Truckies cop it

POLICE do an amazing job, don’t get me wrong. But why do some feel compelled to make so many truckies’ lives more stressful by going over a truck with a fine-tooth comb.

Sure, if there is something obvious, fair enough. But did tipper driver Donny Biddle (see page 2 and cartoon, right) really warrant a defect notice for an oil leak, particularly when the pictures he took on the same day clearly show there wasn’t one?

It reminds me of the day a top-ranking NTC executive confided to industry at a Melbourne event that he wished police would leave enforcement of trucking to those who are trained to know what to look for. Some years later and still nothing has changed.

We have the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator telling us it’s all about education over enforcement, yet every day we hear of stories such as Biddle’s about police doing exactly the opposite.