Gathering will allow livestock and rural transport carriers to raise issues directly with the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator.
A high-level working group established to champion the concerns of livestock and rural operators to the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator (NHVR) will involve leading figures from across the country.
The new group, announced at this year’s Livestock and Bulk Carriers Association’s (LBCA) conference, will feature a seven-person panel from Australia’s peak livestock and bulk trucking groups.
The members include the Australian Livestock and Rural Transporters Association (ALRTA), the LBCA, and the Queensland, South Australian and Western Australian arms of the Livestock and Rural Transporters Association (LRTA).
The Livestock Transporters Association of Victoria (LTAV) and the Livestock Transporters Association of Tasmania (LTAT) have also been included.
Although it already has a number of working groups representing different areas of the trucking industry, the NHVR says it is important to ensure the livestock and bulk sector has a voice due to its specific needs.
“We’ve been in consultation with the ALRTA now for some time around how we can engage with them because they didn’t logically fit under one of those sub groups but are important enough to justify the establishment of another stakeholder group. So we reached a decision that we would create that group,” NHVR CEO Sal Petroccitto tells ATN.
He says the group is a good opportunity for the NHVR to hear firsthand from operators about issues affecting them.
“Most of the members of that group are actually operators, which means the real people on the ground,” Petroccitto says.
Apart from the ALRTA, representatives from all the associations named as members of the group run their own trucking businesses.
The ALRTA will send its executive director, Mat Munro, to represent it.
He will join LBCA president Jock Carter, LRTA Queensland president David Scott, LRTA SA president David Smith, LRTA WA president Stephen Marley, LTAV president John Beer and LTAT president Spencer Griggs.
The NHVR now has four industry operator groups covering the agriculture, crane, livestock and rural, and oversize sectors of the trucking industry.
Those groups sit under the NHVR’s industry reference forum, which is the regulator’s key advisory body.
It is made up of peak transport and government representatives including the Australian Trucking Association , the Australian Logistics Council, the Bus Industry Confederation, NatRoad, the Local Government Association and the Civil Contractors Federation.
The gathering also includes NHVR CEO Sal Petroccitto and senior staff from the regulator.
“The role of the Industry Reference Forum is to assist the NHVR in driving the longer-term, strategic agenda for regulatory reform of Australia’s heavy vehicle industry. This forum has a direct link with our four industry operators groups,” the NHVR states on its website.
Photography: Brad Gardner