It is a rotten and shitty job. I know heaps of drivers, and truck drivers must have the highest level of marriage breakup of any profession. I wouldn't do it ever.
See ya's.
Have you lot heard about the truck strike?
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It is a rotten and shitty job. I know heaps of drivers, and truck drivers must have the highest level of marriage breakup of any profession. I wouldn't do it ever.
See ya's.
SEQWater is not striking
Sounds like it might be a fizzer.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/truckies-told-to-strike-or-else/2008/07/27/1217097050024.html
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/truckies-told-to-strike-or-else/2008/07/27/1217097050024.html
Yes, you are right, there are laws to govern all of these things and it all works well in theory. Where it falls apart is when the truckie gets held up (traffic, weather, late call for the job, load not ready - any number of reasons why) but still ends up taking the load. A lot of the time the delivery timeslot is basically set in stone, or if it is to be changed, has to be postponed by a full day (especially so with the big chain supermarkets). If the driver wants work for the day, he has no choice but to take the load. So he hits the road, running late, and hoping to make it on time so that he does not get rejected when he goes to deliver (possibly late) at the other end. If he gets rejected, he is stuck with a trailer full of product and nowhere to offload it, which means missing his return load back home. It's much easier to speed and miss rest breaks and just dodgy up the log book.
So who is responsible? Everyone has a Duty of Care: the driver, his employer or the company he contracts for, the company that has requested the pick up, as well as the customer who is being delivered to.
Truckies work under immense stress (even if they are frequently labelled lazy), they spend a great deal of time on the road and away from home, and they are often treated with contempt. I feel sorry for them. When I used to work in the industry I discovered that the vast majority are just like you and I - trying to make a quid to feed the family, pay the bills and knock off some of the mortgage.
Whether striking will help them though... who knows. I hope something does.
Have you seen that sign on the back of trucks? "Without trucks, Australia stops." It's more true than most realise. If the strike is widespread, I think a few more people might just find out...
Difference being that two weeks of loss of income only compounds their situation if they are carrying debt against the rig.
Don't get me wrong.
I have a LOT of sympathy for truckies especially the owner operator.
God only knows the countless trips I have done on the 1550 km road trip between Perth and Karratha in the last seven years, and the drivers who get the most respect from me is the truckie.
They all get a wave, and a wide berth, whether I am passing them or whether they are coming the other way.
They are a special breed and the country needs them.
BUT.... the way of life they choose is their choice.
If its no longer profitable to operate a rig privately, then look for alternatives.
Its not that hard.
We still live in what amounts to one of the most democratic systems going, where we have the right to CHOOSE what path we take.
If I saw an advert from a truckie offering his rig and services for a fixed fee or income I would certainly call.
Saves me running that advert...
kp
Thanks, Ali G, for explaining; that makes a lot of sense. I do feel for the truckies. Do the supermarkets have such rigid slots because they simply don't have the capacity to accept deliveries outside those times?
I'm sure smarter minds than mine have been applied to the issue, but we (all of us) have to develop, and demand, a more flexible system.
Edit: I've heard Dr Phil say that one of the most stressful things that can happen to a person is to be made responsible for things over which they have no control, eg "if it rains in the morning, you lose the month's salary". Sounds like both farmers and truck drivers have this in spades, unfortunately for them.
My BIL runs a smallish frozen food logistics cpy. If one of his drivers misses their 20 minute slot at a loading bay they go to the back of the queue. Usually this means waiting till another load is late, or the end of the day... averages about a 4 hour wait. Obviously all his other drops are delayed too.....
When they sign the contract to deliver, it's all in there. We'd be paying more for food from the big supermarkets if they weren't efficient in streamlining their business.
Well I'm generally of that same view. Survival of the fittest, let the market decide, if you don't like it, do something else, blah blah. But only to a certain degree.
Apparently rego costs for B-doubles are going up by $7000 a year. Now that is a big hit, and it's a disgrace. An increase of that amount will eventually just be passed onto the consumer, but many business's will go bust before it gets passed on.
