Agmates

Why did the Truckies Strike fail? It’s a question that needs to be asked of those that lead the strike action.

The truckies strike was a grass roots uprising against big corporate control, and bad government legislation. It had tremendous public support not only across rural & regional Australia, but in the cities.

Not only was that overwhelming support evident from Agmates readers comments but also from readers comments in most major news papers across Australia.

I’ve seen and heard truckies themselves blaming other truckies for not supporting the shutdown, but in the same breath saying that between 45-70% of truck were off the road on the 1st day.

The mainstream media did give the strike action reasonable coverage in the in the week leading up to the strike and during the first 48 hours. That national media coverage would have exploded if the strike had of continued even for a couple of more days.

What a wasted opportunity – Truckies had tremendous public support, huge grass roots support from truckies themselves who felt unrepresented by the Transport Workers Union and peak bodies like The Australian Truckers Association who condemned their actions even though a huge number of their members were participating.

They also had national media attention which would only have grown.

It is disappointing to think that it may have failed because the three groups, all formed by disgruntled owner drivers & drivers, the National Transport Form (NTF), Australian Long Distance Owners & Drivers Association ( ALDODA ) and Mineral & Mine Movers who were all basically looking to right the same wrongs could not even bear to speak to each other let alone work together for the common good.

It tragic that you can have some much public support, grass roots driver support, media attention and yet still manage to self destruct. What a wasted opportunity!

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Update – Monday July the 4th August @10.30am

Andrew Marx writes in todays Brisbanes Courier Mail – “Trucks Protest picks up a load of indifference” is a tremendous example of how the media has had a field day with the disjointed parties involved in the strike.

ALDODA Vice president and QLD organizer Bob Woodyard is quoted as saying -

“We’re just sick and tired of driving 1650kms for $1,540 F***ing dollars”…. “

A lesson in media relations Bob – using the F word when talking to Journalists does not help truckies image with the general public. Bob then goes onto explain -

“What’s happening is the news media gets hold of stuff and they’re falsifying what we are saying and doing”

ALDODA representatives have been there own worst enemy when it comes to handling the mainstream media. If you use inflammatory language – thats what they’ll report – it  might be colourful in trying to get your message across, but the media will use it – the prospect of truckie violence will sell many more newspapers than the news of owners & drivers doing it tough.

Then the media does not miss the riff between the two groups ALDODA and the NTF (Mick Pattel) – again Woodyard -

” But Mr Woodyard said he was not co-ordinating activities with the NRTF and he accused Mr Pattel of seeking to promote a political agenda.”

Journalist Anthony Marx now having strung Bob along – really goes for the jugular – First he uses Bob’s last statement to discredit Mick Pattel’s motives -

“Mr Pattel who is national president of the right-wing fringe party promoting limited government, did not return calls seeking comment.”

Then just to finish the demolition job – Marx goes on -

“Perhaps more damaging than the division within the fledgling protest movement has been the rejection of the campaign by the ATA & the TWU”

That leads onto the second half of the article devoted to ATA chairman Trevor Martyn & TWU’s Secretary Tony Sheldon’s spin doctoring.

The often quoted platitude “United we Stand – Divided we  Fall” is once again proven to be true.

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Have your say! What do you think went wrong?

One of the two major groups coordinating the Truckies Strike has pulled out of the shutdown.

Mick Pattel – National Road Transport Forum writes:

After a crisis meeting today with Queensland Shadow Transport Minister, Mr Tim Nicholls, we are urging all supporters of the shutdown to begin work immediately.

Round one is over and the arrogant Queensland Bligh government has sent their transport minister on holidays, making it impossible for our issues to be heard.

We have to call it off because the appropriate Ministers in Qld and NSW have gone into hiding and quite frankly, we find that ridiculously rude.

The frustrations for the transport industry are far from resolved and the industry will now regroup in a formal entity and make clear plans for this next attempt to highlight their concerns to the public and government.

