ISSUES surrounding safe road transport are set to be thrashed out in a summit at Parliament House, Canberra on Wednesday (13 February).
Organised by the Transport Workers Union, the summit aims to gather all parties involved in road transport to discuss laws for regulation to ensure both safety and fairness.
According to the TWU, the conference is to include truck drivers, families of truck crash victims, rideshare drivers, food delivery riders, academics, transport companies and associations, trade unions, major retailers and politicians.
“Trucks are disproportionately involved in crash casualties on the roads, with 16% of road crash fatalities involving trucks,” the TWU stated.
“Many of the risks stem from the financial pressure drivers and transport companies are placed under by the companies at the top which contract their services,” it stated.
“This pressure forces drivers to work long hours, speed and skip their mandatory rest breaks. A Macquarie University survey shows one in 10 drivers works over 80 hours a week.”
The summit is to also look at conditions for rideshare drivers and food delivery riders.
They keynote speech is to be delivered by ACFS owner Arthur Tzaneros of ACFS
Other major speakers include Senator Glenn Sterle, Peter Anderson (Australian Road Transport Industrial Organisation ARTIO), Scott Connolly of the ACTU and Michael Kaine of the TWU.