See ya's.
rail's good but we still need to get it from Kewdale or Midland or Fremantle to wherever else it's going.
the rail network isn't set up for delivering on a more capillary scale. if it were, then great! let's do it.
if the govt was serious about reducing the cost of living, they'd be cutting diesel excise, not petrol excise.
how did diesel go from being 50% of the cost of petrol, to 33c a litre more....?
the rail network isn't set up for delivering on a more capillary scale. if it were, then great! let's do it.
if the govt was serious about reducing the cost of living, they'd be cutting diesel excise, not petrol excise.
how did diesel go from being 50% of the cost of petrol, to 33c a litre more....?
Agreed, but it gets to the rail by road. Be it from the wharves, manufacturers, or elsewhere. Also, a lot of produce is not suitable for rail transportation because of increased damages associated with it. Not to mention that our rail facilities still leave a lot to be desired. There is no simple fix, but definitely a move towards rail would have some benefits. A shame everyone wants everything to be delivered at lightning speed, but I guess that's the world we live in.
Rail works when it's the most efficient method. Generally that's only when it can be loaded straight onto rail, and off again at the port. So that's coal and export grain and cotton. Even grain used in Australia is generally cheaper by road. The trains going through my area, all come back empty after taking the coal and export grain and cotton, as not much else pays by rail.
Problem with most freight though is that to get it onto the railway, you need a truck to get it to the track. Then at the other end you need a truck again to get it off the train and deliver the goods. The reality is that puting freight onto a truck and doing the whole job by truck is more efficient and cheaper than truck/rail/truck even with rail using much less energy. Oil will need to be $500 per barrel before the extra handling justifies it.
Then, due to our multiguage railway lines, interstate freight has the added burden of having to go, truck/rail/different guage rail/truck.
Rail used to be the transport of choice for fuel, livestock, fertilizer, whitegoods, Milk, lots of food, plus heaps more stuff. It's just being used less and less, and is now used for not much.
See ya's.
Having a further think about this,...
For rail to work, it would have to be subsidised by the government,...or,...
Trucks would have to be disadvantaged so much that they started leaving the industry.
I wonder is this the aim of the government, to get more freight onto rail, without having to subsidise the rail system. Just too bad about the social impact of truckies losing their business's. Wouldn't surprise me.
See ya's.
Well, it is kinda free market thinking isn't it? Isn't that what we all want, or does that only apply for housing?
Still, not the nicest way of going about it.....
Still, not the nicest way of going about it.....
Having a further think about this,...
For rail to work, it would have to be subsidised by the government,...or,...
Trucks would have to be disadvantaged so much that they started leaving the industry.
I wonder is this the aim of the government, to get more freight onto rail, without having to subsidise the rail system. just too bad about the social impact of truckies losing their business's. Wouldn't surprise me.
See ya's.
Because of supply and demand. All those mining companies (and farmers for that matter) who use diesel without paying any excise have changed the dynamics of the liquid fuel market. Diesel used to be the waste product but it has more energy in it so now petrol is the waste product - you can only get a certain amount of each from crude oil. If we weren't effectively subsidising diesel so much then it would be cheaper because miners / remote area power suppliers in particular would use less of it.
For rail to work, it would have to be subsidised by the government,...or,...
Trucks would have to be disadvantaged so much that they started leaving the industry.
Subsidies are in the eye of the beholder. Road transport is heavily subsidised already - truckies don't have to pay for the vast majority of new road network or maintenance issues they cause to the roads. Rail operators on the other hand have all rail maintenance and charges factored into their operations - this is a huge problem for rail. WA, for example, has some of the most profitable public rail freight systems in the world (through the Wheatbelt). The fact that only bulk commodity goods (eg grain) use the network is just a result of the fact road transport can't beat the raw numbers. Other freight would also be very competitive over rail if there was a good network in place with modern signalling systems and the costs were socialised as with the road network.
