POPULAR WORDS

July 30, 2010

Electronic monitoring should be mandatory for trucking operators that persistently break road rules, the Australian Trucking Association says.

The ATA has responded to a policy discussion paper from the National Transport Commission on the development of a national strategy to improve the take-up of telematics by the industry.

It says governments should focus on a voluntary scheme for operators to aid them in compliance.

“However, the ATA supports the use of supervised intervention orders specifying the use of telematics, applied by a court, for serious or persistent offenders with proven history of non-compliance,” ATA Chairman David Simon says.

“The preferred method to achieving compliance should be to educate, facilitate, reward and encourage.”

Simon called on governments to work with the trucking industry on the development of telematics and rejected the need for a prescribed system.

“The ATA wants to work with governments to ensure industry has a choice and the opportunity to agree on voluntary ways forward,” he says.

“This includes open standards that do not constrain innovation, while satisfying industry and government objectives for better safety outcomes."

In its discussion paper released last month, the NTC recommended a national strategy on telematics to look at ways to encourage the trucking industry to adopt the technology to improve safety and productivity.

NTC Chief Executive Nick Dimopoulos says he wants to see 90 percent of the road freight sector using in-vehicle tracking systems by 2030 to manage fatigue, speed and overloading risks.

The NTC is also finalising a policy paper on the use of electronic work diaries as an alternative to the paper-based method and has released a paper on a framework for on-board heavy vehicle mass technology.