The speed limit on the Hume and the Federal highways of New South Wales is 110 kph, but heavy trucks are restricted to 100 kph and they are fitted with speed limiters to ensure that they do not exceed that limit.
Any car driver travelling either of those two highways would be aware of the difficulty of passing a heavy vehicle on those long, straight stretches - because the supposed 10 kph difference between car and truck speeds is an illusion - and now we know why !
A horror crash between a car and a B-Double that killed three people had forensic police examine the crashed truck. As a result of that investigation, the trucking firm involved was raided and all it's trucks examined - and this disclosed a litany of ruses to circumvent speed and safety laws.
It is possible to fit modifications that deceive the onboard computer registering speed, thus allowing the truck to consistently travel faster than the limit, and other modifications deliver more fuel to increase engine output - and go faster. Add falsification to the safe driving log books all drivers must maintain and you have a risky scenario of trucks with tired drivers travelling well above the posted speed limit.
It seems that the trucking industry could best be described as a conspiracy between trucking companies and those demanding that deliveries happen within a highly unreasonable time frame. The only way this can be accomplished is for trucks to break the speed limits and for drivers to ignore compulsory rest breaks. In most cases, to get a reasonable wage, drivers must achieve these tight schedules because doing so results in a " bonus " , rather than just the standard " dollars per hour "stipend.
It's a vicious cycle. The owners of trucking companies are desperate for work to keep their trucks rolling and this makes them vulnerable to unreasonable time delivery demands. In turn, they pressure their drivers to ignore or falsify rest breaks - and drive above the speed limit. Job security ensures that the men at the coal face have no option than to meet these demands.
The present furore will have inspectors crawling all over heavy trucks at inspection stations and teams of analysts combing through driver's log books, but the danger is that as time passes the attention to detail will wane - and things will return to normal.
If we are to have safe roads for all users the regulatory system must be so tight that no sane company will ever consider making modifications to deceive - and no driver would dare falsify a log book - and equally importantly - any firm making unsafe delivery demands should suffer the same heavy penalties - including gaol terms for senior management.
That is likely to be what is promised - but on the basis of past history - promised and delivered seem to be two totally different outcomes !
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