Agmates

The new National Transport Laws treat truck drivers like criminals. Three recent cases in Queensland show how truck drivers will be treated nation wide when the National transport laws come into affect in every state at the end of September.

We highlited in a recent article that while the laws were passed by the Queensland parliament with all good intent, when enforced by police they are frightening. This new legislation is one of the main causes of the planned national shutdown by truck drivers.

Case 1: Driver Dean Vilimovsky Lumbar Transport Deniliquin NSW.

Fined $2,000 - lost 9 Points off his license, Finger Printed & Photographed by Police.

Dean delivered a load of fencing wire to Bayrick station just east of Agathella Western QLD. He arrived late in the afternoon and so stayed overnight and unloaded the next day. I have confirmed this with Bayrick manager Matt Perters.

After unloading he headed back but and at 5.30pm in the afternoon was stopped just outside of Charleville by 4 Uniformed Charleville police.

After inspecting his log book he was given 3 breach notices. The first was that he had failed to record a change of activity in his log book - $600 fine and loss of 3 points. Dean says that he accepts that he had forgot to do this and the fine was in order.

The second and 3rd breaches were because the was a 30 hour gap in his log book (nearly all of this was spent at Bayrick). The officers maintained that all of his activity at Bayrick should have been recorded. He was fined $600 plus a loss of 3 points for the 1st 24 hours and then $600 plus 3 points for period over 24 hours.

The police then said because his log book did not show that he had rested as per the fatigue laws they were grounding him for 12 hours. This meant that he could not even drive the truck the 1 km into Charleville to get to a rest stop with facilities. The police required he spend 12 hours on the side of the road with no shower, toilet, food or water. If he wanted to get to town he could walk or hitch a ride.

At 11.30pm that night (6 hours later) Dean decided he’d had enough and headed off. He was stopped again further down the road by more police. After they checked his licence and log book which was now all in order. But after check their in car computer they told him that there was a notice out on him. The police informed him that he had disobeyed a police instruction and he had 7 days to voluntarily report to a Queensland police station and if he did not a warrant would be issued for his arrest.

Dean reported to the Goondiwindi police station on his way through and was finger printed and photographed by the police. He said it was a degrading experience. I felt like a real criminal going through that.

The upshot is that the case went though the Charleville magistrates court and uncontested he was fined a further $200 with thankfully no criminal conviction recorded.

The final result of Dean’s trip to Sunny QLD was $2,000 in Fines - 9 points lost of his licence. He told us he won’t be coming back.

Case #2: Driver for Hawkins transport Karumba Far North Queensland.

Fined $600 and lost 3 points.

I spoke with Karumba General transport owner Bradley Hawkins. They do a general freight run from Brisbane to Karumba each week. He told me that just this week 2 of his drivers had been fined. The first was doing the general frieght run.

He was stopped by the Cairns Main Road police just 100kms short of Karumba. His log book, rest times and all else were in order. However the driver had not drawn a line across the page after he’d entered his rest break and the recommencement of his journey.

The result $600 fine and loss of 3 points of his licence.

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Case #3. Driver for Hawkins transport near Charters Towers NQ.

Fined $600 and lost 3 points.

Once again just this week another of Bradley Hawkins drivers was pulling freight from Charters Towers to Normanton. Once again the main roads police from Cairns. He was pulled over just after leaving Charters Towers. The log book inspected. He had just started a new log book. The old one and the new one were all in order. However he had not filled in the name of his home depot in the front of the book.

The result $600 fine and 3 points off his license.

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The above 2 drivers more than half of their weeks pay. These are decent men who have families and mortgages to pay.

Heavy transport drivers have 12 points on their license just like car drivers. However if the loss all 12 points under the transport legislation they loss their license for a defined period usually for 3 months. That means their career and lively hood is usually finished.

No wonder 1,000’s of drivers across the country are willing to stay at home and fore go 2 weeks pay during the 2 week transport shut down to have these laws changed.

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Have your say! What do you think? Do you support Mick Pattel & the Truck Drivers?

The Australian Transport Industry Shutdown Convener Mick Pattel (pictured) writes:

The National Road Transport Shutdown is only a short time away and still no-one in Government is taking it seriously.

