QTA elects new president to lead the association, while Hawkins boss Roz Shaw takes on the role of vice-president
By Brad Gardner | April 19, 2012
Tim Squires has handed over the leadership baton of the Queensland Trucking Association, with the new team including the first woman to be elected to an executive position.
Squires, who runs Tothag Transport Group and has played a lead role in the formation of safe rates legislation, stood down as the QTA’s president at the association’s annual general meeting this week.
SJ Sanders owner Warren Woods has taken over the presidency, with Hawkins Road Transport CEO Roz Shaw as his deputy.
“Roz Shaw was elected vice-president and in accepting the nomination became the first woman to hold an executive position on the QTA board of directors,” QTA CEO Peter Garske says.
“Her leadership of Hawkins Road Transport and her demonstrated business acumen across the Hawkins Family Group of companies is well known in the business world and across a range of government agencies.”
Garske says Shaw served as a director in 2008 and 2009 before returning in 2011 after taking a year-long break.
Bloke Logistics boss Mark Webb will continue in his role as the QTA’s treasurer, while the board also welcomed a fresh face in Peter Brown from Team Taxi Trucks.
“Peter has worked a lifetime in the road transport industry and is looking forward to participating in the debate on policy and contributing to the enhancement of industry standards,” Garske says.
Brown joins the likes of representatives from Kalari, NQX Freight Systems, Russell Transport, Speedie Contractors, Simon National Carriers and Annric Bulk Haulage.
Squires intends to remain an active presence in the industry, saying he will continue on the boards of the QTA and the Australian Trucking Association. He is also involved in the Queensland branch of the Australian Road Transport Industrial Organisation (ARTIO).
Squires says the QTA has identified heavy vehicle charges, national regulations, road safety, chain of responsibility, infrastructure, skills and road access as key issues for the group to focus on.
“We will continue to impress on governments the need for productivity and efficiency in the delivery of the freight task and for operators to be provided with an opportunity for legitimate return on investment,” Squires says in his final president’s report.
“Our obligation in return must be to positively contribute to road safety outcomes and accept that there can be no excuse for operating in breach of the law.”
Squires, who spent four years as the QTA’s president, touched on the introduction of safe rates legislation on July 1 in his report.
“The introduction by the Federal Government earlier this year of the Road Safety Remuneration Act will undoubtedly bring a focus on those in our industry who threaten road safety outcomes through poor commercial arrangements and/or poor employment practice,” he says.
Squires was part of a hand-picked group of industry representatives that consulted the Federal Government on the development of the legislation.
The Act will introduce a tribunal with the power to set sector-specific and industry-wide pay rates and conditions, such as paid waiting times, for owner-drivers and employee drivers.