23rd December 2018 Merry Christmas.

Goodaye all, a hectic week, Dubbo to Swan Hill to Melbourne, to Bundaberg, Brisbane, Newcastle and home Friday night. Late on Sunday night on the narrow section the other side of Balranald I think, I moved over a bit for car and with the narrow (read none) shoulder, thought I might have been in trouble. It grabbed me and wanted to drag me off the edge and if I had reefed it back, may not have gone well.

Our roads are not being well maintained, we are falling further behind with rest areas, we have achieved so little, yet tried so hard to put information out to the public, both about sharing the road with trucks and that we are mostly, not the at fault party in car/truck fatal crashes. The figures are similar in the USA and I see Canada has just released figures showing they have similar stats. They will be following up to see what can be done to educate car drivers about sharing the road with trucks following the release of the figures and it seems strange they had not been aware.

I am back to work tomorrow to unload, then off till Thursday to reload and be on the road. I did a radio interview with my mate Boz, from Yass FM and on asking when I was off, he said it was the first time in the years we have been talking, that I was not going to work Boxing Day. I doubt you would believe me if I said, I won’t know what to do with myself.

I put the week end in doing a bit of shopping, lashed out and bought myself a tape measure, set of Vice Grips and ordered a $22 watch for me for Xmas, as I have just broken the band in mine and it looks likely to cost more to fix than the other one and if I break this one, I won’t be so badly off. Even two new “Jackie Howe” blue singlets and some undies (as they were half price, but also did some Xmas shopping for the family and even a bit of gardening. I did try to ignore trucks for this week end and will again for Xmas, but can’t get away from it completely.

May I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a TRUCKING Good New Year. Thank you for your interest, your comments and to those who have shared. TRUCK That Australia for December is out now on http://www.truckingnation.com.au and as I will be at work tomorrow and then back on the road Thursday, we will meet again next week end. Cheers and Safe Travelling, Rod Hannifey.