The Australian Trucking Association says the practical road safety measures in the 2017-18 Budget is welcome news.
ATA chairperson Geoff Crouch says the Government had continued funding its critical road safety infrastructure programmes in line with its election commitment.
“The Government was re-elected in 2016 with a commitment to continue supporting the Heavy Vehicle Safety and Productivity, Roads to Recovery, Black Spot and Bridges Renewal programmes beyond 2019-20,” says Crouch.
“These programmes are highly cost effective and deliver safety improvements such as truck rest areas, roundabouts and street lights at dangerous places on our roads. Meanwhile, the Bridges Renewal Programme is upgrading bridges that are critical to truck access to local communities,” he says.
“The 2017-18 Budget confirms that these programs will continue through to 2020-21. Their safety benefits will continue to flow,” says Crouch.
He welcomed the extension of the keys2drive programme, which is run by the Australian Automobile Association and its member associations.
The keys2drive programme provides a free coaching session to learner drivers and their supervisors. The Budget allocates $16 million to the program over the next four years, which will deliver more than 200,000 lessons.
“The ATA has worked with the AAA to seek funding to expand the programme to include information about how to share the road safely with trucks,” says Crouch.
“Learner drivers need to understand the importance of staying out of truck blind spots, not cutting in and not overtaking trucks when they are turning,” he says.
“We urge the Government to go ahead with this expansion; now it has made the threshold decision to continue the programme,” says Crouch.
Crouch says the Budget continued the Government’s support for small business.
“The vast majority of trucking businesses are small businesses. More than 94% have a turnover of $2 million or less,” he says.
“The Government’s decision to extend the instant asset write-off to 30 June 2018 will benefit many eligible businesses,” says Crouch.
“We also welcome the $300 million incentive to the states and territories to cut their red tape. Much of the red tape affecting trucking businesses is at state or territory level,” he says.
“We’d like to see the new National Partnership for Regulatory Reform cut our red tape burden and so we can spend more time focusing on moving Australia’s freight safely and productively,” says Crouch.
