Stress, poor facilities driving truckies away

IT’S no secret that truck drivers are the people who keep the country going – delivering essential items we take for granted at the expense of time with their family, creature comforts and their mental health.

Now trucking industry road safety expert Rod Hannifey, in between long stretches on the road, is fighting for legislative change to help make life a little easier for his colleagues.

“There are empty shelves again which have made people aware we need truck drivers,” Mr Hannifey said.

“There have been impacts on every end of the supply chain from drivers to people who pick the orders, to people who make things. Even getting new trucks is hard.

“There are long delays because it’s a suffering workforce and there are skill shortages... from where I sit, the biggest load is still on the drivers.

“They’ve removed testing sites available to us... on the highway they’re all gone, and while some places want you to have tests... there’s nowhere to go because you’re in a loaded BW. “How do you go to a hospital with a loaded truck?”

Mr Hannifey said the added stress on truck drivers had caused many to quit.

“It was a hard enough job before, then it was worse because of border changes... some truck stops have not reopened and some places are making you eat takeaway so you can’t sit down and eat a meal... after you spend six days in a truck,” he said.

“The government wants us to continue to deliver but they’ve done nothing to help. Some places don’t even have a clean shower... and some places give you a hard time. At a road house on the coast of Queensland I was refused meal service.

“How do you remain fit and healthy when you can’t get good facilities on the road?

“(I’ve heard truck drivers) with 40-50 years’ experience say it’s become harder to love what you do because it’s just so stressful to survive and keep going.”

Mr Hannifey, who is also president of the National Road Freighters Association, has delivered a sixpoint plan to the Industry Association, government, and the industry’s national regulator to help improve working conditions including a national freight pass and rules, testing centres, and the standard of roads which are “falling apart”.

“Not one really responded in support,” he said.

“(Our roads) are increasing our fatigue and risk of accidents.

“We’ve been asking for better rest areas for well over 20 years.

“Mentally it just loads and loads... every time you go somewhere, they ask you why you weren’t there yesterday, they say you look like a grub (because you can’t get a shower), and they say ‘why are you so slow’. Some of our drivers say they don’t even feel like people.

“Mental (ill) health has been swept under the carpet... and I’m worried help isn’t getting to the people who need it.”