Rail would also be able to compete easily if legacy systems were dealt with (through installation of modern systems and a single gauge) and it was given an equal footing, receiving the same subsidies as road.
The fact our governments have refused for decades to invest in our national rail systems is an indictment of short term thinking, not a reflection of any underlying reality.
BTW, I support the truckies in this - in particular the pressures put on to them by the big companies and the safety shortcuts they inevitably have to make. No-one should have to work under those conditions in this country...
You seem a little mixed up HiEquity.
The diesel fuel tax rebate is exactly that, a rebate. It's not a subsidy. The rebate is given back to farmers, miners and fishermen because they don't use the roads, so they are not damaging the roads. Where do you think all the road building money comes from? It comes from taxes on fuel.
If I had to pay the full price for diesel that I use on farm, then I am subsidising every other road user.
The tax rebate only applies to diesel used on farm. It does not apply to any other diesel, so I still pay the full rate for my truck, and car. I effectively pay the full rate when i get my grain carted to the end user, so I am still paying the tax on getting thousands of tonnes of grain from my farm.
Truck owners pay the full rate for diesel. So how is truck transport being subsidised?
See ya's.
Hi TC. My post wasn't intended as an attack on the rebate for farmers, just an explanation of why diesel is more expensive. Consideration of the purpose of excise and the incentives thus created would require much more space!
In any case, excise doesn't pay for road maintenance. State and Local govts provide most of the funding through their own tax arrangements (including their share of GST revenue of course). The breakdown of road expenditure is Australia is as in this table from http://www.bitre.gov.au/publications/55/Files/is_24.pdf
TABLE 1 GOVERNMENT FUNDING OF ROAD–RELATED EXPENDITURE 1998–99 TO 2002–03
($ million)
Government 1998–99 1999–00 2000–01 2001–02 2002–03
Australian 1 707.4 1675.1 1458.5 1 821.5 1 720.0
State 3 001.6 3 143.2 3 763.7 3 599.0 3 695.2
Local 2453.7 2631.8 2 289.8 2 264.0 2 240.4
Total 7 162.7 7 450.1 7 512.0 7 684.5 7 655.7
Sorry I couldn't find anything more up to date from a quick search. Excise is under the Federal "Australian" banner - a minimal contribution to road funding but you could be excused for thinking it was more given the Feds always put a sign up to tell everyone about it when they do something to a road.
The reality is that trucks cause the vast majority of the damage to the road network and pay a pittance in excise (compared to the rest of the population) in consideration for the privilege. Higher State rego fees don't even come close.
Rail also pays excise on its fuel but this is not recycled into maintaining the rail network. Rail operators pay additional charges for the full cost of maintaining the rail network on top of their excise. These charges are incorporated into the price they charge for freight. Hence, they're not competing on a level playing field. A lot more freight would travel by rail if Local / State / Fed governments paid the full cost of maintenance as they do for roads...
...that's the key right there, as to why rail isn't used more - which is a damn shame.
Logistics dept's in most big companies pride themselves on JIT (just in time). It in turn is driven by the little cells on the accountant's spreadsheet.
Cascades down to the logistics guys and eventually the truckers down the bottom of the heap - causes a whole bunch of stress for them but who cares...certainly not the accountants and managers who are driving the agenda, as opposed to the truckers.
Big pats on the back are distributed all around internally within the company for keeping the stock inventory to an absolute minimum....it's a cashflow thing. Truckers having a cr@p life and stressed out is the price to pay. The accountants and managers who work 9-5 Mon to Fri are quite happy with that. No skin off their nose.
I've looked at these accountant's XLS's driving the whole show. I can confirm there certainly isn't a cell in their equation taking truckers stress / safety / family life and all that other fuzzy wuzzy social human stuff into consideration. It just doesn't rate a mention.....and I don't believe there is any plan to change the input cells to the equation anytime soon.
