How do you not see traffic pulled up when there were Roadwork signs and speed reduction signs out?
Maybe they do need retesting every 5 years with renewal and drug testing before every trip.
Here's another example
au.news.yahoo.com/a/38610240/melbourne-truckie-sobs-in-court-as-he-pleads-guilty/

When was the last time anyone saw a highway patrol?  This use to be resourced by the State Highways Department I think.

Not sure if they even operate anymore, but use to see them up and down Stuart Highway and Nullarbor quite often, they checked log books etc. Not sure what other powers they had but it seemed effective, still times have changed and more pressure is on the truckie to get from depot to depot.

Helen

blaze wrote:

---

pressure dosnt give you the right to kill people or take drugs, just saying
cheers
blaze

---

 Blaze, I never literally meant pressure gave the right to anyone to kill and I never mentioned drugs and I am not sticking up for bad or illegal behaviour in the Transport Industry.  

Give a constructive input and don't be so illiterate or childish.

Helen

I to do agree with you Dicko, in what you have said.

Our thoughts go with those as well.

I think the problem is that here in Oz we have allowed the trucking industry to take over the bulk of of freight, most developed countries ship the bulk of their freight by rail and trucks deliver it at the end. We've shut down much of our rail and it can no longer compete. We've had friends from several countries around the world stay at our place and they are amazed that the main north railway line is only one track! One bloke from China was amazed that the train trip from Sydney to Dungog would take longer than 45 minutes as that was what a 200km trip would take in China on a main line.
Don't get me started about the size of the trucks and the weight they are allowed to carry here in Oz compared to other developed countries, very rare to see anything bigger than a single semi in the US and Canada and they aren't allowed to carry as much weight either. In many places a max speed of 80kph for heavy vehicles as well, combined with a max of 8 hours behind the wheel in 24 that would get freight back on the rail!
Another interesting thing from the Chinese fella, he was amazed at the number of utes in Oz, apparently in China they aren't allowed full stop for public use.

We've shut down much of our rail and it can no longer compete... 30 years ago rail freight was a nightmare & slow. My uncle had an Ammunition factory in Broken Hill, it would take weeks to get rail freight to Sydney, so he used Road freight & it was there next day. The rail system killed its self.

DeBe wrote:

---

We've shut down much of our rail and it can no longer compete... 30 years ago rail freight was a nightmare & slow. My uncle had an Ammunition factory in Broken Hill, it would take weeks to get rail freight to Sydney, so he used Road freight & it was there next day. The rail system killed its self.

---

Gday...

The rail system was not responsible for its own demise.

Initially, the fledgling trucking industry in the 1950's and early 1960s, lobbied governments of the day - mainly State but also Federal - telling they were able to do a better job than rail. They backed up their words and matched, and sometimes, beat the rail network.

Governments, all colours, considered the rail system, which took considerable capital and infrastructure spending to keep up, let alone grow, was not a 'valuable' use of taxpayer money - given what the fledgling trucking industry demonstrated

Therefore from the mid-1960s onward, all state and federal governments cut spending on rail stock, maintenance and staff. The end result is that all the rail systems in Straya, both country, passenger, city, and particularly freight have fallen out of favour.

The cost to the taxpayer to now rejuvenate the rail system ... and grow the rail system ... is prohibitive.

However, to give some food for thought. Have people ever noticed that the big mining companies build their OWN rail lines to freight their ore etc. They rarely use trucks. They know that the investment in good infrastructure and rail stock is more efficient and effective than trucking ... and they can control those costs.

To be honest, it is Straya, though our governments, that has lost a valuable freight and passenger system.

cheers - John

Going back to the 70's I used to send goods around the country. Rail was the most cost effective on face value but unfortunately a very large percentage of the freight disappeared en route. So we stopped using Rail.
Maybe this was a contributing factor in the demise of Rail Freight.

A high speed dedicated freight rail line between major city's would be a good infrastructure project for Government to build !
But it seems The only thing they will build is the amount of Hot air they expel !

Everyone is in such a hurry these days !! Another... Just concentrating on speed alone and not driving or careful analysis of conditions is the result!!