Traffic was temporarily halted on Hampton Road in south Fremantle as more than 150 protesters sought to stem transport deaths.
This year, almost 40% of all workplace deaths involved transport workers, with 22 transport worker deaths out of a total 57 workplace deaths, the Transport Workers’ Union (TWU) says. Last year, over one in three workplace deaths involved transport workers.
The TWU is hosting its national conference in Fremantle and is concerned about pressure on truck companies and drivers.
“Cutting transport costs and underpaying truck drivers has massive consequences on our roads,” TWU national secretary Tony Sheldon says.
“This financial pressure leads to trucks not being maintained and drivers forced to speed, drive long hours and skip mandatory rest breaks. This squeeze has got to stop, for the sake of the entire community.”
Sheldon says the Federal Government should shoulder some of the blame, saying it last year changed the rules which resulted in the disbanding of an independent tribunal holding businesses to account for any financial squeeze on transport.
He says the Government’s own report showed the tribunal’s orders would cut truck crashes by 28%.
“The pressure on drivers is real,” truck driver Frank Black says.
“It’s not just enough to increase the number of speed cameras to catch drivers. If you don’t tackle the reason why truck drivers are under pressure and what is forcing them to take risks on the road then nothing will change.”
The Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics reports an increase in fatal crashes in articulated trucks by an average of 1.6% per year over the three years to December 2016.
Fatal crashes involving heavy rigid trucks also increased by 6.8% compared with the corresponding period one year earlier and increased by an average of 6.2% per year over the three years to December 2016.
A Macquarie University study in February criticised a “critical gap” since the Government abolished the regulation that the independent tribunal represented, “that can eliminate existing incentives for overly tight scheduling, unpaid work, and rates that effectively are below cost recovery”.
The study also showed that one in ten truck drivers work over 80 hours a week, one in six owner-drivers say drivers can’t refuse an unsafe load, and 42% of owner-drivers said the reason drivers do not report safety breaches was because of a fear of losing their jobs.
A Safe Work Australia report in 2015 revealed 31% of employers say workers ignore safety rules to get the job done, 20% accept dangerous behavior – compared to less than 2% in other industries, and that 20% of transport industry employers break safety rules to meet deadlines – compared with 6% of employers in other industries.