We have learnt so much from this exercise and this is only the start.
Tim Nicholls has given us an undertaking that he will be taking on the issues and taking up the fight to the Labor government. He is supportive of the nonsense about demerit points on log-books and has made a commitment to take the fight up to labor on the industries behalf.

We will be working to form a new organisation in the coming weeks. Legally, we now have to look at different entities from which to operate.

We will also be making sure that log book breaches receive the attention that they deserve. Tim Nicholls and Ian Rickuss have assured us that they will help truckies that have unfair charges on log-books if they are not fatigued related . I encourage all truckies to take their breaches to their local member if they feel they don’t deserve it.

We are advising our member Truckies across the country to go back to work immediately.

Bunny Brown – Australian Long Distance Owners & Drivers Association ALDODA

I have just spoken to Bunney by phone. He said:

Our delegates and members are meeting in Melbourne, Brisbane and Townsville tomorrow morning. The members will decide at those meeting what our next action will be.

It is up to our members if we continue with the shutdown or go back to work. There has been tremendous support for the shutdown from the members and it is really up to them where we go from here.

Peter Schuback – Mineral & Mine Movers Transport

I spoke to Peter By Phone. He said:

I am extremely disappointed to hear the Pattel group has gone back to work. I guess that means it’s over and it appears that what we have been protesting against is here to stay.

I will have to talk to our supporters and see what they want to do, but I’d guess that they will go back to work.

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To View all Stories on the truckies Strike Click Here.

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Have Your Say! What are your thoughts on the Shutdown and the outcomes?

Day 1 – 5pm. 28th July 2008

Estimates of the numbers of trucks that are parked up run between 45% to 60% across Australia. Reports are that virtually the only trucks on highways in QLD, NSW, Victoria and South Australia are the Multi -Nation transport companies like Toll, Lynfox and Scotts who have all condemned the shutdown and its organizers.

The protest has collapsed in Western Australia with only 50 trucks turning out for a protest drive in Perth with organizers calling off the 2 week shutdown due to lack of support.

A similar protest drive in Melbourne attracted 30 trucks whilst in Brisbane an estimated 40-50 trucks turned out.

Agmates has spoken to the leaders of the 3 different and separate organizations coordinating the shutdown activities:

Bunny Brown – President of the Australian Long Distance Owners & Drivers Association ALDODA.

ALDODA is the group that is organizing the truck protests in capital cities. Bunny said:

Our day started with an interview on Adelaide radio this morning. Federal transport Minister Anthony Albanese was on first. It was disappointing to hear him say that he had offered to meet with us, but we had refused. This is just not correct, in fact part of the reason we have started this action is because the minister has rejected every request we have made to his office for a meeting.

There is very good grass roots support across the country. The Brisbane protest went off very smoothly. At present we have 20 odd trucks parked up at Coolac near Gundagi near the NSW, Victoria border. We are waiting for more trucks to arrive and plans are a foot to launch a protest from there in a few days.

I have not been able to speak to or organizer in Western Australia to see what the situation is there.

Mick Pattel – The National Road Transport Forum.

I was able to catch up with Mick Pattel late this afternoon. Mick had been snowed under with media interviews most of the day which started with the TV show Sunrise at 7am this morning. Mick said:

I’d like to thank all of those owner drivers who have parked up. It looks to us that we have about 50-60% of all drivers off the road today.

It has been unfortunate that in almost every interview I’ve done I’ve had to answer persistant question about what the ALDODA group is doing. I’ve done my best to avoid being drawn into discussing possible blockades of highways etc.

We are fully cooperating with the police in Queensland and are asking our drivers to stand firm and keep their trucks parked up at home for the duration of the stoppage. At present we still have had no contact from the federal transport minister re a meeting.

Peter Schuback – Mineral & Mines Movers Transport

Peter has spent the day at home with his phones running hot with truckies and the media after his coverage in this mornings Brisbane Courier Mail. He told us:

There seems to be great grass roots support across Australia except for Western Australia. It’s probably understandable that it’s not strong there as the WA government has announced they they will not be introducing the National Transport Laws in the tough form that they are or will be in the Eastern States.

