“Deliberate retaliation and intolerance on our roads is a common occurrence

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

This entry was posted on Monday, August 18th, 2008 at 3:44 am and is filed under Letter of the Week. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.