Local operators want to see more urgent road repairs on main freight routes
Transport businesses in Victoria’s south-west region say the state government must act quickly to maintain busy freight corridors before worsening conditions make them unsafe for heavy vehicles.
South-west transport operators that support Australia’s largest dairy production region say the slow speed of road maintenance is costing money while also inhibiting safety for drivers.
In 2019 five councils in the area sent a submission to the Victorian government asking for $317.5 million per year over 10 years to upgrade roads in the region.
“For a long time now there’s been a road we travel on daily which was having a massive impact on our truck suspension,” Webber and Chivell Fertilisers managing director Andrew Chivell says.
“There were potholes, washaways, narrow shoulders, bumps a foot deep, humps and hollows.”
This road is the Lavers Hill-Cobden Road that the state government recently announced it would commit to upgrading.
“It’s probably taken us five years campaigning and doing the dairy submission to get it done up,” Chivell says.
Final speed limits were only removed last month, meaning Chivell can now measure the savings on wear-and-tear costs for his trucks that use the upgraded freight road.
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Previously, the unsafe road was ruining suspensions and springs on many trailers that form part of Chivell’s 25-vehicle fleet.
“We have businesses to run, why can’t we have a system where we talk to the shire and the shire actually gets listened to?,” Chivell says.
The previously mentioned Barwon South West dairy supply chain study says the region is responsible for 24 per cent of the nation’s milk production.
“The freight task needed to transport production inputs, milk and finals goods to market is significant and costs industry around $345 million a year,” the study says.
The study found that improving roads and increasing the productivity of freight vehicles in the region would result in a reduction in haulage costs of $4.93 per tonne.
The report says increased funding is needed for resurfacing, rehabilitating, widening and strengthening bridges along the freight route.