Category Archives: Transport industry
Truck driver shortage not helped by over-zealous transport cops
by Jim O’Toole, Townsville bureau
While the Far Northern Queensland cane crop is in jeopardy due to a shortage of truck drivers there are at least 2000 truck driver vacancies across the state.
Mossman sugar mill is offering $60 an hour for ABN holders yet is unable to attract enough drivers to get harvested cane from paddocks to the mill for crushing.
Queensland Trucking Association CEO Gary Mahon told ABC Radio there is an unprecedented shortage of drivers across all industries.
He said there was tough competition throughout all industries and particularly from mining.
The $60 per hour rate offered by Mossman Mill is comparable to the coal industry and across mining generally so there have to be other reasons why younger people won’t take on a big rig.
Pull up at a truck stop and listen to drivers in the restaurant whose main topic of conversation usually is about ‘mermaids’ which refers to Main Roads Department compliance officers who generally are the more disliked than police by truckies.
We spoke to a soon-to-retire interstate driver, Graham, Townsville, who has plied the national highway for 30 years in singles and B-doubles.
He said a lot of drivers have been forced out of the industry over the past few years citing the Covid mandates as having the worst ever effect on company operators and owner-drivers who were forced to have a Covid vaxx before entering warehouses and freight depots.
“A lot of drivers refused and lost their jobs or contracts,” Graham said.
“Then there are the bloody Main Roads cops who make trucks easy targets for compliance checks of mainly log books and searching trucks for drugs,” he complained.
“If the scalies don’t like you or the company you work for they will fine you for anything at all. It doesn’t matter if they find nothing wrong with your truck or log book they will find or make up something.
“A friend last year lost his licence from (demerit) points because he stood up to bullying scalies when they couldn’t find anything wrong so he was fined for a spelling mistake and an wrong speedo calculation and the points went over the limit.
“He couldn’t drive for months so he left the industry. He had a family to support.”
Over-zealous transport cops have always been the scourge of the industry and in some cases deserve all the scorn poured upon them.
There had been cowboy drivers over the years “but there are few of them now days,” Graham said.
Go harder Graham Hood this is our last chance
Canberra Rally: Hoisting the Red Ensign at Government House today was a tremendous tactical move giving encouragement to the hundreds of thousands of protesters and faraway onlookers.
Graham Hood is carrying the charge quite well but as yet it hasn’t detonated. There have been so many demonstrations held at Parliament House over the years they all seem to fade into one.
Staff from Cairns News have been to several of them spanning 30 or more years but nothing ever seems to change. We fear the modus operandi of this rally should be harder, which will be the last opportunity to prevent the New World Order from engulfing this country that politicians and bureaucrats have referred to since the Covid plandemic began.
If this rally has no effect on the Corporation then Australians will face life owning nothing and being happy as Klaus Schwab of the World Economic Forum has alluded to.
Former Qantas pilot Graham Hood(right) is a decent God-fearing man who has achieved a great deal of credibility for the rally.
But we fear that having talks and listening to music on the Parliamentary lawn with whomever emerges from the Chamber when Parliament is sitting, from experience will achieve nothing.
Lip service is the norm, but figuratively speaking it seems nothing short of taking over Parliament House, Capitol Hill style will jerk these party tyrants into gear.
Over the past several years Cairns News has spoken to a lot of informants and received much material that has fallen off the back of trucks. We know for a fact that compulsory drug testing of the entire federal and state public service on a given day during PM Tony Abbot’s term revealed startling results showing 80 per cent had either taken illicit drugs or were still taking them.
Police were among the highest results. This is why many robo police officers have lost any semblance of humanity and seem soulless in their interaction with the public.
Protesters must realise party plants only hold the top positions because Deep State has compromised them beyond belief and these unpalatable people are entirely beholden to their corporate masters and to the Lodge, aka Satan. These party hacks will not yield an inch.
If a million people arrive there and it seems possible at this stage, there would be no shortage of younger loyal Australians willing to take affirmative action. They have no jobs, no future and have nothing to lose.
Many have lost or injured family members due to the jab and soon their kids will suffer.
The few of us at Cairns News would go willingly but age is creeping in and we are just too far away to travel. We believe we can achieve more by keeping the real narrative alive and we can’t be shut down by Falsebook or Yourboob, which we believe will soon happen to protesters.
Good luck Graham but we think you need to go harder. Mr Nice guy does not gel with demons. Lock down the city which the duopoly had no trouble doing to every citizen and small business, many of which will never recover and have lost everything over the biggest scam ever perpetrated on mankind.
The stupidity of the federal bureaucracy and the ALP/LNP duopoly knows no bounds
Imported supply of diesel additive to make modern truck and tractor engines operate has run out
By Henry Jom
December 12, 2021
Federal Trade Minister Dan Tehan is confident Australia’s urea supply will be unaffected as the federal government seeks to secure the crucial diesel fuel emissions ingredient from other countries.
Tehan has also urged businesses not to hoard AdBlue—a brand of diesel exhaust fluid (DEF) containing urea used in modern trucks and diesel vehicles—in order to prevent disruptions to the nation’s freight and logistics sector.
“There are obviously issues around containers, shipping disruptions which we’re also working through,” Tehan told ABC Radio.
