Assistant Minister for Road Safety and Freight Transport, Scott Buchholz has welcomed the decision today by the National Transport Commission (NTC), to not pursue a reduction of weekly working hours for truck drivers.
“I welcome the decision by the NTC today to maintain working hours for truck drivers. This is a common sense outcome, a win for our industry and for truck drivers across Australia.
Assistant Minister Buchholz thanked all parties for the constructive way in which they worked to resolve the issue.
“I would like to thank those who raised this issue with me and my office and the NTC including State and National associations as well as other transport and logistics industry stakeholders.
“We understand there are existing workforce shortages issues across the supply chain and such a change to working hours would have impacted drivers’ incomes, the movement of freight and operations of transport businesses right around the country,” Assistant Minister Buchholz said.
“There are arrangements in place to manage fatigue, ensuring safe driving practices are in place and the industry continues to work hard to improve safety.
“I also thank the NTC for listening and taking on board the feedback from the industry and working to resolve the issue with their statement earlier today, clarifying this matter for our industry, which is working to hard professionalise,” Assistant Minister Buchholz said.
The NTC announcement is available at https://www.ntc.gov.au/news/industry-feedback-influences-next-steps-driver-fatigue
