ATA chair Mark Parry believes that minor breaches such as missing filling out the date in a logbook shouldn’t be punished as harshly as it currently is.
“That to me is an area where you can’t say it’s deliberate. There’s no breach that’s impacted that person’s ability to drive safely, yet the extent of the fine doesn’t equal the misdemeanour.”
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The proposed and endorsed changes to truck mass and length are necessary with an eye to the future, Mark believes.
As more alternatively powered trucks come into the picture, Australia’s heavy vehicle law is going to have to continue to change to reflect what needs to be on the road.
It will be necessary to help get the most productive and safe vehicles in our industry.
“When we look at a cleaner energy future, there’s going to be a space in transport for electric, a space for fuel cells,” Mark says.
“If you talk to any of the major European manufacturers, they talk to a timeframe about 15-20 years away for internal combustion technology. Changes to dimensions are important as they can enhance productivity.
“To improve fuel efficiency or reduce emissions, they’re going to require mass and dimensional limits that allow Australian industry to bring in equipment from overseas. We don’t have an industry here building those prime movers or the scale to do that.
“We also know the freight task is going to increase. We know that retaining and recruiting drivers is going to be an issue. The more productive you can make the equipment, the lower the emissions per ton, per pallet or per unit of items moved per kilometre.”
With the move to these new vehicles however comes greater costs, which Mark and the association are conscious of in terms of the effects it can have on the operation of trucking businesses.
“If we are producing hydrogen, we need charge. If we’re producing renewable diesel, we need electricity. People ultimately need cost effective power.
“This will determine whether future technologies, which help decarbonise the industry, are cost effective. If they’re not, that price ultimately has to be passed onto the consumer.
“I’m not anti-renewables, but I do believe that to assist the industry and the consumer have a cleaner energy future, we need reliable power with a sustainable base load at a sustainable price.”
Health and safety in focus
Safety within the industry, both physical and mental, is another big area that Mark and the ATA are continuing to focus on across 2025.
As new safety features are mandated, and the need to become Euro 6 compliant fast approaches, Australia’s aging fleets will need to be refreshed and updated.
While newly produced trucks include all the most updated safety features, many fleets are still falling behind in this area.
“The industry needs to continue to look at ways to ensure that people can invest in the safest, most modern, fuel efficient and emission efficient vehicles,” Mark says.
“The newer and more up to date the fleet is, the more safety features are there. It not only helps protect the driver, but it also helps protect other road users.
“You have most of these systems sitting in most modern European prime movers today. Increasingly we’ll see more supplementary technology, like fatigue monitoring devices, driver facing cameras and cameras around trailers.”
Fatigue in particular is something that Mark believes the industry can manage better, with current regulation and the use of logbooks.
“I don’t think logbooks manage or control fatigue, only work and rest time,” he says.
“As technology evolves, as companies have the ability to monitor driver hours in real time through EWDs and fatigue management technology, we should be working at driver risk rules that can allow drivers to drive when they’re rested and rest when they’re tired.”
As the Deputy Chair of Healthy Heads in Trucks and Sheds, Mark also places significant value in the importance of mental health in the transport workforce.
Since its launch in 2020, the organisation has worked to provide the transport and logistics industries with resources and programs to understand mental health struggles, and provide safe and healthy working environments.
“We want to ensure that the industry knows where to go when they have a mental health problem,” Mark says.
“We believe we can do more in terms of free training, more road show vehicles to help drivers on the road, and help people deal with their mental health challenges.
“Before I joined I would hear that two or three people in every five have mental health challenges. I would think that’s impossible, but now I look at it differently.
“When you’re a driver in a truck and it can be impacting your mental alertness, on the road by yourself, these things can magnify on you.
”So I think the more support we can get out for people, the more knowledge, the more connections, and the more people in the industry who are trained to help have a conversation, then the better the industry will be.
“And ultimately, I think that will improve safety.”