All attempts to contact Transport Ministers have proven fruitless, it’s almost as if they hope it will go away. That will be a bad mistake, the transport industry has never been more committed to this demonstration of unity than at any other time in the past.

I believe the Prime Minister and State Premiers should be taking control of this matter before it is too late.

When the shutdown happens on the 28th of July there will be about two working days before the Government will react then a further two days to resolve the industries concerns.

By that time the Public, Retailers, Mines, Regional Centres, and Exporters both from Manufacturing and Primary Producers will be in uproar.

No Government can ignore the damage this Transport shutdown will do to the economy of the country, because the industry has voluntarily withdrawn it services in protest there will be nothing the government can do but capitulate.

The list of demands continues to grow as time goes on and it would not surprise me if other industries that are in trouble as a result of poor Government performance will join the protest and add their demands to the list. I believe the door is open for this to happen after the shutdown starts.

The ideal conclusion would be for Governments to head this off before the entire country becomes involved and the fallout could bring about the demise of the Labor Government.

I also believe that they are not going to let a badly formulated piece of Transport Reforms harm their chance of re-election, but then again when did Governments ever listen to the people.

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Have Your Say! Ask Mick a question or give your thoughts.

Peter Schuback (pictured) writes:

Had a short trip to Sydney as a guest of SBS to go on their show “Insight” in regards to petrol prices .

They were nice to me and gave me a total of about 30 seconds. Bit hard to get the message out in 30 seconds but I tried.

What the people of Australia don’t seem to realise is just how important the farming Fishing and transport industries are to our economy .

The farmers stop producing and the people don’t get to eat good fresh Australin produce and meat , the fishermen go broke or get out of the industry and we will all be eating sea foods from god only knows where and it will more than likely poison all of us.

If we don’t have the transport industry the farmers wont be able to move their produce , The fishermen wont be able to sell their sea food and the rest of Australia will come to a grinding Halt .

For all too long all three industries have been bastardised by governments and people that have nothing to do with the industries. Shiny bums that sit in offices and tell us how to run our industries whilst all the time they are involved in selling us out. They look at all of us as milking cows and as fragmented industries and they think they can walk all over us.

I have some bad news for them and the transport industry is about to deliver it. We are no longer going to stand for the governments crap and we are fighting back .

The 28 th of JULY Is D DAY - THE TRANSPORT INDUSTRY IN AUSTRALIA IS SHUTTING DOWN FOR TWO WEEKS.

We will no longer be hit with Hugh fines for minor breaches. We will no longer stand back and watch our drivers die because the government has fail in its duty of care to provide parking bays for drivers with the required facilities (Showers and Toilets).

Photo: This is a photo of a Truck Parking bay I recently took. There are no facilities. It stank of used baby nappies and general rubbish yet its places like these our governments have legislated that our drivers must stop and rest. It’s a disgrace.

We will no longer let them pick us off one by one. The Farmers , The fishermen and the Transport industry combined are the most powerful political and economic group in Australia. If we join forces we can and will make the government run this country to the benefit of all Australians.

We will be able to get rid of Politician’s that don’t perform . We will be able to get rid of the so called groups that claim to represent us and do next to nothing. We will be able to demand that bad laws are fixed and bad economic policy is also fixed .

Australia is for all Australians. Our hard working Fishermen, Farmers and Transport industry workers have invested a lot of time and money into their industries and should get a fair return for their efforts.

ALL Employers, Farmers and Manufactures should be very afraid of the new road transport act of April 2008 Chain Of responsibility. We are all at risk .

Peter Schuback
Mineral and Mine Movers Transport

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Have your say! Tell us what you think or leave a message for Peter. Note Peter Schuback, Mick Pattel and ALDODA are 3 separate groups within the grass roots uprising of Truck Drivers and owner operators across Australia.

As the deadline for a National Transport shutdown in Australia looms, there has been gridlock this morning in New Zealand’s major cities as thousands of truck drivers staged a mass protest.

They are angry about an increase in government charges. The New Zealand Government says it had to increase road user charges by 7 per cent to pay for the damage trucks do to the country’s roads.

Truck drivers say they are already struggling with rising fuel costs. They blocked streets in the heart of Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch.

