Cost on inefficiency prescribed to help better manage fleets and human resources
The Victorian Transport Association (VTA) has offered a series of strategies that aim to improve port safety through reducing waiting times and stress for truck drivers, in its submission to the Road Safety Remuneration Tribunal’s (RSRT’s) inquiry into the wharf and port transport sector.
The VTA suggests guaranteed clearance times for duties payable would enable transport operators to better manage their fleets and human resources, in a position that echoes aspects of reforms in place in New South Wales under the Port Botany Landside Improvement Strategy (PBLIS).
“The duty for all import containers [should] be paid with the container clear for access by the carrier 24 hours before the vessel is discharged in port,” it advises.
“Carriers would [then] be able to book time slots for collection [and] customers would receive a commitment and delivery time from the carrier.”
In order to reduce delays caused by issues such as late ships, incorrect paperwork, and overweight containers, the VTA recommends penalties be paid to carriers and drivers.
“There would be less stress on the carrier to work outside of the agreed process of container delivery and receiving.”
In the same way, penalties paid by carriers to stevedores should be more closely regulated, the VTA says.
It urges the inquiry to review the current agreements operating in each of Australia’s container ports “to ensure that financial penalties are not applied on an ad-hoc or discretionary basis and that the enforcement of the process is both-ways”.
The VTA also recommends changes to current payment structures to an hourly rate that “allows commercial operations to be managed without compromising work or driving standards”.
Employer group Business SA has warned the RSRT against taking the link between increased remuneration and safer work practices as given.
It says previous research is both out of date, and unrelated to the specific circumstances of the wharf transport task.
“Business SA asserts that the research to date has not shown empirical evidence of the causal link between remuneration and safety,” it says.
“Further to this, there is no empirical evidence showing that there is an improvement in the safety culture when the remuneration of its participants is increased.”
That’s something the Transport Workers Union (TWU) takes issue with.
It says there are a number of problems in the ways participants in the wharf supply chain interact with each other that has an impact on truck drivers’ wellbeing and remuneration.
“Such deficiencies not only lead to danger for workers and the general road-using public but are also a barrier to efficiencies in such a crucial sector of the Australian economy,” its submission states.
Among a wide range of issues and concerns listed, it highlights the significant pressure that all port workers face, which both contributes to and results in failures to provide timely documentation and a reduced emphasis on safety.