More rest stops urged for truckies
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The Australian Trucking Association is pushing for funds for more rest stops for truck drivers. (ABC TV)
The Australian Trucking Association says it wants funds for an extra 900 rest stops for truck drivers on the national Auslink road network over the next 10 years.
The Association will issue suggested amendments to the Government's heavy vehicle charges legislation this week.
The Association's chief executive, Stuart St Clair, says driver fatigue is a major problem, but the Government is not doing enough to address it.
Mr St Clair says the transport industry is happy to see its rates put towards the construction of rest stops.
"The trucking industry has always said that we will pay our way, we do that so any attributable expenditure on the network that's attributable to heavy vehicles comes back to us in the sense of a road user charge, so we end up paying for them anyway," he said.
"There's definitive shortages across Australia of rest areas, what we're concentrating on is the Australian Government's responsibility under Auslink to have the Auslink network upgraded to the Australian standards to ensure that our drivers get a chance to conform with the regulations, and that means being able to pull off the road and have a rest when they need to."
