Address to the House of Representatives - Transport Industry

Monday 7 August 2023

The TWU was in Canberra yesterday with a convoy of truck drivers, rideshare drivers, food delivery riders, transport operators, employers and associations calling for the passing of urgent transport reform. Decades of evidence have shown that financial pressures from cost-cutting in transport supply chains squeeze operators and drivers and cause dangerous pressure to delay maintenance, meet unrealistic deadlines or stay on the road too long. This year alone has seen the collapse of Scott's Refrigerated, Rivet Mining Services and Milkrun in the face of incredible pressure from wealthy clients making extraordinary profits while squeezing transport contracts.

So far this year, more than 100 people have died in truck crashes, including 29 truck drivers. Twelve food delivery riders have been killed since 2017. In the last financial year, there have been close to 200 insolvencies in the trucking industry. As Michael Kaine, the National Secretary of the TWU, has said:

This crisis in transport affects the entire industry, from gig workers to owner drivers under pressure to drive longer and faster, to employers faced with cannibalistic, unfair competition.

In 2016, when the Road Safety Tribunal was abolished, the gig economy barely existed. Now it's a deadly additional factor to the supply chain pressures in this industry. It's time to pass reform to make road transport safer, fairer and more sustainable and ensure lives are protected.