etruck.com.au

The procedure being adopted by the New South Wales Road Traffic Authority when putting demerit points on truck drivers licenses is seen by many to be unfair and unwarranted. This lack of understanding on the part of the RTA is causing much heartache among truck drivers and concern that they may lose their licences as a result of misdemeanours which do not attract a fine and which the court regard as trivial enough not to warrant punishment.

The normally conciliatory and amenable NSW Minister for Roads, Michael Daley, spoke at the recent NatRoad Conference and concentrated in his speech on his efforts to work together with road transport industry and the RTA to create a sensible regulatory regime in the state. However, when questioned strongly about the demerit points anomalies he was unbending in his support for the principle of adding points to a driver’s license even if a fine is not to be levied.

This is the situation for many drivers since the New South Wales government introduced the levying of demerit points for fatigue rules offences in the latest changes to driving hours rules and the introduction of the three tier fatigue management schemes. In practice, there seems to be a disconnect between what the courts think about the offences and how the RTA regard them.

Under the current regime, if the driver is pulled over for a roadside check and the RTA Inspector finds there is something wrong with his work diary record and he is in breach of the fatigue management rules then he can be liable to a fine and demerit points. However, if the driver takes the case to court they may be able to convince the magistrate the demeanour is minor and doesn’t warrant punishment, they may feel they have not committed a crime.

That’s not the way the RTA sees it. No matter what the magistrate decides they will still slap the points onto the truckie’s license and increase their risk of losing their livelihood due to an offence the magistrate did not regard as punishable by a fine.

This latest problem is yet another example of the way in which the RTA messes with the roadtransport industry’s minds. They come over as trying to be reasonable and liberal when introducing new rules but then cause endless problems and pointless complications in the enforcement of those rules in the real world. Back to square one!