I believe that you can expect to see truck protest in Sydney and Melbourne in the next few days.

The three groups all represent small fleet owners and wage earning drivers. Whilst they have slightly different things they are calling for, all 3 are unanimous on the major issues. The Transport Workers Union and the peak trucking Industry Body Australian Trucking Association both condemn the strike action.

These 3 organizations have risen because a large number of ordinary owner drivers and wage earning truck drivers have felt let down and unrepresented by their Union and the peak trucking bodies.

The fact that there are 3 of them leaves the whole movement vulnerable to being divided and conquered by the large and powerful forces that are amassed against them, being Labor Governents State & Federal, Big Business and the Unions.

These organizations will have a field day with the 3 groups in the media playing one off against the other and ultimately winning the hearts and minds of the general public.

From day 1 it has become clear for the shutdown action to succeed Nationally that the three groups need to merge to form one cohesive organization that represents the 1,000’s of owner drivers and wage earning drivers who have come to them because their traditional reps have left them out to dry.

These people who are backing the groups are honest hard working men and women who along with their families are making an incredible financial sacrifice to support their respective leaders in this shutdown. All of these ‘working Australians’ have car repayments, mortgages and household bills to pay and can ill afford too have no income for 2 weeks and run the risk being sacked.

I’d urge the respective group leaders too think long and hard about what they are doing and remember that they’re members have placed their trust and faith in you to achieve the right outcomes for all down trodden drivers. The truck drivers that are supporting you are looking for leadership, not petty squabbling and infighting between the groups. This will if not corrected, ultimately derail the whole shutdown action.

I’d recommend that if the three groups cannot come together and form one united cohesive association too fight for they’re members and the positive outcomes that the Unions and ATA won’t, then they should stop playing politics, call the whole thing off right now and let they’re loyal truckie members get back to making a living.

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See all Articles on the Transport Shutdown Here

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Have your say! What do you think?

3.30pm Sunday 27th July 2008

Media Blackout is over.

Mick Pattel and his media adviser Clare Mildren have asked me to let you know that Mick has been asked onto the Channel 7 Sunrise show to explain the Shutdown to the Australian public. The interview will be live at 6.30am Monday (Tomorrow).

After that Mick will be doing a Press Conference on the steps of the Queensland Parliament house at 9am. They also advise that they have done or are doing interviews with every major TV network to date except the ABC.

The mainstream media black ban on this story seems to be over.

Please pass this onto all of your contacts so they can watch the Sunrise Show.

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To see all articles / updates on the National transport Shutdown – Click Here. Note 10 articles per page, click on older entries to see previous articles.

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Have your say!

11am Sunday 27th July 2008

National Transport Shutdown Coordinator Mick Pattel (pictured below) writes:

It’s Full Stream Ahead with the National Transport Shutdown.

Despite last minute threats from large corporate entities, the shutdown set to start at midnight tonight will go ahead.

I’m in Brisbane and yesterday (Saturday) had meetings with the Queensland Assistant Police Commissioner and State Transport reps and am encouraged by what was discussed.

The message from the meeting was clear, no vigilante activity would be tolerated and that any participants in illegal activity will be arrested and have their vehicles confiscated.

The National Road Transport Forum does not condone any disrupting activity and we welcome police involvement with apprehending anyone breaking the law.

I have been operating under a shadow of uncertainty, with legal threats from corporate entities. Threats of violence and disruption have been present and I am calling for calm across the nation.

The National Road Transport Forum is confident that their members will behave with the utmost professionalism and community respect.

However, we are aware that a small pocket of renegade activities could be planned by a certain group.

Let me make it quite clear, the National Road Transport Forum will not and does not tolerate any acts of violence or any illegal activity that is being bandied around.

In the meetings with Police and the transport department yesterday we discussed safety issues and concerns for the proposed shutdown and the grass roots issues that are plaguing the industry.

