The crackdown on the trucking industry in NSW is continuing apace, with police officers targeting drivers on the Hume Highway
April 3, 2012
NSW Police is refusing to let up on the trucking industry, this time subjecting more than 70 drivers to compliance checks south of Sydney.
Highway officers stopped 77 trucks along the Hume Highway near Marulan last night as part of Operation MetroCatch, which is aimed specifically at heavy vehicles.
Each driver was subjected to an on-the-spot drugs test, with two returning a positive initial indication for methamphetamine.
Those results have been sent to the laboratory for official confirmation so that charges can be laid. Meantime, both drivers have had their licences suspended.
“The operation is a continuation of our crackdown on elements within the transport industry doing the wrong thing,” NSW Police Inspector Phil Brooks says.
“There is a public expectation that those people with the responsibility of driving heavy vehicles across our state do so safely and not under the influence of illegal drugs.”
Police issued eight infringement notices and one court attendance notice for work diary offences, while three drivers were issued infringements for load offences.
Although only a minority of truck drivers were found to have allegedly broken driving laws, Brooks says similar operations against heavy vehicles are on the horizon.
“Our focus on the transport industry will not diminish and truck drivers acting illegally are warned it is only a matter of time before they are caught,” he says.
NSW Police and the Roads and Maritime Services have taken the stick to the trucking industry this year, targeting individual companies in coordinated
blitzes that have allegedly uncovered evidence of wrongdoing, including speed-limiter tampering and fatigue management offences.