Australian Transport drivers are planning a National Shutdown in protest over many of the same issues.

See video of the New Zealand mass protest this morning.

Note - If Video stops and starts while playing - let it run through once then click the Play arrow and it will run through without stopping the second time. Its your connection speed thats the trouble. This may not work if your on dial up.

Please note that Agmates is not responsible for any content beyond the video we’ve selected. In other words, after you watch the video if you click on further links that come up to other YouTube Videos you do so at your own risk.

Click here to see Agmates ‘Videos of the day’ library.

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Update: See National Transport Shutdown Coordinator Mick Pattel comment on this video.

Have Your say!

Agmates Editor Steve Truman writes:

A leading transport body says Australia’s Road Transport industry is on the verge of collapse.

The South Australian Road Transport Association says Road Transport companies are going out of business every day.

Sky rocketing fuel prices and Government over regulation are crippling the industry. New government Fatigue management laws and log book fines are causing a chronic shortage of heavy transport drivers.

Fuel prices have doubled in the last 2 years, state Governments are hiking truck and trailer registration fees and freight customers are refusing to pay increased freight rates.

Truck auction businesses are recording a huge increase in the number of trucks and trailers being offered with second hand values plummeting as operators chose to scale down their operations or exit the industry completely.

Queensland Road transport operator Mick Pattel (pictured below) has had enough. He is orchestrating a meeting of transport operators across the country to discuss an organized transport industry SHUTDOWN set to start on Monday the 28th of July 2008.

In an interview with Agmates Mr Pattel who operates a livestock transport business at Richmand in North QLD told us:

“The entire country operates day to day on road transport, be it food in the supermarkets or fuel for cars, planes and boats.

Unless governments State & Federal start listening and acting we will shut the county down. I have made repeated attempts to speak to federal and state transport ministers without any result.

In fact I was told by a staff member of Federal Transport Minister Anthony Albanese (pictured) that the minister would never speak to me. The bureaucrats solution was simple - ‘just pass the increased cost onto your customers, whats the problem?’

I explained to him that my customers are farmers who did not have the ability to pass those costs onto anybody. His response was - ‘thats not your problem’. My reply was that it was because if they all went broke, then I have no business.

This shutdown is too pressure the Government to reverse the new National Transport Reforms passed by the Federal Parliament recently and to meet the list of demands developed at the industry meetings held so far around Australia.

The List of Demands that the Industry is seeking is:

1. Disbanding of the National Transport Commission immediately.

2. No electronic recording systems, or work dairies.

3. No changes in the present log book format.

4. No demerit points on log books, or driving hours regulations.

5. Recoupment of demerit points for professional drivers who earn their living from their licence to be reduced to 12 months not the existing 36 months.

6. No penalty to drivers exceeding prescribed driving time when attempting to reach a vacant heavy vehicle rest area or when marginally over driving hours in compliance with defacto hours proposed under the new NTC ruling for all drivers irrespective of participation of fatigue management programs, and in any case ‘reasonable defence’ is to apply where compliance is not possible.

7. All fines for logbook breaches to be capped at an agreed fixed amount and relate to safety breaches only.

8. All fines and loss of demerit points for logbook breaches to be rescinded, fines and points to be reimbursed, all licences lost as a result of this legislation to be reinstated to previous status.

9. No increases or changes in registration charges for any truck or bus over 4 tonnes, charges to be set in concrete at current levels.

10. No increase or indexation of fuel excise.

11. No fuel based carbon charges or taxes.

12. No changes or variations to the Federal Fuel Energy Grants Scheme or to the State Bulk End User Rebates both of these are to remain in place indefinitely.

13. Authorities to endorse a driver intercept report sheet to create a reporting system to identify rude and unethical enforcement officers.

14. Main Roads Authorities in all States to construct and maintain all weather road train termination pads of adequate size.

15. A priority funded program to provide all weather heavy vehicle rest areas that are designed to provide adequate parking and amenities for the different truck trailer configurations according to truck traffic density.

16. That the log book period be changed from any 24 hour period to midnight to midnight on any calendar day.

17. That an inspection by an officer of either Queensland Transport or the Queensland Police Service of a drivers log book cannot be inspected past 14 days prior to the interception date.

