On a recent cross country drive from Cairns to Adelaide, calling in at places like Winton, Longreach, Bourke, Cobar and Broken Hill, I was, yet again, struck by the distinct lack of sufficient facilities for fatigued drivers.
There is a paucity of decent truck parking facilities on our highways, and driving these highways, this fact was brought home to me over and over again.
Having driven trucks for a living for a long time I do know that one of the many stressful aspects of the job is that period when you, as a driver, are starting to feel fatigued and realising that you do really need a rest. Then you begin the process of working out how well you know the road and whether there are decent parking facilities somewhere.
The question you are asking is, where will it be possible to be far enough off the road and in a quiet enough place to get a decent rest ,or somewhere where there will be shower facilities food etc.
If it’s an unfamiliar road, the driver is under intense pressure because they have no idea whether they will be able to reach a decent rest stop or find it quiet parking space, before running out of hours.
Undoubtedly, this additional stress of knowing that there are very few facilities for the truck driver anywhere. On top of this, is the fact that the closer you get to the limit of your working hours for the day, the pressure piles on and it becomes more and more difficult to concentrate.
Adding even more pressure, is the fact that many parking bays are inadequately signposted and on arrival may be full of grey nomads, parking willy-nilly in an area designed specifically for long combinations to park up overnight.
Recently the Australian government has set up a committee of truck drivers and road transport industry representatives to set the priorities for where rest areas are needed. This is a fantastic initiative and hopefully it will result in better facilities. But this is only a small part of the problem.
The fact of the matter is the Australian federal government does not control that many highways and is not involved in funding that many parking bays. It’s the individual states which need to be pressured and forced into creating much better truck parking facilities. Ones which are much better organised, signposted and properly surfaced.
This is yet another issue for the trucking industry in which the federal government seems to have the right idea and wants to do the right thing, and make ensure there are sufficient facilities for fatigue drivers.
While, at the same time, they have no control over the states who apparently care about everything else but the fatigue issues for truck drivers and the overall safety of road users.
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