Over to you LRTAWA by David Fyfe, President, Livestock and Rural Transport Association of Western Australia (Inc)
Rural transport ‘front and centre’ at Brunswick Show
H
ats off to the Brunswick Agricultural Society for putting rural transport ‘front and centre’ of their 90th anniversary show this year. It probably helped that one of the Livestock and Rural Transport Association’s long time committee members Mark Talbot is also President of the Brunswick Agricultural Society and his passion for rural transport is boundless. The show returned in fine form after a last minute cancellation in 2020 due to Covid-19. Under the theme of Celebrating Rural Transport the display of agricultural and transport equipment through the years from a horse and cart onwards, visually depicted the change and innovation in the transport industry. It was also an excellent opportunity to showcase careers in transport. The LRTAWA
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WATM • December 2021
booth had streams of people moving through during the day and we were able to have many conversations with interested people, but particularly the very young. Muscle Mite as always was a beacon for big and little children. Hopefully we sowed a couple of seeds of interest in some young minds that transport is a great career. It was a reminder about how important it is to constantly be talking about the industry and sharing insights whenever the chance arises. Whilst the industry is working hard to attract people and encourage careers, transport is facing a few headwinds. Our costs are rising. The price of fuel has skyrocketed almost overnight, the cost of spare parts has increased and that supposes you can actually obtain parts and equipment. The competition for drivers is seeing wages increase.
Inevitably these costs must be passed on, so it is probably time for transporters to reassess their rates to recoup some of these increasing costs. Rising costs are only one challenge ahead. Navigating the uncertainty of the WA Government vaccine mandate is creating headaches for employers and contractors. Whilst I’ll stop short of making comments about the merits or otherwise of the announcement, I am concerned that employers have been placed in a difficult position. They are at the frontline of implementing the policy which was announced on 20th October. At the time of writing this article on the 11th November we still had not seen the formal directions to give effect to the announcement notwithstanding the deadline for the vaccination one for the group of people in
