Transport Reform Now

By Tim Dawson | Branch Secretary

operators, on razor-thin margins. It’s an industrywide supply chain crisis caused by wealthy clients like Aldi squeezing transport contracts and profiting off those tight margins, while drivers and operators are pushed to the brink.

In the 2021-2022 financial year, almost 200 companies in the transport sector became insolvent, while their clients at the top of the supply chain have made mammoth profits.

In transport, Australia’s deadliest industry, financial difficulties are transformed into huge safety risks on our roads, with drivers pressured to work longer, harder, and faster to make ends meet. Already in 2023, 41 people have lost their lives on Australian roads, 9 of them truck drivers.

Accountability for safety in such a dangerous industry must come from the top – from those wealthy clients squeezing transport contracts.

Woolworths and Coles have signed charters with the TWU on supply chain transparency, fairness, and safety. Aldi, whose profit margins are much higher than its competitors, refuses to do the same.

Instead, Aldi has tried to silence truckies speaking out on safety in the Federal Courtbut lost, twice.

Transport needs reform. It needs it urgently. Reforms that should ensure client