SA Opposition leader won't guarantee the future of the IAP under a Liberal government
By Samantha Freestone and Brad Gardner | March 11, 2010
The controversial Intelligent Access Program (IAP) may go if the Liberals are sworn into power in South Australia.
With less than two weeks to go before election day, Opposition Leader Isobel Redmond has refused to commit to the GPS tracking tool despite it being legislated last year.
“A Redmond Liberal Government will look at what is happening in other states and review the success of the IAP,” Redmond says.
The Opposition strongly opposed IAP when it was debated last year, raising concerns over its effectiveness and the cost burden it put on trucking operators.
Opposition spokesman on roads and infrastructure David Ridgway wanted the device restricted to offenders caught repeatedly breaching road laws.
To be introduced on July 1 this year, IAP is designed to give operators who enrol increased road access in return for being monitored via GPS to assure government heavy vehicles do not stray onto routes incapable of supporting them.
The South Australian Road Transport Association (SARTA) lobbied against the scheme, while K&S Managing Director Legh Winser wrote to Minister for Transport Patrick Conlon questioning its value.
“In relation to IAP, our experience to date in other states has been that the costs associated with fitting and maintaining IAP compliant monitoring devices on vehicles have not justified any efficiency gains available from new routes and access regimes,” Winser wrote.
Unlike Queensland and NSW, South Australia has chosen to follow Victoria’s lead by not mandating IAP for higher mass limits (HML) access.
“The current higher mass limits networks for single articulated vehicles, B-doubles and road trains will continue to exist and IAP will become a requirement for those operators requiring any enhancement to this access,” a spokeswoman for the Department of Transport, Energy and Infrastructure says.
This includes using higher productivity vehicles like super B-doubles currently being used in Victoria.
Queensland is also using the IAP to monitor speed and notifying companies if their drivers breach road laws.
Transport Certification Australia, which administers the IAP, used the example of Australian Container Freight Services (ACFS) to claim the tool has the potential to increase productivit.
By signing up to the IAP, ACFS is allowed to move two 40-foot containers per trip as opposed to a standard B-double which can only carry one container this size.
“I have often used the term ‘win-win’ to describe the IAP and I think this is another great example of that,” TCA Chief Executive Chris Koniditsiotis says.