LRTAWA – The Elephant in the room

LRTAWA by David Fyfe, President, Livestock and Rural Transport Association of Western Australia (Inc)

The elephant in the room

Hardly a day goes by these days without someone in our industry complaining about a near miss or an incident on the road caused by a perceived lack of driver competence.

This is partly the reason given by companies that are withdrawing from work that requires travel on some of the main freight routes such as the Great Eastern Highway - road condition being the other reason.

It is true that our peers are our worst critics and there is no shortage of gratuitous advice in the world of transport, but it must be said that something is not right about the licensing regime if it allows drivers on the road behind the wheel of any kind of heavy vehicle if they are not fully competent. We even have apps that coach drivers on fatigue, load restraint, coupling and uncoupling whilst they are on the road.

WA council calls for Heavy Haulage Road Tax to compensate for damage

Agroup of South West Regional Councils are going to lobby the WA Local Government Association to update its guidance on the levy, which would mean Councils could charge extractive industries more for road maintenance – specifically, trucks from mining and logging industries.

The Capel Shire raised the issue and President Doug Kitchen told ABC South West WA the levy had not been updated for years.

“The price index has not kept up with the reality of road maintenance cost increases,” he said.

“The Shire of Capel has advocated for the South West local government zone to have that reviewed and updated so local governments can have a fairer return on those maintenance upkeep costs.

“We’d like to see an improvement so there's less of a direct impact on ratepayers in the district to look after those roads and more of that onus is put back on the extractive industry while it's operating.”

Craig Carbone runs a heavy haulage company in WA’s South West and said trucking companies already paid a road levy for each of their extraction licences.

He told ABC South West WA, "We pay a levy now and we think it's fair and equitable.

“Obviously this is just another money grab.

Mr Carbone, a Shire of Harvey councillor, said local governments received funding from the state and Commonwealth to pay for road maintenance.

“They [Shire of Capel] need to get their act together and go back to their State and Federal politicians and get the funding from where it should come from” he said.

Shire of Nannup President Tony Dean told ABC South West the council attempted to impose extra rates on heavy logging trucks about ten years ago.

“It was a little bit messy, it was too widespread, we abandoned that,” he said.

This year the Shire of Nannup came across the issue again and placed a differential rate on the blue gum plantation industry.

“We’ve raised some money,” Mr Dean said.

“It goes a long way in covering the difference between what we collect in rates and what we actually spend on our road system.”

He said while it was an extra cost, the road transport industry would also benefit from improved roads.

“We’ve found a way in the Shire of Nannup to get that money so that we can put it back in to the roads,” Mr Dean said.

“So we can improve the life of not only the haulers, but the people who live on those roads as well.”