By Michael House | February 18, 2010A plan in Western Australia to introduce a mass management scheme for trucks is not good enough, according to the state’s peak trucking lobby.
The scheme, if carried out, is designed to reward operators with increased mass limits in return for adopting loading controls and management systems.
But Western Australian Transport Forum CEO Ian King says the scheme is more suited to transport operators in the eastern states.
“The industry is being offered a carrot of one to two tonnes of additional loading on the basis industry can provide confidence levels and assurances to Main Roads WA that our vehicles will not damage roads and infrastructure,” King says.
“This in reality is an eastern state driven initiative that is based on…high productivity IAP vehicles which are not relevant with our current circumstances in WA.”
King has also criticised the body responsible for proposing the scheme.
“The problem was that the heavy vehicle advisory group is a very select group of people, they are not talking to industry as all,” he says.
“Industry is demanding that 100 percent flexibility in the selection of equipment and the mixing and matching to suit customers job specifications – not a bureaucratic decision being made without due reference to industry.”