Fatigue doesn’t only affect truck drivers

Why are drivers leaving?

Long-time veteran Tasmanian driver Selwyn Sin eld has expressed his heartfelt opinion about why drivers are leaving the industry.

“When all things are considered equal on the severity of penalty against risk to injury or death within the laws of the road there is a massive discriminatory di erence for what appears to be no reasoning of fairness. No other driver faces the penalty a truck driver can face for what is considered minor mistakes or minor logbook entry error,” Sin eld told Spy.

“In a perfect world we all still make mistakes, mostly minor, but rather than dictate our way out of that by high penalty amounts, many consider it would be a better way to do it via education programs rather than by aggressively chasing the almighty dollar.”

He said that only one in seven drivers who should be monitored for fatigue are NOT being monitored for their fatigue management.

“Currently around 20 million drivers hold a licence to drive but a mere 189,500 are monitored for managing their fatigue. ere is no argument some truck drivers cover large amounts of kilometres yearly. So too do many car drivers who cover well over 100,000km a year in their jobs. ere is no mention about managing fatigue for all those drivers who do not drive trucks,” explained Sin eld.

“Why is it thought that only a truck driver will become fatigued? Politicians have already set a precedent on being fatigued in the many lm clips showing them asleep while sit- ting in parliament. ere is no argument fatigue kills, but that does NOT only happen to a truck driver. It can happen to anyone.

“What I am seeking is for truck drivers to be considered in the same way a car diver and the sleeping politician is considered when it comes to fatigue. We need an even playing eld across the board so the penalty for fatigue is balanced fairly between all drivers and not elevated to one small amount of selected drivers as it is within the heavy vehicle laws in place today. ere will always be fatigue related incidents between vehicles.

“So please let us have that discussion around fairness on who carries that blame and make the penalties in line with the seriousness of that incident. A written nish time at the end of a working day when no incident was had does not bear a need for an initial ne of $1100 in the rst instance. Maybe if the driver has continued to do the same thing over and over then maybe it will be needed to have that huge penalty.

“Note all HVNL penalties are issued at 10 per cent of the set penalty. at leaves the driver who worked 15 minutes past his regulated hours of work facing $1100 minimum for rst o ence. A car driver who runs a red light gets below $500 max- imum penalty plus loss of some points,” he said in conclusion.

Marulan road concerns

I have had several contacts from angry truckies about the state of the Hume Highway northbound and southbound of the notorious Marulan Heavy Vehicle Inspection in NSW.

“It is an absolute disgrace and needs urgent work and not just a band aid solution,” one regular user told Spy.

Our champion drivers face the trauma of being stopped by the scalies and potentially breached for some minor logbook error.

But their trucks may be damaged or get a at tyre because of the road.

No wonder Marulan is a “dirty word” with many truckies.

Friends after chance meeting

Spy was driving through a roadhouse parking area on June 13 looking for drivers to have a yarn to and snap their pic.

Whilst there were plenty of parked trucks, they were all locked up and the drivers obviously were in the roadhouse having a meal or shower, or perhaps had wandered over to the nearby shopping centre.

Just as Spy was leaving the roadhouse exit, my phone buzzed so I pulled over to answer it.

“Ted here, the driver from Deniliquin,” he said.

So I swung around and caught up with Ted Markwort who was beside his rig, aptly named “Takin Care of Business”.

“I have brought up some big pipes from Melbourne to North Queensland for a project and left on Sunday at 6am and arrived here today,” he said.

Some time ago I did a story and interview on Ted who is a genuine gentleman of the highways and byways.

Since then I have managed to track down two of his sons who are also drivers.

Ted wanted me to join him for a cuppa in the roadhouse but I had to reluctantly decline as I had another job soon after. is type of incident occurs regularly with Spy and I reckon the motto here is “you make genuine friends from chance meetings”.

Life saver for snake

A truckie saved the life of a large Morelia Spilota Carpet Python which he came across unexpectedly on a footpath across the road from his house at about 8pm one night.

He had just arrived home from work that evening and spotted a middle-aged lady who had seen it as she pulled up, so ran to her rescue. e self-confessed reptile lover didn’t want the snake to slither over the road at a snail’s pace and be run over by a car.

He placed his work esky nearby to redirect the sedate and non-venomous snake, which turned around and headed for trees.

Spy has to bestow the “Joe Blake” award of the month upon him.

WA pilot concern

One South Australian driver who regularly does runs into neighbouring WA has expressed concern at the actions of some pilot escort drivers.

“I have come across several instances recently of some pilot drivers travelling too close to a wide load behind them. You come around a crest or a bend and they are there,” he said.

Personally I can only praise the pilot escorts I have come across in past years. ose have done a magnicent job putting safety rst and they do travel long distances.

Mega roadhouse for Tassie e town is a part of the municipality of the Central Coast Council which also includes Penguin, Turners Beach, Leith, Gawler and surrounds and Forth. ere are already many roadhouses along the Bass Highway between Launceston and Smithton and this one will give truckies another option.

