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Australian truckers in drive for safe rates
6 November 2008
Transport workers are delivering a stark warning on safety as a truck loaded with 275 pairs of shoes, each representing a trucking-related fatality, set off on a road trip across Australia last week.
The Drive for Safe Rates campaign, organised by the ITF-affiliated Transport Workers’ Union, left Queensland last Thursday and is travelling through New South Wales and Victoria before ending its journey in Adelaide. On board the truck are 275 pairs of shoes, which represent the lives lost in heavy vehicle incidents in the 12 months to March 2008.
Last year the number of truck-related road deaths increased by about five per cent, while wages across the industry were driven down by six per cent. The union is arguing that the remuneration system, which exerts pressure on truck drivers to get to their destinations quickly, is to blame. Powerful retailers, it claims, set dangerous deadlines and pay inadequate rates, often on a per kilometre basis. Incentive-based payments, the union says, should be outlawed.
The National Transport Commission, an independent statutory body that advises the government on transport issues, has committed to investigate the current remuneration system for truckers and make recommendations for reform. Welcoming the move, TWU National Secretary Tony Sheldon said: “Drivers are crying out for a national system that gives drivers the ability to obtain a safe rate of pay and seek full cost recovery from the powerful transport clients like the major retailers to get relief from rising costs of living, rising costs of maintaining a safe truck and fuel spikes.
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