Mick Pattel warned that unless the Federal and State Transport Ministers start too realize that the whole viability of the transport industry is on the line, the shutdown would definitely go ahead. He said:

“These blokes have no idea of the financial pressure truck operators are under.

The Canberra bureaucrat I’ve spoken to told me that the shut down will never happen. He said that truck drivers could never organize themselves enough to put together a nation wide transport shutdown.

What these blokes don’t realize is that you are dealing with people here who’s whole livelyhood is at stake. Transport operators and their families have their backs to the wall and are cornered. Have you ever known a truckie not to come out fighting in that situation.

We are giving them plenty of time to avoid this. When people find there is bugger all food on supermarket shelves and no fuel at service stations - they won’t be blaming us, it will be Minister Albenese and his state counterparts that will have to answer too the people.

Meetings of transport operators continue to be very well attended across the country in the lead up to the Shutdown scheduled to start in 4 weeks time.

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Have Your say! Do you support the truck drivers SHUTDOWN.

Agmates Editor Steve Truman writes:

Lazy & arrogant legislation making by an all powerful QLD Labor Government will create a huge flow on of bureaucratic costs that will pass all the way from food producers to consumers. This is an example of poor government in any form.

Last week saw the passing of the Transport Amendment Bill in the QLD Parliament. The passing of this bill Bill in Queensland will now pave the way for it to be legislated in every state of Australia.

The legislation due to come into effect in September this year means that all those involved in the food chain from farmers, agents, processors, wholesalers, retailers and private citizens will face fines and court action if they cannot correctly read a heavy transport drivers log book.

Considering that a large number of the states police cannot comprehend a truck Drivers log book this is a bizarre law by any standard.

The cost to industry and the state tax payer to incorporate the duplicate layers of systems and documented procedure will be millions of dollars. Those cost will either be borne by producers (who have no ability to pass them on) or in the end by consumers in supermarkets.

Passing this legislation with these flaws and prohibitive costs is just lazy out of touch governing by a party that due to its huge majority of seats, treats the opposition and the good hard working people of Queensland in the food - production / transport/ processing and retail sectors with contempt.

Despite well researched and impassioned pleas from the opposition benches Transport Minister John Mickel (pictured) and his Labor colleagues rammed this costly and impractical legislation through the parliament.

Not only did Labor use its huge majority in the Single House State Parliament to pass the bill, it also used it to cut short the debate.

With plain bloody mindedness, Mr Mickel the member for Logan (no food producers there to trouble himself with) and his Labor colleagues ignored numerous concerns voiced by Liberal, National and Independent Members on behalf of all Queenslanders involved in the food production chain.

On reading the Hansard of the day those concerns had been expessed on behalf of Queensland farmers by Agmates and AgForce and various members of the Livestock trucking Industry. Click here to read an extract from the evenings proceedings up to the final vote.

Agmates feature article last week “Log Book Legislation could See farmers Jailed” brought to light many of the difficulties that this legislation would impose on food producers.

Independent Member for Gladstone Liz Cunningham (pictured) read the Agmates article in its entirety to the house and asked the minister to respond directly to the questions we raised in his reply.

Minister John Mickel failed to address those issues in his reply and was bought to task my Liberal the Deputy Leader:

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Tim Nichol:

“A number of people have referred to a report released by Agmates, which I also have looked at. The Agmates report refers to a consignor being held responsible for manslaughter.

As I read the legislation, the chain of responsibility—and for the sake of clarity I would ask the minister to say yes or no to this—only relates to offences under this legislation.

Mr MICKEL:

“I will clarify it. The member is asking a fair question that he should take back to his constituents. The advice given to me in relation to that offence is that that would not happen.“

(Agmates: Is that a yes or no? That was government legal advise. It is not difficult to obtain differing legal opion on any range of legislation. I’m guessing that no one will really know until it’s tested in the courts.)

Tim Nichols:

“Clause 61 is one that has excited considerable comment and has been the subject of a number of releases and comments by AgForce in particular which seeks to remove section 150AB(1)(d)(v) and (vi). Subsection (1)(d)(v) and (vi) states—
rules requiring any or all of the following persons to ensure drivers of fatigue regulated heavy vehicles comply with a regulation under this part—
(v) consignors or consignees of goods in the vehicles;
(vi) loading managers of goods in the vehicles.

