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HOS * New Zealand - Parliamentary Enquiry Into Truckies
Truck drivers routinely falling asleep behind the wheel, driving up to 100 hours a week, not taking required breaks and scrimping on maintenance
Aukland,NZ -Sunday Star Times/AKT, by Jon C. -Apr 18, 2010: -- Reports of bad behaviour by truckies have upset Labour MP, Darien Fenton,, who is going to ask for a parliamentary enquiry... tales of truck drivers routinely falling asleep behind the wheel, driving up to 100 hours a week, not taking required breaks and scrimping on maintenance... This comes after transport minister, Steven Joyce, has approved heavier longer trucks being on certain roads... Darien Fenton says that accidents and injuries involving trucks are around one fifth of all road accidents in NZ and there is one death a week from crashes involving trucks. She says that drivers of trucks and other road users continue to be at risk, despite a raft of changes to safety requirements and chain of responsibility legislation... Ms Fenton says she will this week ask the Transport and Industrial Relations Select Committee to conduct an enquiry into whether there is a link between safety in the road freight industry and rates of pay... She will also be developing a members’ bill to give owner-drivers more rights... * New Zealand - Maritime Union Calls For Trucker Protection
Auckland,New Zealand -Voxy News -19 April, 2010: -- The Maritime Union of New Zealand is backing calls to tighten up industry regulations to protect truck drivers and the travelling public... Maritime Union General Secretary, Joe Fleetwood says yesterday the dangers of over-worked owner-drivers pushed to the limits in an aggressive and competitive market... Long hours, fast speeds and deferral of expensive maintenance on vehicles were all factors causing problems... He says the Government push for more heavy trucks on the road, when combined with a deregulated industry, was a recipe for carnage on New Zealand roads... Mr Fleetwood says the whole owner-driver model needed to be examined, as most owner-drivers were simply workers who had been pushed into a dependent contractor model... Pay rates, hours of work and industry regulation all needed to be on the table for discussion, he said... (Photo from roadtransport/big-lorry-blog: an immaculate ERF and an TM Bedford on the back.)
Labels: HOS regulations
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