It’s great news that the Scania Young Australian Truck Driver is on again this year. Open to any truckie under 40 who wants to give it a go, the YATD 2010 will be a chance to show off trucking’s positive image to the wider world while rewarding those who take a professional attitude to truck driving.

The final is to be held in Melbourne on the 20th of November with the winner taking away a prize of $10,000. All they have to do to win the prize is enter the competition online and make it through the preliminary web-based theoretical stages. Those who perform best online will be selected to turn up at the final in Melbourne to pit their skills against the best in a series of tests to assess their professionalism behind the wheel.

If there is one person who may be disappointed with this news it will be David White, the 2007 YATD winner. As of November he will no longer be able to characterise himself as ‘Reigning Young Australian Truck Driver of the Year’. For the rest of us it’s a great chance to get the message out to the rest of the world about what’s best about the trucking industry in Australia.

It is clear from the statements, so far, there is little chance of all of the taxation the trucking industry pays being loaded onto fuel tax, the industry’s current position. The emphasis seems to be in creating a system in which the road user pays for the kilometres they travel with a particular type of truck at a particular mass. This is obviously going to be a complex reform to make and is unlikely to be finalised any time soon. It is likely we will have to wait for the technology and computer systems to levy this kind of taxation before it becomes clear.

“What Ken Henry had outlined for the transport sector in this review really is a revolution, delivered in stages over several years,” said Australian Livestock Transporters Association CEO Philip Halton this week. “He’s put big questions on the table. There is now only real challenge for their leaders in our industry, and the customers we work for.”

This is the new challenge to the trucking industry over the next five years. We are facing a major restructure of the way revenue is raised from business activity in trucking. It was only just over a decade ago when the industry as a whole had to fight tooth and nail to stop the GST kicking a hole in productivity and profits.

There is no time for endless circular debates within the industry and the industry associations as to what is to be done. The entire trucking industry needs to get together and come up with a position. This position needs to be clear cut and simple. If the industry does not speak with one single clear voice about our needs and how we can help to develop the new taxation regime then we will lose control of the process.

Trucking has a lot to offer, in terms of productivity improvements and efficient use of the current resources in terms of both rolling stock and infrastructure, if the taxation is pitched in the correct way hen the incentives will drive improvements throughout an industry which is core to the development of the Australian economy.

The industry should be looking to its leaders to take stock now, bury the hatchet over some of their differences and get on with the job of making sure road transport is not stifled by an inappropriate, badly judged and anti-trucking taxation regime.

On the road side when they have been pulled over the truck driver thinks the buck stops with them. There is no sense of the responsability being passed up the chain. They feel like victims with the real culprits getting off Scot free.

The RTA rep lists the number of consignors and consignees prosecuted but that information is neither believed or understood by those at the coal face in trucking. Is this a communication issue or are the big boys getting away with it?

For the duration of Truckweek, Australia’s truck drivers have been asked to ’slow down and be courteous to other road users as part of Truckweek 2010′. They have been asked by ATA Chairman Trevor Martyn to make an extra effort for the sake of the industry’s image with the general public. This is always the request but the general public never seem to notice.

“As professionals, I’m asking our nation’s truck drivers to set the standard on the road. But I’m also urging every motorist to remember that truck drivers want to get home to their families too, but our trucks perform very differently to cars,” says Trevor’s statement, released this week.

For most truckie’s this basically means having to suppress their outrage at the way the general motorist treats them, even more than they usually do. Truckies are, in the main, professionals and do the right thing all the time, but we all have our limits.

You can see it happen all the time out on the highway, a truck will be baulked over and over again by a car driver who is totally unaware of the grief they are creating in their wake. They slow at the wrong time then speed up when they should keep a steady speed, all the time failing to look into the rear view mirror.

Eventually, the truckie will work out a way to get past this idiot or just give up and stop for a break. However, sometimes schedules and pressure from others means the truckie must persist and this is where the problems come, like aggressive driving or risky manoeuvres. This is what Trevor is asking, ‘just hang on a little longer before you lose it altogether’.

The latest idea from the Australian Trucking Association to communicate with the people and politicians of Australia is Truckweek. It takes place on Fbruary 21 to 27 and includes events around the country. Check out the website to find what’s happening near you.

It’s great news to hear NatRoad’s contribution is a series of TV ads to run during the week on national television, trying to get the reality of modern trucking across to the misinformed public. Trust NatRoad to always hit the right note.

The good weather helped to make the event, outdoor for the first time, an enjoyable one for all but the cold breeze on the night of the Awards Dinner meant delegates had to get up and dance to keep their body temperature up.

Good discussions about trailer technologies and maintenance issues provoked plenty of discussion and the Trucksafe workshops were well attended.

It’s all over for another year and back to the real world. No more helicopter flights over the bay.

This is a great conference, the guys and girls who keep our trucks out there on the road get let of the workshop for a few days to discuss the issues around maintaining road transport equipment.

On the menu, a lot of talk about alternative fuels, tyres, Trucksafe compliance and much, much more.

Workshop people are the invisible glue who hold the trucking industry together. The most important hardware component in a transport operation is the truck and the guys who fix them keep them on the road, often against the odds, and making money.

The customers never see them and the general public are, largely, unaware of their existence. Apart from keeping the trucks running they are often the driving force for innovation in a fleet, whether in terms of equipment or operational behaviour.

Talk to any trucking company owner and they are devoted and loyal to their workshop employees they know how valuable they are to the smooth running of the opaeration.

The two nominees, Merv Rowlands from Boral and Robert Marchetti from Booths Transport, have come up from the workshop to be at the peak of their, unrecognised, profession. Each and every winner of the Craig Roseneder award in the past 13 years has done their time in a truck workshop and used intelligence and determination to make a real mark in the trucking industry.

Well done, Merv and Robert, one of you will get the gong on the night but both are dedicated and long serving, both deserve the accolade and applause of their peers!

“The biggest problem is in New South Wales and the biggest metro area there is a trucking disaster not to mention that the greater metropolitan region contains at least 25 per cent of Australia’s population,” says Bob. “Have fun with your donated Volvo prime-mover and that wonderful, flash industry display trailer that ATA solicited funds from the industry and suppliers for. Perhaps in the future those resources might be used where the problems are, starting with Sydney and Wollongong.”

A journey through the West is a bit like preaching to the converted when we have politicians in Sydney and Melbourne, especially, trying to make life hard for trucks on the city roads. A few visits to some city schools by the excellent ATA exhibition trailer is not going to turn around long held anti-truck sentiment in suburban Australia.

Shouldn’t the transport industry be getting involved with local authorities, presenting a positive, progressive view of the future? The trucking industry can be pro-active here and come up with solutions, work in areas where there is some agreement and begin the long hard slog turning the truckie back to hero from the villains they currently are seen to be.