Effectively it is a regulation-making power that enables the government, through a regulation, to set rules about what a consignor or consignee or a loading manager must do in order to ensure compliance with the fatigue management rules.

I would like the minister to clarify that that is, in fact, the purpose of it…..

John Mickel:

The member has asked three questions. I am advised that the answer to the first question that the member asked is yes.

In relation to the example that the member gave, as part of the education process we will be giving advice to people in the industry on the codes and procedures to assist them.

This is very much part of the education process…….

In essence if you now are the consignor (sender / loader) or the receiver (unloading) you are required by legislation to take all reasonable steps to ensure the truck driver is compliant with his Fatigue management hours. The only way to do this is too check his log book.

Opposition MP’s Tim Nichols, Vaughan Johnson, Mike Horan, Liz Cunningham and Shane Knuth all spoke at lenght on behalf of Rural & Regional Queenslander’s.

They raised many issues of the impracticality of parts of the legislation from caretakers & junior Jackeroos receiving cattle late at night, to city people loading a furniture removal van etc. They may as well have saved their breathe.

Mr Mickel’s response was that the government will train us all and as long as we can prove in court we have taken resonable steps, there will be no convictions.

Mr MICKEL:

I will try to take the members through a couple of things in my non-legal way. I guess the defence is ‘reasonable steps’. (The minister is talking about defending yourself in court) —

Where a person did not know—would be a defence of a reasonable step.

There is no capacity to influence the outcome, so that would be a reasonable defence.

If an offence under standard hours could have been avoided if the driver had taken a short break, it is a defence if the driver can prove that at the time when the driver was required to take the short rest there was no suitable rest place. I think that covers what both members were saying—that the park was full, the guy was not there, whatever.

It is also a defence if the driver took the short rest break at the next suitable rest place available after this time on the forward route of the driver’s journey. In a situation where he goes to pull in and it is full or unsuitable, it is a defense if he can prove that.

There has to be an attempt to influence illegal behaviour or a breaking of fatigue management—or to reasonably know that what you were doing was in defiance of the fatigue management.

It was apparent from the number of Labor MP’s that spoke in favor of the Bill that constituents with grave concerns only speak to opposition MP’s as not one of the Labor MP’s who spoke raised a single negative issue with the Bill.

What QLD Labour has created with this legislation is that each and every producer, agent, processor, wholesaler, retailer and private citizen will now have to be a sudo Main Roads Traffic cop.

Every business in the State will have to have a system / code / procedure in place for the loading and unloading of all heavy transport vehicles (anything over 12 tonne) and checking drivers log books.

With those systems in place when the driver of the truck you just loaded or unloaded gets booked for a log book infringement and your infringement notice automatically arrives in the mail (as the last person to check the log book), you’ll be able to head off to court with your documentation under your arm to demonstrate to the magistrate that you should not have to pay the fine.

You’ll need to be able to prove to the magistrate with documentation that you took ‘reasonable steps’ to ensure the drivers log book was correctly completed.

Heavy haul truck drivers are one of the most heavily policed professionals in the state. They are regularly pulled over and fined for mistakes as simple as a spelling error in log books. Would I be cynical to think that the government will now be able to double dip on the fines. They get the truckie and now they get the Consignor or Consignee as well.

Link to complete Hansard recording from the day.

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Update 27th July 2008.

Our prediction that this legislation in it’s current form will impact on food prices as truckies arcoss Australia lead by owner driver Mick Pattel stay at home for 2 weeks in the National Transport Shutdown.

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Tell us what you think. Have your say!

Agmates Editor Steve Truman writes:

This coming week the Queensland Parliament will consider legislation that could see farmers go to jail because a truck driver has fiddled his log book.

This legislation will be enacted by all Australian State governments in the near future. The transport Legislation Amendment Bill.

That is what this legislation would mean for farm owners, managers and employees if passed without amendments.

On 14 February 2007 National Transport Council (NTC) Ministers unanimously voted in favour of introducing National Heavy Vehicle Fatigue Reforms for the heavy vehicle industry. The introduction of these fatigue reforms will be nationally consistent.

