SARTA has criticised heavy vehicle enforcement officers for their current grounding strategies
The South Australian Road Transport Association (SARTA) says recent safety or risk-based enforcement has not focused on safety, instead saying there is no reasonable approach to heavy vehicle roadside inspections.
SARTA says too many police and enforcement officers don’t focus on safety when completing inspections.
“The National Heavy Vehicle Regulator (NHVR) is far more pragmatic than South Australian Police,” SARTA says on its Facebook page.
“Some police officers and units seem determined to destroy the industry and drive good, hard-working responsible people, including drivers, out of it.”
SARTA says this lack of proper policing for heavy vehicle regulations stems from a list of assumptions, including:
- All truck operator can afford to replace parts that are still well within the safe wear limits
- All truck operators push their drivers and have no regard for safety
- All trucks can and should be 100 per cent perfect every kilometre of every trip
- Things on the truck fail or break when the truck is parked
- That any part that is worn presents a safety risk that warrants defects
- That there is no difference between the safety risk associated with significant brake or suspension and other key safety faults
- That police officers are qualified to inspect and defect/ ground trucks, when most actually aren’t
SARTA has used an example of a recent defect made by regulators, where SARTA says officers grounded a truck because the screen printing on the yellow and red buttons in the truck was worn.
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The association says it’s not remotely sensible to label this as a defect because the buttons are different colours and shapes, with the printing only getting worn due to frequent use, meaning the driver knows what the buttons are.
“This is not safety or risk-based enforcement, it’s a tragic disgrace,” SARTA says.
“We all absolutely support the need for trucks to be safe, roadworthy and operated properly.
“Defects of heavy vehicles should be issued because they are necessary for safety, not just because the officer can or wants to appease more senior officers in the false belief that throwing unjustified defects around is an effective safety strategy.”