TruckThat – January 2018

Welcome to TruckThat January 2018 and a new year, we sincerely hope that all of our listeners enjoyed the festive season as best as you could whether it was with family or as some needed to, working.

We’re back into things with a bang, presenting our first TruckThat episode for the year and as we mentioned last year, our focus is going to be on rest areas, the lack of them, the lack of facilities etc. etc.  Rod will be keen to ask the tough questions about the lack of rest areas especially given the harsh penalties presented to the industry for lack of compliance in the area of fatigue management.  As there is currently a review of rest areas underway Rod has been well and truly out there and now starts a campaign this month for improvements. Not only is there a distinct lack of rest areas right across Australia but the quality of the ones we do have are significantly poor with a lack of area, lack of shade and lack of facilities.  Then as the Authorities build new roads and close down many parking bays, there seems to be a distinct lack of will on their behalf to utilise pieces of old road for new parking bays.

Rod also covers the ‘Green Reflector’ informal parking bays and just what the green reflectors are for as you make your way up the Newell Highway.  Rod successfully bid for funding for this project through the NHVR road safety funding initiative in the 2016 round but it’s 19 years he’s been campaigning on the issue. We also started to release our Video shorts on Truckies Top Ten Tips for sharing the road safely with trucks so hopefully, we can reach some individuals out there and perhaps make a small difference.