SHORTAGE TRUCKS' REST AREAS * Australia - Listing : nothing for YP

Kadina,South Australia,Australia -The Yorke Peninsula Country Times, by Nick Perry -2 September 2008: — “The Australian National Highway Network should have 22,000 rest areas for heavy vehicle drivers,” South Australian Road Transport Association Executive Director Steve Shearer said. “We currently have 986”... The Australian Trucking Association has released a list of priority locations for more rest areas in Australia, but Yorke Peninsula is nowhere to be seen... The list was submitted to the Australian Government, and details a plan of 18 priority locations where new or expanded rest areas are needed... ATA Chairman Trevor Martyn said the list set out the industry’s most urgent priorities, but thousands of additional rest areas were needed across the country... “The new driver fatigue laws will require truck drivers to stop for rest breaks more often, but there aren’t enough places for them to stop,” he said... The nearest rest area to YP is on the Adelaide side of Port Wakefield, and lacks the appropriate facilities required for a rest area.
If a driver has driven 12 hours in a single day, and can’t make it back to the depot on time, he/she is required by law to rest for seven hours, meaning rest areas should be equipped with everything a driver needs for an overnight stop... “The rest area just out from Port Wakefield has no showers, no toilets, not even a hand basin,” Colin Newbold, of Davies Transport, Kadina, said... “It’s basically a picnic table”... (Picture: The nearest “rest area” to Yorke Peninsula, on the Adelaide side of Port Wakefield, has no appropriate facilities)