good things u don’t even realise.

I will have to change careers in a year or two as truck driving is affecting my social life and my health.  Having on average a thousand trucks coming right at you next to your door with only two white lines between reminds u that life is short.

Good night and take care stop revive survive.  
An Australian Truckie

Briefly, at 55 and having spent some years during this time driving interstate in heavy transports then taking on a job in law enforcement on the North Coast of NSW, and now living across the border at the commencement of ‘Blood Alley’ (the M1) to Brisbane I welcome any proposal that may help road safety.

My closest friend of some 30 years is still a current law enforcement officer and we regularly discuss the violence and loss of life on our roads.

We have concluded that we are both dinosaur’s and this is part and parcel to our becoming old that we see a lot of threatening situations that actually frighten us. (Me in particular)

Our collective experience includes long distance driving in both private and commercial vehicles over many years and also the insight from a legal view.

I hope anything I suggest is of some assistance and hopefully does not offend anyone as nothing of the sort is intended.

Comments read through your open forum from offensive truck drivers should not be accepted as it is quite clear you are dealing with a cretin from the shallow end of the gene pool and unfortunately clearly demonstrates the present system of licensing for drivers of commercial vehicles is, and has not worked.

I would like the opportunity to express thoughts and ideas for open discussion but rather than waste your time here, I will head subject matters and seek your clarification as to whether I continue the ramblings of an older member of the community.

Police enforcement on our roads no longer works - the present mind set of police officers tasked to enforce Traffic Laws;

The Traffic Act as interpreted in each State - any Act to enforce the present day use of our roads is out of date, out of touch with reality and supports the neglect of safe use of a motor vehicle;

The Courts - magistrates and judges in our courts have lost the plot and are clearly the wrong adjudicators to consider matters on our roads; (I wonder if any judge or magistrate in this country has ever driven a car?)

The gaols - rightly so, no person intentionally gets behind the wheel of any motor vehicle and sets out to harm another person. Therefore that person is not a criminal (although some may argue against this) and a different approach to incarceration should be sought;

The licence system - why do many of us go through our lives never having incurred a parking ticket let alone be involved in a road accident;

Today, the modern vehicle has gone through a miracle of change thus allowing complete control of the use of any vehicle - why do we ignore this fact?

Mark

Great site and campaign, however, it is not only truckies who tailgate and cause accidents. It seems to be a national disease. Taking photos of motorists who do it does not make any difference. The police will not accept these as evidence. In Germany they have set up speed cameras to catch people tailgating. I think the statistics for accidents and tailgating need to be publicized more  …..
Tom

There are still companies out there that are fined for late freight.  I know mate, I just finished a stint with one of them. 

I have always said to anyone that will listen that the gear is more important than the deadline and the lives of other road users is above all others.  The decision to abuse the rules, the speed limit and put other drivers at risk falls squarely on the driver of the car or truck and to blame things like deadlines being late or whatever is a crock of crap and if you believe half of the excuses that are laid on by these idiots than you are more gullible than what you think. 

Anyone that knows me knows that I can from time to time drive faster than I should but never at anyone else’s cost and not at a speed that endangers other people’s lives.  When you first get in this game the first thing you must learn is to be aware of the choices that you make on the roads impact on other road users.  By not thinking what will happen if I do this, you could be putting other drivers at risk. 

What I am trying to say is  …..  THINK of what will happen by making that dangerous maneuver BEFORE you do it rather than after you have already done it and got away with it this time and whether you are driving to your experience level or well above it.  In some of the instances I see it is well above it. 

Be safe out there and learn to say no when you are being pushed.  It will not only save your life but maybe mine too

An Australian Trcck Driver

Good morning all. I am both a truck driver and motorhome traveller. Ones imagination runs wild with that combination because once one steps out of a truck one is no longer considered a part of the fraternity. Mentality verses logic.  There are 3 issues I would like to raise.

1. In late 2006 I attempted to report to the police (NSW) a very, very dangerous trucking fraternity racket.  My life had been seriously compromised. The issues were massive. The Police seemingly - did nothing. We, the decent older wiser drivers would like nothing more than to see the idiots outlawed because of the stats and the carnage. How can it be safe when resting in a RTA station almost cost a life!   So, with the information I have,  one would then start to believe that the Police in NSW also need to be re-educated about matters reported.

2.  As I mentioned, once down out of the truck and into the motorhome I am simply another pest on the road for the cowboys in the trucking fraternity. The other day I heard something so stupid yet funny, but dangerous. A group of truck drivers travelling north, mid north coast NSW. The front driver has come up behind a motorhome which he claimed was going fast on the double lanes and slow on the single. This can be a bit of a problem. The truck driver jumps on the uhf to gather support from other truck drivers. The motorhome is sporting a UHF number on his rear end, so a conversation is sparked by the truck drivers about ‘how good the motorhome people thought they were’, ‘making out they are truckies’ calls one. Another then said, “yeah calling us up to help us go around them, like they are big truckies”!  The latter statement needs a re-read to believe it!  We are dealing with idiots here.

The front runner, now with support, decides to get aggressive with the motorhome owner, getting in closer to his rear end.  To myself I said ‘wait for it’!   Next I could hear over the UHF the front driver quickly backing off as the motorhomer slowed down even more.  More screaming and swearing from the front driver, calling the motorhome driver nasty names. 

Moral to the story - all these truck drivers knew the motorhome owner had a UHF. Whilst the motorhomers preferred channel may have been - say 25 - does not imply that he/she remained on that channel. So whilst these cowards were verbally tongue lashing the driver of the motorhome and riding his/her rear end, the motorhomer was listening to it on the UHF.   All to soon the motorhome slowed even further, placing the truck drivers under more pressure.   Absolute stupidity from both fraternities.  It is a common occurrence. Deliberate retaliation and intolerance on our roads coming from various angles.

