ATA calls for next government to reset truck safety

The Chair of the Australian Trucking Association (ATA), David Smith, has called for the Australian Government to reset the country’s approach to road safety and productivity. During the launch of the ATA’s 2022 election policy charter, Smith noted that although the number of crashes involving trucks has decreased, it won’t be acceptable until there are zero deaths and zero injuries on Australian roads. The ATA has called for a dramatic improvement in road safety, with an aspirational target of a 25% reduction per year in crashes involving trucks.

The charter put forward a policy reset to achieve this goal, with a range of proposed measures — including a 10-year, $5 billion truck roads and rest area program to provide a safe place for truck drivers to stop. Other proposed measures include continued full expensing for trucks and trailers to increase the use of newer and safer trucks, and air crash-style investigations of truck crashes where there are lessons to be learned. The charter also called for the Australian Government to fund and operate all major freight roads.

“The ATA’s policy charter also calls for a dramatic improvement in the industry’s productivity and the elimination of red tape. At present, trucking businesses need to lodge 44,000 applications per year to use roads that were built to be used. It’s wasteful, costly and time-consuming. The Tasmanian road access system shows it is possible to reduce this pointless paperwork by 95%,” said Smith.

Smith added that a policy reset by the Australian Government would get the same results nationally. “In conjunction with ambitious access rules for the National Land Freight Network, the trucking industry could deliver our share of Australia’s freight in fewer trips. This would keep the cost of living down for everyone and reduce costs for our exporters,” he said.

Smith also criticised the government’s decision to halve the fuel tax for light vehicle owners for the next six months, as the effective tax reduction for trucking businesses is 4.3 cents per litre, not 22.1 cents per litre. Smith noted that the government’s approach to fuel tax has caused confusion for customers, who are “surprised” and “dismayed” when they learn that the headline figure does not apply to trucks. “It will also cause huge cashflow problems for many small trucking businesses. As our charter points out, the current model for setting truck registration charges and the road user charge on fuel is broken. We need a different approach,” said Smith.

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