WA Transport History

The History of the West Australian Road Transport Industry

By Russell McKinnon

1975

Vice-President Len Hall, who was elected in August, died before the November 5 meeting at which two minutes’ silence was observed. A Bray replaced him as Vice-President. Mr Hall joined the Executive Committee in late 1970 and rose to Vice-President in 1974, serving just over one year in the position.

The Crane Division was established and three meetings had been held before the late November Council meeting. B O’Connor was elected Chairman and J Black Vice-Chairman.

A restriction on the numbers of companies that could operate road trains to Muchea was “unreasonable”, the November 26 Council meeting was informed. The Association decided to support this sentiment and decided to write letters to the Minister for Transport and the Commissioner of Main Roads, urging the approval of the use of road trains to and from Perth on a restricted-hours basis.

A “Christmas gift” for the Association was a letter from the TWU State Secretary claiming a $40 per week over-award wage increase in addition to substantial improvements in working conditions. The Association recommended to all members to make a firm stand against this “unreasonable” claim.

Members who attended the quarterly meeting on December 18 were advised that the Association training activities had been “reasonably successful”, but that more members needed to take advantage of it.

1976

There was consideration for making Hay Street Mall just pedestrian access. The Parcels and Light Delivery Division was abreast of the changes and the issues that this would cause.

Restriction on height (4.1m) was placed on vehicles using the Kwinana Freeway from February during the reconstruction programme, expected to last until August.

With the resignation of the Manpower Development Officer, J Stapleton, in April it was decided that the Association would still go ahead with the extensions to the offices.

The increase in the national wage of 6.4 percent meant the Furniture Removers’ Division had to increase rates by 10 percent to local, country and the North-West from March 1.

The average number of children carried on each school day by bus totalled 23,005 with an average daily run of 80,970km. There were 703 bus contracts and 15 minor contracts in operation for an annual cost of $6,659,922. The average cost per child was $289.50.

An attempt to establish a multi-owner sub contractors’ section was dashed by the Executive on June 9, stating that Association membership should be enough for these people.

Authority was given for the use of double-bottom road trains for all types of cargo north of Muchea.

At the Annual General Meeting of August 26, the constitution was amended to lift the number of trustees from two to three and J P Cox was appointed to join long-standing Trustees R H North and G A Dickenson.

The Association splashed out on a two-gallon urn and inquiries were made about asphalting at the rear of the building. A price of $1849 was received from Pavic & Co, which was agreed upon.

Talks with Perth City proved fruitful with additional loading zones agreed upon.

The cost of travel to national conferences was always a bugbear and it was decided that no WA representative attend the ARTF Council meeting on November 17 because “there were insufficient agenda items of major interest”.

The Association amended the constitution to delete the word Secretary and replace it with the words Executive Director.

The Furniture Removers’ Division was active socially later in the year, holding a cabaret evening at the CTA Club on November 20 (although the absence of people from the larger removal companies was noted) and a Christmas function at the Floreat Hotel on December 7.

A report surfaced late in the year that a shipping company proposed to take over all the stevedoring activities at the Port of Fremantle.

The State’s new freedom-of-operation policy ended the licensing system within 60km of Perth GPO as well as restrictions on road transport of primary produce in many South-West areas. Road haulage of grain was permitted from several locations direct to the ports of Fremantle, Albany, Esperance and Geraldton. This season, exultant hauliers handled up to 720,000 tonnes.

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