TRUCK SAFETY ENIGMA !

It is chilling to learn that many of the trucks sharing the road with us have major defects. The police are using a new tactic. Whenever there is an accident involving a company truck, the entire fleet is pulled in for a safety check - and the results tell a sad story. In the latest incident,a fleet of twenty-one trucks saw twelve major defect notices take twelve vehicles off the road - and many of these related to brakes and steering. It is clear that the present pre-registration inspection system is inadequate. Trucks are a huge investment for an owner and to make money they need to be constantly on the move. Many have drivers working on a shift basis and are therefore travelling 24/7 - amassing a huge annual number of kilometres. To treat them in the same manner as the family car - with an annual inspection - misses the point. We need a national road plan becauser the truck industry covers the entire country. It stands to reason that two factors have a bearing on a truck's safety condition. Age - and kilometres travelled ! Just as the owners of a new car are allowed a four year break before annual inspections are required, new trucks are in top condition when they come from the factory, but they travel much further than the average car - very quickly. We could learn an important message from the aviation industry. Air travel is safe becaused airplanes are subjected to a rigorous maintenance programme - and this is dictated by hours flown. Truck maintenance needs this same factor to be applied - and checked by mandatory inspections on a time/distance alotted basis. It is a fact of life that the older equipment gets, the greater the tendency to advanced wear and tear. Settingt inspection requirements should take a measure of vehicle age and kilometres covered - and that inspection should be required at one of the government truck inspection stations to ensure reliability standards are maintained. If we are to have safe trucks on our national road system, we need a national inspection system in tandem - and that requires political cooperation between the states. That is a big ask ! Traffic density on our roads is ever increasing and if safety is an issue now, it will be even bigger in the years ahead. Truck sizes are increasing. We now share the roads with semi-trailers and B-Doubles and there is talk of road trains on main trunk roads. The fact that we know that we are sharing the roads with many unsafe trucks is a warning of things to come - unless a more stringent inspection programme is put in place. The industry will protest on cost grounds - but can we ignore this danger ? If it means that older trucks with huge odometer readings need a check every three months to maintain a roadworthy certificate - then so be it ! The alternative is a death lottery. Right now - that behemoth looming ever closer in your rear vision mirror may have defective brakes or steering.