Space for six B-doubles will be provided when a new mega roadhouse is built at scenic Ulverstone in northern Tasmania. e 24-hour service station and roadhouse will have the rst Banjo’s Bakery drive through in the Apple Isle. Developers behind the project have decided to sell the approved proposal to another company to expedite its construction.

Ulverstone is a beautiful town on the mouth of the River Leven, on Bass Strait.

It is on the Bass Highway, 21km west of Devonport and 12km east of Penguin and has a population of around 12,000.

Plans are underway for the mega development on a vacant lot at South Road, West Ulverstone, just o the roundabout and adjacent to the Bass Highway.

It will include eight double-sided fuel bowsers, three diesel bowsers and a canopy for trucks, three electric car charging stations, a convenience store, two drivethrough take-away food outlets operating from 6am to 11pm, two loading bays, six B-double truck spaces and 24 illuminated signs, including a 20m high, four metre wide pylon sign next to the highway.

Blood pressure danger e fellow refused and even had to sign a waiver at the medical centre, stating it was his decision. e man’s partner of decades was worried sick and after some stern talks from mates and colleagues, he decided to have some treatment.

A long-time driver aged in his early fties went to a doctor to have some checks on possible skin cancers and the doctor checked his blood pressure.

Alas, it was a life threatening 220/200 and the doctor wanted to call an ambulance to have him rushed to the emergency department of the nearest hospital.

Instead he asked the doctor to prescribe some blood pressure tablets.

He wasn’t overweight at all but did admit to having a few too many alcohol intakes when o duty.

But it took a week for him to take action. Like many males we become stubborn when it comes to having check-ups and seeking treatment for any ailment.

Many of the truckies Spy yarns to from around the country are on medication for high blood pressure or hypertension as it is also referred to.

Fuel for thought

Spy enjoyed a visit to historical Ravenswood on June 15 with a retired NSW truckie and we came across a treasure trove of memorabilia from long-gone eras.

Ravenswood is 40km from the Flinders Highway turno , which is 87km from Townsville and 43km from Charters Towers.

A visit there is like going in a time capsule back to the late

1800s when it was a thriving gold mining town with 20 pubs.

Today, there are two pubs there named the Imperial and Railway Hotels, and these are often patronised by visiting truckies, workers from the nearby gold mine and tourists.

Both pubs were built in 1903 and beside the Imperial are two old rusty wrecks of Ford trucks which operated from the 1940s.

In a local park an old Chev holds pride of place and inside the Railway Hotel are two old fuel bowsers from the days when measuring was in gallons and not litres.

Around Ravenswood you will nd wrecks of old trucks and even some items from when horse and drays were the main transport.

Purchased a lotto ticket

Spy hears of a long-haul truckie who carries a swag in his truck and often likes to camp under the stars instead of in the sleeper box during a fatigue break.

On this particular occasion he enjoyed a sleep under the stars at a rural place called Hidden Valley.

He woke in the early hours to have a call of nature nearby and when he returned found that a huge tree branch had fallen onto his swag.

“If I had been there I would have been seriously injured or even may have been killed. I didn’t even think about trees above me. It was a huge heavy branch,” he said.

Now the gent looks up before he camps and headed o to the newsagency to buy a lotto ticket.

“ at was my lucky day,” he quipped.

Roo roulette at was a warning conveyed to Spy by a driver who had been a good source of information for many years.

Beware of giant kangaroos hopping across the road when you travel along the Wilcannia to Bourke Road.

“I have never seen so many kangaroos hopping across a road and most of them were huge. It is like playing roo roulette,” he said.

He said that stretch used to be a horror trip for drivers. “But today the dirt and gravel surfaces are usually pretty well maintained. e roads are closed quickly in wet weather and that prevents rut damage.

In dry weather you can easily complete this run in a soft roader, provided you keep speed to less than 80km/h maximum, to minimise tyre stress,” he said.

No escape from roadworks e bitumen road network on idyllic Magnetic Island is just 10km long. ese are on the hilly sections between Picnic Bay and Nelly Bay and from Arcadia to Horseshoe Bay. e trip takes about 90 minutes. Maggie is a suburb of Townsville about eight nautical miles across the briny. e barge leaves the Ross Creek terminal in Townsville and unloads and loads at the Nelly Bay ramp.

However truckies who travel there by barge from the mainland will be held up by roadworks just like on the mainland.

Truckies negotiating these sections have to use lower gears.

It is one of the most pleasant experiences for truckies: the trip on a barge across Cleveland Bay from Townsville to Magnetic Island.

Every day trucks arrive on “Maggie” for a variety of jobs.

Having been on the trip numerous times I can vouch for what a scenic trip it is.

Truckies who get to stay overnight there can enjoy a spot of shing with a popular spot being from the Picnic Bay jetty.

Spy also knows of truckies from Victoria and NSW who take their families to Maggie during holiday breaks. Some even own houses or units there.