The road transport industry group wants to represent Australia’s 35,000 owner-drivers
NatRoad is looking to make itself the owner-driver industry group, announcing plans to form an Owner Driver Working Group with the possibility of an owner-driver joining the NatRoad board.
Under the concept, which NatRoad CEO Warren Clark says comes in the wake of ongoing Road Safety Remuneration Tribunal (RSRT) protests, the working group will be chaired by a NatRoad board member and bring together an “active committee” of owner-drivers to create “an accessible forum to raise issues [that affect] small trucking businesses”.
“The voice of owner-drivers is an important voice for small business operations throughout Australia and we want to make sure that owner-drivers continue to be heard,” Clark says.
Highlighting the issues brought forward during the removal of the RSRT in terms of gathering and distributing information across the country’s 35,000 owner-drivers, the NatRoad CEO says “together we confronted a major viability issue … and the next 12 months will be critical for the industry.”
“The RSRT is still an issue which hangs on the outcome of the Federal election and which could still affect the bottom line of small trucking businesses throughout Australia and we are encouraging owner-drivers to get active with a campaign toolkit online through www.smalltruckingbusiness.com,” he says.
“NatRoad has been talking with many owner-drivers since the RSRT issue flared up and we can see that years of chopping and changing in compliance have created a number of challenges for small trucking businesses.
“The majority of our members are small trucking businesses and as the only nationally member-based association for the road freight industry we want to make sure that owner-drivers continue to be heard and that issues which challenge their business operations are well understood and addressed by governments and regulators.”
Clark says NatRoad “would welcome the election of an owner-driver to the board of NatRoad,” but understands the “significant” time commitment and therefore decided to pursue the working group idea.
The industry body is looking for six NatRoad members to form the group and meet once a month over teleconference for an hour.
It says it will run with an agenda and minutes, and also develop an “action plan with clear priorities”.
The six chosen members can have a variety of experience in the industry and each will be reviewed in June 2017.
NatRoad has three levels of involvement in the Owner Driver Working Group at this stage:
- Option 1 – Express your interest in joining the working group
- Option 2 – Register as a contributor to the working group
- Option 3 – Subscribe as a member or non-member to stay informed about the working groups activities and achievements
Further details on the group, or choosing your involvement, can be found here.