As a result of those meetings I am positive about working together with all levels of government to develop positive outcomes for the trucking industry.

We have established open lines of communication with the state government and are looking forward to solving some of the problems that the truckies are experiencing.

This In particular, is with reference to demerit points on log books and fatigue management laws and registration hikes.

At the end of the day, I represent a section of the trucking industry that is professional, committed to safety and want to work together with government to solve these grass root issues.

Next Update – Tomorrow – the first day of the 2 week shutdown.

To see more articles on the Transport Shutdown Click Here.

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Have Your Say! Leave Mick a message. If your a truck driver or transport operator, tell us if you are parking up?

9am Saturday the 26th of July 2008.

Federal and State Governments and big business are frantically trying to intimidate truckies into stopping the The National Transport Industry shut which is scheduled to start at midnight tomorrow night.

Mick Pattel:

Private transport Owner operator Mick Pattel the voice of 1,000s of disaffected owner drivers and drivers is currently in Brisbane attending a meeting with a leading Brisbane QC. Mick has had to seek high level legal advise after receiving a number of threats of legal actions by large national transport operators who have stated they intend to sue him personally over any commercial losses they sustain if the shutdown proceeds.

Speaking to Mick yesterday he told me he had received 5 identical letters from major transport operators threatening him. I have not seen copies of the letters but will ‘name & shame’ them once I sight the copies.

One of Mick’s advisers has told me that the meeting today was necessary as it had come to light that the Federal and State governments are considering charging him under tough Federal Terrorism laws if the shutdown goes ahead.

Transport owners and drivers behind the shutdown have proposed to withdraw their services by ‘parking up’ their trucks at homes and their depots to bring pressure on governments to meet their demands.

ALDODA

I spoke with Bunny Brown president of the Australian Long Distance Owners & Drivers Association this morning. He told me that many of their members had already parked their trucks and would be withdrawing their services as of midnight tomorrow night. He said recent media reports of their members blockading highways and taking violent action against any non participating drivers were a media beat up.

He said reported comments by ALDODA media spokesperson Lyn Bennetts advocating violence were a complete media beat up. Bunny went on to say:

“We are not planning road blocks, blockades or any violence against anybody. The shutdown is totally voluntary. It’s up to our member owner and drivers too choose to withdraw their services for two weeks. Our members have been threaten with dismissal and the loss of work contracts by the big freigth companies. We however consider it just bluff. There is not enough drivers out there for these companies to sack 100’s of drivers or hundreds of sub-contractors. It’s just attempted stand over tactics.”

Media

Corporate Owned Mainstream Media

The mainstream media has virtually enforced a complete blackout on the coming shutdown. This is a blight on the Media and Media Standards in Australia.

Despite repeated attempts by owners & drivers to get mainstream media cover on what is potentially the biggest story in Australia they have refused ‘point blank’ to print or publish anything. One has to wonder why? Does it have something to do with the fact that the big companies involved are major corporate advertisers in those publications?

The ABC

Thank god for the ABC. The only exception to this has been the ABC’s 7.30 report that did a segment on the issue last Monday. This segment was really just the Transport Workers Union take on the situation. The union with the possibly that 1,000’s of it’s driver members will participate (independent of the union) in the shutdown has been playing hoky poky with the issue. (one foot in – one foot out).

The Queensland Country Life

Rural Press (the $14billion dollar Fair Fax Media Empire) through the Queensland Country Life ran a front page story “Blockade” Why the transport industry is going on Strike.

Shutdown participants were extremely disappointed. They were at pains during interviews with Melissa Martin to point out that there would be no Blockades and that the action was not a Strike.

Both Mick Pattel and ALDODA have denied any talk of Blockades or strike action as both invoke the possibility of prosecution under tough state and federal Anti-Terrorism and Industrial relations laws. Yet this is what reporter Martin and the QCL editorial staff choose to embolden across the front cover. Mick Pattel was extremely disappointed in the coverage.

