Goodaye all, spent the week running in and out of Sydney in a single as I had asked work if I could get to Sydney for Thursday for the NSW Road Safety Forum. I had been invited and whilst the recommendations only came out last week from the NSW Parliamentary Inquiry, I was in two minds about attending. Yes I could have done it online, not really the same though and attending meant I got to meet and speak with some people I had spoken with but never face to face and also to get in some peoples faces, in the nicest way.
I believe I was the only truck driver there, but Simon O’Hara from Freight NSW attended and I was told NATROAD attended by video, so a couple of other trucking voices. In the table sessions I raised many of our issues and having got home and unloaded this morning after doing a change over to Moree last night, I have spent another two hours doing the Community Attitudes Survey, post event survey and the Rail Crossing survey (which I have also forwarded to the NRFA for other board members to complete). I was invited to the Railway session in Brisbane next month, but I will leave the board to decide who goes there, but have still raised a number of issues and suggestions through the survey.
Many comments on the photo from the conference, thanks all and I was snapped coming through Bathurst by Bathurst Truck spotting during the week and he put up a shot too.
The next meeting of the HVRASC is in Canberra this Friday coming and I am trying to get to that too. Yes could do it by video, but would still have to sit and watch for hours and not have the same input, would still not be able to drive with the ridiculous mobile coverage we have now, so am on plan D so far and will see what the week brings.
The NSW Government now has three months to respond to the recommendations from the first inquiry and I raised some of them and will be pushing to see change between now and then. I came home through Mudgee twice during the week and aside from a green reflector bay just west of Mudgee, there is not one rest area or suitable spot if you get a bit tired. On the first trip there were trucks parked the wrong way in two sites and I stopped in one the next trip (a stockpile site) and it is now marked eastbound along with one at Frying Pan Creek on the Great Western.
Only a short visit home and with Canberra, may not get home next week-end and that will be another problem, but we will see how it goes during the week. With the meeting in Sydney, they had an international speaker and yes, overseas experience is worth pursuing and collating to see if it has relevance and worth here, but outside of some volunteers and those in community roles, as I have said at some meetings in the past, we as Truckies do not get heard unless we are prepared to forego a lot of time and money and even then, do we get listened to?
I have done this for a long time and the return on investment is very large in the minus column, yet if we don’t make the effort who will? In discussion with a Tpt for NSW fellow, even 25 years since the first then blue now green reflectors went up, from the perspective of worth, even if I simply prevent one fatigue event, let alone save a life, it is worth it, but geez it is hard to do so any other way and the cost to family etc, is huge over such a time.
So Vegemite on raisin bread for brekkie and off to hook up now, load at noon from a couple of hours away, then a timeslot in Melbourne tomorrow morn and hope for the best. Till next time, Safe Travelling, Rod.
TRUCKRIGHT 