etruck.com.au

Australia’s economic growth, when the economy recovers from the current financial crisis, will be hamstrung by urban congestion if the right investment in infrastructure is not put into place before a growing economy puts an unbearable burden on the current urban transport landscape. This is the opinion of Phil Taylor, Isuzu COO, who acknowledges the Federal Government stimulus plan has assisted in cushioning the blow of the current global financial situation but is calling on the nation’s leaders to address the inefficiencies of the urban road network.

“Assisting Australian businesses and consumers with cash flow and credit during the financial crisis appears to have had the desired result,” Taylor said. “The economic experts predict that our country will be one of the first to recover from the downturn; with this in mind, investment in our infrastructure is essential to ensure efficient and timely future freight movements. The road transport sector is the backbone of the Australian economy, carrying 75 percent of the country’s total freight – currently many road transport operators suffer from lack of efficiency in our road networks, and the problem will only be compounded once the economy returns to full throttle.”

A succession of federal and state governments have put the improvement in the urban road infrastructure to create a better environment for the transportation of goods in and out of our capital cities in the too hard basket for too long. The NIMBY syndrome has seen them avoiding confrontation with local community groups and, instead, forcing transport operators to break the rules, force their own solutions and sit in rush-hour traffic polluting the atmosphere and infuriating car drivers.

There are solutions out there and they include a holistic approach to the solutions Australia needs in the next 10 years. This is not about looking after the interests of your own sector of the community, there is a pressing need for the transport industry to talk turkey with all of the authorities and for those authorities to make the hard decisions and push through solutions where they are needed.

There are going to be problems and some communities will see an increase in truck traffic or new bypass roads or rail links being pushed through residential areas. But something needs to be done for the greater good of the entire community. Citizens expect the goods and services they are used to now but in a growing economy the logistics of supplying these cannot be done efficiently and cleanly without some drastic changes in the infrastructure in some of our cities.

The time is now, when transport industry associations and the goods and services suppliers in the big cities need to get together and talk sensibly to government, who in their turn need to grasp the nettle and use the opportunity of the current stimulus spend to prepare this country for the road ahead.