Federal Government

The federal transport minister Anthony Albanese in an attempt to head off the shutdown announced late yesterday an inquiry into how truck drivers are paid. The national transport Commission will conduct the investigation but will not make its recommendation until November.

The minister made the announcement at a press conference yesterday and the Ministers media release was published on Agmates last night as a comment by an anonymous party.

The story was on Channel 9’s Night Line last night at midnight with representatives of Coles and Woolworths saying they were paying millions more this year in freight charges. The Night Line report said that these extra payments were made to the big national freight companies who they contracted with. The report said they believed these extra payments were not being passed on from the large national transport operators to their sub-contractors.

Next Update: Mick Pattel will call me with the latest update after his meeting with the QC and the advice he receives.

See more articles on the shutdown by clicking here.

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Have your say! Leave your thoughts or comment!

The Trucking stouch with the government that has been brewing for weeks is set to ignite into one of the most bitter and protracted disputes that Australia has seen for decades.

Truck drivers, owner drivers and the all powerful Transport Workers Union are lining up against State and federal governments across Australia. The dispute is over a number of issues that are forcing drivers out of the industry and owner operators out of business.

The first major salvo was fired last night on the ABC’s 7.30 report. You can watch the program here (scroll down the side bar and its the third story) or read the transcript here.

The 7.30 report basically outlines the Transport Workers Union(TWU) take on the issue. It is ominous when you see Tony Sheldon Federal secretary of the TWU saying:

“It’s breaking point. Drivers are literally being forced to put their lives and other’s lives at risk.”

The program takes a major swipe at Coles & Woolworths (you know the Supermarket Duopoly thats maintains it pays farmers a fair market price for their produce).

Apparently they won’t pay truckies more money to carry the goods either. In his interview when Tony says client, it’s actually code for Coles, Woolworths, major retailers and the major Transport compies that sub contract their work to 1,000’s of smaller privately owned trucking companies that are getting the short end of the stick (sound familiar). Tony Sheldon (pictured below) -

“The fuel costs mean the drivers work longer, harder and faster to meet the client demand. More drivers are getting killed, more people on our roads are being injured as a result of the pressures on truck drivers driven by economics of the clients.

The major retailers across the country are lying when they say that the prices have to go up because of fuel, because they’re actually not paying it to many of the people that cart their goods.

There would be hardly a driver in the country, whether they be employees or owner drivers that won’t be ruling out blockades.”

Meanwhile Mick Pattel who represents the grass roots uprising of drivers and owner operators agrees whole heartedly with the TWU stance. He has reported instances medium sized sub-contractors being threaten by Heavy weights in the Transport industry who carry for national retailers like Coles and Woolworths.

These huge multi-national transport groups are threatening to black ban any sub contractor who supports the shut down. This would effectively shut down many of these operators businesses. Mick has passed this information onto the TWU.

The drivers and owner drivers have a list of 20 demands that they want met. Top of the list is the scrapping of demerit points and fines for log book inaccuracies. It was clearly demonstrated in our recent article that a simple clerical error by a drive in a log book will cost them $600 and the loss of 3 points off the drivers license. Policing of these “poorly drafted laws” is causing many long serving drivers to leave the industry.

Here is what Queensland Minister for Transport John Mickel (pictured below) speaking to Arlie Douglas of Toowoomba ABC had to say about a recent meeting with Mick Pattel on this very issue:

“We won’t back down on one of the demands set by truckies planning to strike this Sunday.

Safety concerns will mean demerit points related to fatigue laws won’t be dropped.

One of the issues they wanted was the demerit points for log books which was introduced in March of 2007.

I will not be moving on that……..

There is nothing more dangerous than a driver who is fatigued being on the road with other road users.”

Mr Mickel might like to explain how fining a truck driver $600 for not drawing a line across a page, when the rest of the log book is in order including adherence to all fatigue laws is a safety issue. The facts are he and his Labor colleagues have drafted a ‘bad’ law.

Mr Mickels office told us on Monday that they realize there may be some issues with the way that the laws are policed and they will look into this. I’ll remind the minister that the police just enforce the laws they make. Have a look at the cartoon satire – Why Democracy is better. There is a line in there that Mr Mickel and all politicans should heed.

