Partridge VC facilities closed to drivers as premier urges business to have a go
The Australian Trucking Association (ATA) has ramped up its Keep Them Open truck-driver facilities campaign after the Partridge VC Rest Area at Menangle in New South Wales was found shuttered by Transport for New South Wales (TfNSW) due to vandalism.
ATA CEO Ben Maguire says he discovered the problem the problem was discovered the problem while travelling along the Hume Highway today and NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian’s call for businesses to reopen and ‘have a go’.
This prompts an open demand for the reopening of truck driver toilet facilities, “after seeing first-hand the impact of the closures”.
Read about an early Keep Them Open action, here
“When stopping at the Partridge VC rest area today, I was astonished to see a Transport for NSW sign posting that the toilet facilities were not being serviced,” Maguire says.
“At a time when the community is expecting toilet paper and food to be on supermarket shelves, trucking is having a go and working hard to get it there, but the NSW government is not even willing to clean the toilets on Australia’s major freight route.
“How can we possibly expect businesses to reopen and ‘have a go’, if the trucks that carry their supplies can’t get the basic support needed to deliver goods?
“Truck drivers have no other choice but to use these facilities, and to see them closed is unacceptable.
“If Gladys Berejiklian is going to call on businesses to ‘have a go’, her government needs to as well. They need to walk the talk and make the opening of truck driver facilities a priority.”
The ATA’s calls come as part of the Keep Them Open campaign, which urges businesses across the country to ensure their facilities are accessible to truck drivers.
A response has been sought from TfNSW.