Trucking Australia conference will prioritise safety, operator viability and workforce issues this year.
Road safety issues will feature prominently at this year’s Trucking Australia conference, where the latest research on heavy vehicle crashes will be discussed.
The Australian Trucking Association (ATA) has detailed the program for Trucking Australia, which will be held in Hobart from March 19 to 22.
“This year, we’ve put safety, viability and workforce issues first on the agenda,” ATA CEO Stuart St Clair says.
“Australia’s roads are markedly safer than they used to be, but there’s still more work to do.
“In the first forum, NTI [National Transport Insurance] national manager of industry relations Owen Driscoll will start the discussion with a short briefing on the results of NTI’s latest truck crash research, followed by a case study on rollover prevention by Geoff Massey from Toll Mining Services.”
St Clair says delegates will then focus on recruitment and workforce issues in a session that will include discussion of the Victorian Transport Association’s (VTA) training academy and other programs.
“With the Australian road transport industry forecast to need more than 68,000 extra staff between 2013 and 2017, it’s essential for the industry to look at ways to attract and train new entrants to our workforce,” St Clair says.
“And in the third open forum, delegates will plan out how the ATA and its member associations can work to improve productivity and viability for the road freight industry.”
St Clair says the conference will wrap up with a role-playing workshop focused on fuel security.
Delegates will act as government officials, fuel suppliers and trucking operators to look at the consequences of a fuel emergency and how businesses can respond to interruptions to fuel supply.