“Hi we are the Police force, we can only obey the laws, so whatever laws he makes, we’ve got to obey.”

It is the ultimate cop-out to blame the way police enforce the laws he and his Labor colleagues have made.

Agmates told the Minister that elements of the National Transport Bill were bad law making in our article “Lazy Labor Legislation will Impact Food Prices” back on the 19th of May this year. Indeed our articles on the issued formed a part of debate on the bill.

If the stand off escalates as it looks, that prediction about the laws impacting food prices will come true within months. As Geoff Thomas of Woolworths said on the 7.30 report:

“Blockades, depending on their nature and severity, could have a significant impact on Woolworth’s business.”

Blockades aside, food would be dearer in supermarkets if Woolworths and Coles were forced to stop using their 70% market domination to squeeze the life out of those that grow and deliver the product to their supermakets before they mark it up 100-250%.

The supermarkets rack up their margins and increase their profits whilst they squeeze the life blood out of every farmer and truckie who is responsible for putting food in their supermarkets.

They call this greater efficiencies in the supermarket business.

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Have Your say!

Talks held in Brisbane yesterday with the QLD state government have failed to avert the looming National Transport Shutdown.

Shutdown Convener and private transport owner & operator Mick Pattel updates us on the outcomes of his meeting with QLD Transport Minister John Mickel (pictured) and Queensland Transport Workers Union Secretary Hughie Williams.

Mick Pattel private Livestock Transport owner & operator (pictured below) reports:

“The Qld Transport Minister John Mickel and three members of his staff were gracious enough to give us an hour and a half of their time on Saturday morning (19th July 2008).

Liz Schmidt attended the meeting with me as a part of the delegation and she is able to verify the outcome of the meeting. Liz is the President of the Queensland Livestock Transport Association (QLTA) however she was there in here capacity as a private transport owner / operator and not representing the QLTA.

Unfortunately I can only report that we did not resolve the issues at hand. The biggest sticking point was the removal of demerit points from log book breaches, and on that point the talks broke down.

I do however believe that the Minister is now acutely aware what needs to happen to avert this shutdown, we are not scheduled to meet again at this point.

We still have not met with anyone in the Federal Government and expect that the standoff there may continue, which is unfortunate.”

Following the meeting Tom Desmond owner operator of Emerald Refrigeration Transport joined Mick & Liz at the Transport Workers Union (TWU) building to meet with with QLD TWU secretary Hughie Williams (pictured) and some of his people.

Mick reported on that meeting:

“Hughie gave us about one and a half hours of his time, it was a friendly and constructive meeting that made them aware of the reasons we are taking this action.

Hughie fell short of giving us full support however he didn’t condemn our efforts to head off these reforms. He told us he would wait and see how much support we received as a result of the shutdown before joining us. The TWU have 15,000 members across QLD.

I believe that the TWU are genuine in their concerns for where the industry is going and need some positive direction from the real people in the industry. It always seems that the minorities get the most attention and they do not represent or portray any of the true issues, and never offer realistic solutions.

I thank Liz and Tom for their support and their input and everyone driving this program. Our delegates across Australia are doing a great job in giving people the information and building support.”

Below is the names and contact details of the movements delegates. If you’d like to contact them or pass it onto your local transport operator so they can contact them to join the movement.

QLD – Mick Pattel Mob 0429-413161 Ph 0747413161

NSW – Leo Fardell Ph 0268844433 Mob 0429844433

VIC – Darryl Brown Ph 0354353589 Mob 0408322868

Western VIC & SA – Russell Borchard Ph 0350243247 Mob 0419007815

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Have Your say!

Queensalnd Member for Warrego and shadow minister for Main Roads Howard Hobbs (pictured) writes:

Heavy truck drivers were all-but being forced to break fatigue driving laws because of the lack of proper rest areas.