3. The trucking fraternity is at boiling point - pushed to the maximum by ruthless clients who are demanding quicker freight but refuse to pay good dollars to suit their high demands. The $’s paid to many drivers has not risen since the early 80’s.  Government demands which go on and on. High fuel costs, road taxes, worse restrictions on log books.  All of this is not only penalising the cowboys within the fraternity but the decent drivers especially the small independent guys.   Many years ago when the Constitutional laws were adhered to by the Government and the clients made less demands without so many ruthless rogues in charge, the trucking fraternity was great.

Ask a mature truck driver, he or she will tell you themselves, they miss the old style of driving which was courteous and helpful to all road users. They did not drive to demands, they drove for the love of it. The drivers supported each other in a greater manner and extended that courteously to other road users. (I was saved from certain death, an Ivan Mallatt story), by a Brambles car freight driver in the early 80’s who went out of his way to turn his rig around and pelt back to make sure I was ok.  These days, and sadly, not one of them would stop to help.

So when we look for solutions we must start from the ground and work up.  Wasn’t it Howard who made the statement, after the Dubbo trucking affair, that he would be sending a clear message to the large conglomerates (like Coles, Safeway, Woolworths etc) to back down from squeezing the heck out of the trucking fraternity.  So what happened?  Another lie?  So who do we target? Maybe targeting the large conglomeriates with the road carnage stats would be a start. Issuing them with the entire story behind a trucking accident, especially the ones involving kids which always drops me to my knees. Then sending a copy to the Government until they are sick of it and do something about it. Taking legal action against the government for a breach of the constitutional laws is a possibility.

Removing licences from cowboys is the only way to rid the rot. Slapping them by expulsion from one trucking company only sends them to another. Take a look at the positions vacant ads! The next generation entering the trucking fraternity, should include more women. (The oldest and most respected woman/driver was in her 90’s and drove in the NT)  As the licence fees are extremly high now a sponsorship scheme should be made available. The education/training programs should include - staying safe and staying clean programs. 

I think your site is great and I am sure you are doing a wonderful job, well done.  I for one am sick and tired of the bitching and griping from all angles and long to see a far reaching and suitable outcome.  Thanks for taking time to read this.

Becki

To all at CTC 100  …..  with this proposed stoppage or blockade - as some are indicating  -I feel if it disrupts or disadvantages the public to a great extent then you will have the general public off side.

This action would be a very personal issue for heavy vehicle owners/drivers and theirs alone to decide either way.

The real question that I put to all truckies out there, irrespective of his or her desired actions for or against, is “what can the general public do to help in this regard?”

Why I ask this is that fuel, i ncreased costs and other burdens upon the freight haulage eventually means higher living costs to everyone so there is a flow on effect straight down the line.

So come on people,  don’t disavantage the general public or face ruin yourself but put your case forward to the general public and ask for their assistance and support.  You might be surprised at the level of support that you would receive from them.

Don’t fight this on your own even it if is very fragmentized amongst the different organisations of freight haulage.  I for one would be very happy to help in any way possible.

So I’m asking “what can I do to help you?”

Dave

Once again thank you Lyndal for the latest post that I sent you and hey its okay that it was late but like they tell us on the road ” BETTER LATE THAN NEVER .”

You asked me for further comments and ideas but what I need is to satisfy in my own mind is what and how do you think that we can get some advice or even assistance from the State Goverments and Federal Goverment to help educate and maybe devise a better way in getting the general public and others in working out a better understanding with the motorists and transport industry.

Is it to late to rethink the ways we educate and teach our future drivers and even the current ones we have today. Personally I dont think so but then again you can’t teach an old dog new tricks but you certainly can teach a young one better ways and I am not using the ” old dog ” in a bad way so as not to offend anyone.

From what I can see from this site is that we are generally looking for better ways of getting people to understand the way to travel with each other on our highways across the country. Correct me if I am wrong.

To be able to do that it will take some effort and hard yakka and to get each goverment on side and rehash our ways of teaching people in the concepts of being better motorists and to have the understanding that the  RIGHT to drive is a PRIVILIGE .

Sadly in the past week we have had some nasty accidents here in QLD with at the latest  9 deaths on our roads and to me thats a bad thing and very stressing for everyone that has been affected by it and hopefully the overall population.

Sitting here and reading and trying to understand that what everyone has said on this site and even in the general public arena there certainly is needed for a major overhaul of the way people are taught to drive and to understand why they should have that RIGHT to DRIVE .

I am not on a witch hunt here and condemning anyone but if we could find a way that we can somehow get a better understanding and for who ever it needs to take and and for the goverments of our country to get serious about reducing our sad road tolls maybe we can be a better country but as long as there are states/territories  that never can agree with each other and its happened many times over the years and we all know that come to a universal agreement to teaching eveyone who wants to earn that PRIVILAGE to drive .

There should be ONE and only ONE way of teaching everyone the RIGHT way and this should be right across the whole country and not each state or territory have what they consider their way is the only way.

I have always believed that and many will agree with me that there should only be ONE SET of rules right across this country. Many truckies will tell you this and it will always will be stated that there are too many rules and believe me I know this personally that when you cross each state/territory border the rules change and yes its a pain in the butt because you have to change to suit each state/territory. ONE SET of rules solves that problem and then really is there an excuse to think otherwise. And that brings it to another point that there should only be ONE LICENCE across the whole country as well.

Less rules and one licence should hopefully make it a safer driving enviroment for everyone.
Thank you once again and hopefully this will give some form of inspiration for maybe a better outlook and who knows.

Richie