Industry acknowledges problems but has differences on solutions: WRF
The Senate trucking inquiry and Heavy Vehicle National Law (HNVL) review dominated the road transport industry sessions of the third annual Western Australian Freight and Logistics Conference last week.
The annual conference is an initiative of Western Roads Federation (WRF) and the WA Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
“A robust conversation is what the industry needs if we are to move forward,” WRF CEO Cam Dumesny tells ATN.
“To achieve that robustness, we leveraged Western Roads Federation’s growing state and national reputation for working collaboratively with other transport associations, inviting them to attend the conference and share their perspectives.”
Read about major issues raised in submissions to the Senate inquiry, here
Dumesny notes that approach worked and resulted in a huge gathering in Western Australia of transport industry associations, including the CEOs and/or presidents of Victorian Transport Association (VTA), Queensland Transport Association (QTA), South Australian Road Transport Association (SARTA), Northern Territory Road Transport Association (NTRTA), TransafeWA and Livestock & Rural Transport Association of Western Australia (LRTA-WA) plus national associations National Road Transport Association (NatRoad) and the Australian Road Transport Industrial Organisation (ARTIO).
“Whilst there was diverse debate over the causes and solutions, what was not argued was that the road transport industry has serious problems,” Dumesny says.
“And that the time has come to have the hard discussions on addressing those problems.
“The agreed starting point was to support the Senate inquiry initiated by senator Glenn Sterle by developing submissions that highlight the range of issues.”
WRF says it will work with the other associations on developing joint submissions to ensure as many issues as possible are raised as well as potential solutions.
It reports that more than 200 business, political and government leaders joined with senior transport and logistics industry executives to discuss a range of issues including infrastructure investment, industry recruitment and retention barriers, metro and regional transport productivity and the outlook in 2020 for WA’s transport and logistics sector in the key industry sectors.