Assistant Minister for Road Safety and Freight Transport, Scott Buchholz has welcomed the decision by the National Transport Commission (NTC), to not pursue a reduction of weekly working hours for truck drivers.
The decision was described by Buchholz as a common sense outcome and a win for truck drivers across Australia.
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,” he said in a statement.
“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,” said Buchholz.
“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.”