“But from everything that we’re seeing, there is a clear supply which we can bring to Australia and given we have seven weeks already in stock, we are very confident we will be able to get the urea that we need into the country.”
Last month, the federal government imported 27,000 litres of urea from South Korea used to make AdBlue.
Australia is also speaking with Indonesia and will approach Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Japan, to secure further urea supplies.
“I’ve spoken to my Indonesian counterpart and there is some supply in Indonesia that we should be able to access in the coming weeks,” Tehan told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).
This follows the banning of urea exports from China as it prioritises domestic supply.
Analysts estimate about three-quarters of urea produced in China is made with coal, while the rest uses natural gas, reported.
While Australia has previously imported 80 percent of its urea from China, countries like Indonesia and South Korea appear to be good alternatives for Australia, David Leaney, an International Supply Chain Management lecturer at Australian National University said.
“We’ve got good trade relationships with South Korea as well.”
Leaney added that the geographical closeness of Indonesia is more appealing for Australia as urea is a cheap commodity for its volume.
“What you don’t want is transporting cheap stuff using expensive transport a long way because then transport becomes a too higher percentage of the total price you’re paying,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Victorian Farmers Federation (VFF) said the shortage was a “wake-up call” for an over-reliance on concentrated international supply chains.
“We need to increase our domestic manufacturing capacity to increase Australia’s resilience to international supply chain shocks,” VFF infrastructure and transport committee chair Ryan Milgate said in a media release.
Milgate added that the agricultural supply was already under strain with truck driver shortages and global supply chain disruptions.
“As farmers produce essential perishable goods, the supply of critical inputs like AdBlue is essential to maintaining our food security.
“It’s critical the AdBlue supply chain including manufacturers, the fertiliser industry, transport operators and government work together to address the shortages,” Milgate said.
National Road Transport Association’s chief executive Warren Clark previously called on the federal government to form a task force of industry groups to look at options to mitigate the situation in the immediate term.
“If we learned one thing from COVID-19 it’s that a lack of coordination only compounds problems,” Warren said.
“Our industry isn’t the only one that will be affected, but we will be hit first and hardest.”
From a reader:
https://www.bakeryoung.com.au/a-boost-for-agriculture-from-sa/ Leigh Creek Energy is developing its flagship Leigh Creek Urea Project (LCUP), located 550km north of Adelaide in South Australia.
The $2.6 billion LCUP will be the lowest-cost sovereign producer of urea, producing nitrogen-based fertiliser for local and export agriculture markets. It will provide additional security for a critical product for the Australian agricultural sector and avoid supply-side risks associated with international transport, exchange rates, commodity prices, and import logistics that Australian farmers contend with.
Truck driver throws out compulsory work diary in face of transport police and court
Republished from 2019
Letter to the Editor
Trucking Australia Party
PO Box 1626 Port Adelaide Plaza 5015
Subject, ONGOING Work Diary Corruption
16/10/2019
Dear Reader
I Graeme Scott Buckmaster, have just come from a court hearing in the Adelaide Magistrates Court before chief Magistrate Marie -Louise Hribal who was fair, treating me with dignity and respect, in hearing this matter. The persons present were the NHVR prosecutor and a representative of SAPOL, at the hearing. The conversation to day addressed the validity of the current NHVR work diary and the laws pertaining to its use.
I have again been charged, both by Summons and Expiation notice. I have duly notified the Chief Magistrate the current NHVL’s, as I see them, are corrupt and invalid, and have no jurisdiction in the current courts system. In a further statement I went on to say the officer behind these current illegal charges is senior sergeant Darryl Foyle, a probable corrupt SAPOL officer still running around harassing and intimidating employers / truckies across all roads leading in and out of South Australia.
Truck drivers say throw away your log books
The current situation today ,I informed the court there is no proving of Fatigue on road, and the current work diary cannot be used any further to invoke Fatigue laws, or fine truckies forthwith.
My advice to all operators/truckies across Australia, who will inevitably read this post, is to now throw away your work diaries like I have done, and stand and grow a set, whether you are an owner driver or employed. Simply refuse to use this corrupt book. I have BROKEN THE BACK OF THE NHVL’s and urge all those who have a moral compass and a sense of what is right, to inform your bosses/contractors, employers you are quite happy to work, but not to comply with the current laws in relation to the work diary or use the corrupt book.
Start your own self managed fatigue, and persevere with it, as I have done,the laws must now be broken down and reformed. The Federal Government, along with the complying states, will not like you doing this as I have done, and if intercepted, inform the officers you will not be grounded or interfered with. If the officers persist tell them you wish to be summonsed to court, and you will require them to appear ,as first instance officers. Stand up truckies, protect what is ours-OUR RIGHT TO WORK unhindered on Commonwealth free Roads.
I have requested the transcripts from this hearing which will clearly show my intentions to force Sal Petroccitto and his Corrupt officers in SA to be sacked by Premier Steven Marshall. The courts reference number is MCPAU-18-2780, for those who wish to order their own copies. It is time guys, to operate across all states without using the book. Lets see who’s strong enough, to carry this on.!!
ITS TIME,, we took back control of our own industry .
Bucky www.ivantrust.com 0428896440
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