I have spoken to a number of stakeholders including the Transport Ministers John Mickel’s (pictured) Senior media Adviser Chris Brown, Shadow Minister for Agriculture Mike Horan, AgForce Policy Officer, Oscar Pearce and trucking industry identity Justin Truman.

Our thanks goes to AgForce’s Oscar Pearce for bringing this story to Agmates attention. Oscar advised that AgForce was never given an opportunity to have any input into the drafting of the legislation and they are very keen to see it amended too protect their farmer members before it’s passed into law.

All parties agree with the essence of the legislation. All agree that establishing of a Chain of Responsibility to stop unscrupulous transport owners and operators forcing drivers to do illegal hours to cut down on truck fatalities is a good thing.

However what all also agree is that as the legislation stands it is just not reasonable to expect a farmer to be responsible for checking truck drivers fatigue log book to ensure that it is completed properly and the driver can complete the journey in the allotted time.

All agree that it is the transport owner and operators responsiblity to ensure that when the driver arrives on a farm to pick up cattle, grain, produce that he complies with the fatigue laws.

However in a worst case scenario under they way the legislation is currently drafted:

• You load a truck and do not check the drivers log book (or check it but don’t understand it) and the driver leaves your farm.
• You are now under the “Chain of Responsibility” jointly liable for any breach that the drive may incur.
• In a worst case and this is what the legislation is specifically designed to do - The driver is involved in a fatal accident on the way to the destination.
• On investigation the police find that the driver has breach his allowed fatigue hours and will be charged with manslaughter. You as the person who loaded / consigned the truck will also be charged with manslaughter because you should have checked the book and refused to let the driver leave until he had completed the scheduled rest period.

In a best case scenario the driver is pulled over by the main roads police. They check his log book. They find a minor mistake. The driver is fined $300 and losses 2 points off his license. Then they send you the person who loaded the truck a fine of $300 for not picking up the breach.

Photo # 2: Under this proposed legislation you’d be the donkey if you load and consign a heavy transport without verifying that the drivers log book is correct. Thats if you can read and understand a truckies log book.

I was told by the ministers department Chris Brown “yes it may read like that, but that’s not what it’s intended to do. That just won’t happen.”

MP’s can say, yes but it’s not intended that farmers can go to jail because a driver has fiddled his log book. But once it’s legislation, the enforcement officers take it to the letter of the law.

Justin Truman ( my brother and all round top bloke ) is a transport depot manager at Goondiwindi QLD and has driven heavy transport all over Australia for the last 20 years.

Justin is sure that when the current legislation was drafted that MP’s did not intend for truck drives to be fined $300 and lose 2 points for misspelling the name of a town in their log books. But they are.

He’s sure that they did not intend Main Roads police to hold truck drivers up for 1/2 to 3/4’s of an hour on the side of the road whilst they search back through their log books, finally finding a day - 12 weeks previous when the log book was out by 15 minutes in a 24 hour period and issuing a fine. But they do.

Photo # 3: Having Driven Long haul transport for 2 decades, Goondiwindi Transport depot manager Justin Truman would now rather spend time on his horse.

Justin said, “It is ridiculous to think that a cocky can know what he’s looking at in a drivers log book. Mate 75% of the police force will happily tell you they can’t read or understand one.

If any one doubts that, just go to their local department of main roads and ask for the manual on how to keep a Heavy Transport Drivers Fatigue log book. It’s about 4cm thick. I’d almost guarantee you there is not a Member of Parliament in Australia that could read and understand a drivers log book.”

I have spoken to several Labor MP’s who are also concerned about the proposed legislation. All stakeholders agree in principal with the new legislation, but are calling on the QLD parliament to get this right the first time.

We don’t want to see the tragic situation were a farmer or farm worker is jailed for manslaughter along with a truck driver before the legislation is amended.

Message to QLD Transport Minister John Mickel and your Labor collegues - please get this right - the first time.

Click Here to see an extract of the proposed Legislation and the pieces affecting farmers.

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Update 27th July 2008.

Our prediction that this legislation in it’s current form will impact on food prices as truckies arcoss Australia lead by owner driver Mick Pattel stay at home for 2 weeks in the National Transport Shutdown.

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Have Your Say!