The Australian Trucking Association says the transport industry is rallying behind the push for every state to follow South Australia’s new approach to licensing.
SA’s reforms require an MC licence to drive B-doubles, A-doubles, B-triples, road trains and quads.
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To get an MC licence, a driver must hold a heavy combination or heavy rigid licence for at least 12 months, and undertake training and competency based assessment or a driving test.
An experienced truck driver from another country may be able to count some or all of their overseas experience toward the 12 months.
“The MC class covers trucks with widely different handling characteristics,” ATA chair Mark Parry says.
“A driver trained on a B-double may not be able to handle a longer road train safely. The major crash rate for triple road trains is almost 2.5 times higher than the rate for B-doubles.
“A driver whose experience is from overseas may find driving an MC truck even more challenging because they are still learning the formal and informal rules of Australia’s roads.”
While transport ministers have agreed in-principle to the need for reform, the ATA believes this process could still take years to implement.
South Australia no longer recognises overseas experience toward obtaining an MC licence, except for drivers from New Zealand.
“Australia has much larger trucks than other countries and our operating environment is different,” says SARTA CEO Steve Shearer.
“We now urge every other state to match Minister Koutsantonis’s initiative, ensuring consistent training and assessment of all truck drivers, including those from overseas, before they are issued an MC licence.”
Parry says the ATA has tested the merits of the SA approach with a roundtable of multicultural drivers, with the support of Teletrac Navman, the NHVR and the ATA’s Foundation Sponsors – Volvo Trucks, NTI and bp.
“The roundtable participants unanimously endorsed the changes that South Australia has made,” he says.
“The ATA believes that implementing the South Australian approach nationally will not only improve road safety. It will help address the appalling level of racism experienced by some international truck drivers, because every MC driver will have the same HR or HC experience on Australian roads.”