Parliamentary Estimates yesterday (17/07/08) heard that the Bligh government was failing to provide enough heavy vehicle rest areas by under-funding the Department of Main Roads which was responsible for half the 200 heavy vehicle rest areas on Queensland roads.

The recent Audit of Rest Areas against National Guidelines found rest opportunities for heavy vehicle drivers in Queensland were particularly scarce.

It’s disgraceful that the Bligh government has allocated just $3 million over the next five years to construct and upgrade of heavy vehicle rest areas.

Photo: An example of one of many designated Truck rest stop areas. Drivers are expected to stop and break here for 8-12 hours with no shower or toilet facilities. The only facilities in a number of these areas is a wheelie bin.

We need far more, and far more with better facilities. I am highly critical of the Bligh government for under-funding heavy vehicle rest areas, especially as drivers had to comply with national fatigue laws and Road Rule 200 which barred heavy vehicles from parking around towns and cities for more than an hour.

The government is forcing drivers to break the law and drive while fatigued because of the lack of proper rest areas.

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Have Your say! Do you support Mick Pattel and transport owner operators and drivers in their action to have issues like inadequate and unacceptable heavy vehicle driver rest stops facilities brought up to scratch?

Queensland – Peak State Farming Body AgForce is urging rural producers and those living in Rural communities to prepare themselves for the 2 week National Transport Shut down.

In a statement issued today – AgForce Cattle President Greg Brown (pictured) said -

“We are urging people to be aware of the potential disruption likely to flow from the upcoming truck stoppage on July 28 so that they are not caught unprepared.

Livestock sales and disposal will be affected by the proposed transport shutdown, particularly cattle producers moving stock out of drought-affected north-west Queensland.

However it is not just livestock managers that need to be aware because all supplies in and out of the bush are delivered on trucks, therefore a national road transport shutdown will cause inconvenience to all users and consumers if they do not take steps to stock up on essentials and plan ahead.

Both rural and urban consumers need to understand that a viable transport sector is vital because everything we all use is transported on a truck at some stage.

Consumers should get behind the truckies and tell the government in the strongest possible terms to stop implementing policy that will put transport operators out of business.

The issues that have sparked this truck strike are very concerning for livestock producers because everything we use in our businesses, and nearly all of stock movements, come and go in a truck.”

AgForce Cattle and AgForce Sheep & Wool boards are supporting the proposed stoppage by drivers and operators, in the hope it will highlight the increasing frustrations of rural road transport operators and customers.

AgForce has strong concerns that a number of recent transport legislative changes will not be practical and will significantly increase the operating costs of Queensland livestock producers.

The four main trucking regulatory changes that will impact on livestock businesses are changes to the chain of responsibility legislation, increased registration fees for B-Double trucks, changes in fatigue management regulations and log-book procedures.

New chain of responsibility laws come into effect in September and will dramatically change the roles and responsibilities of those involved in the loading, unloading and scheduling of road transport. Greg Brown goes on to say:

“AgForce Cattle and AgForce Sheep & Wool boards are concerned that transport regulatory bodies at state and federal level do not yet understand the complexities and practices of livestock transport in rural and remote Australia and the full implications these changes will have on beef and sheep producing businesses

Some cattle producers in outlying areas are already paying 15-20 percent of the animals’ value to truck them to market, so any changes that will increase these costs risk making rural businesses unviable.

In addition, for livestock transport you have to manage what appears to be conflicting road safety and animal welfare requirements, whilst operating on a commercially viable basis. That is why we want exemptions from some of the rules for livestock carriers.

Given this frustrating situation, we are not surprised that truck operators and drivers are organising this stoppage on July 28 and we feel obliged to add our concerns on behalf of livestock producers.

Hopefully this protest increases State and Federal government awareness of the scope of the problems facing the road transport industry for livestock producers and that the need of exemptions for livestock carriers will be recognised.

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Have Your Say! Tell us what are you doing to prepare for the 2 week transport shutdown. Do you support Mick Pattel and truck drivers across Australia struggling for a fair go?