The livestock transport industry has been fighting some major challenges during the last 18 months, struggling against copious COVID regulations, strict state borders, and all the negative connotations with travelling that can come from the public.
Livestock transport operator and Harden local, Di Peisley, raised concerns with the current state of the industry and the challenges faced by truckies.
Furthermore, the price of livestock at sale yards has escalated three-fold in the current economy.
“With all the restrictions there’s a lot of negativity going around with livestock and trucks in general crossing borders and potentially spreading COVID,” Di from Peisley Livestock Transport Harden said.
“The locals are promoting being COVID safe and getting double vaccinated, as well as doing the right thing from a transport industry point of view.”
Although there hasn’t been too much animosity from locals, truck drivers have been receiving a disappointing reception right across the country during the pandemic.
“I think in our small town, especially the Hilltops Shire because they know that our transport industry here is doing the right thing, I don’t think there’s too much negative perception of drivers doing the wrong thing in transport.
“But there is a lot of negativity in the national fleets that are travelling inter-state that gets them worried.
“The fact that we are on a main freight route here in Harden does raise some concerns with travellers coming through.”
The Light Horse Hotel in Murrumburrah received some similar concerns from the community when an essential worker who had COVID stayed at the venue last month, with the hotel needing a deep cleaning.
“It still comes under the same banner, we still need to be more vigilant and protect ourselves, our businesses and our families by doing the right thing and getting the jab,” Di said.
Worries from the public of drivers potentially aiding the spread of the COVID virus should be waived, as drivers are constantly tested, and the majority double vaccinated.
“They have specified freight hub testing stations where we can get tested, which allows us to follow our business plans and state health regulations,” Di continued.
“It means we can get tested every 3, 5 or 7 days, depending on what the regulations are.”
COVID restrictions have made it difficult for transport operators to cross state borders during the last two years.
“It was initially difficult because there was some confusion around permits and some states had different rules and health regulations that had to be adhered to,” Di explained.
“Freight was effected, as well as wait-ing for COVID test results to come back.”
Another factor that has been affecting truck drivers has been the increasingly bad road conditions, caused by the considerable amount of rainfall this year.
“The wet weather has accounted for deterioration in a lot of roads and it is a concern, especially if you have fragile freight, you’ve got to be very careful with your driving,” Di said.
“You’ve got to drive to the conditions and your driving techniques come into play, but a lot of the roads need a considerable amount of fixing.”
Transport operators throughout the state are calling on councils and State Government to fix roads, highways and bridges.
The collapsed bridge in Wallendbeen has also been a detour that has caused major frustration and increased travel time.
“It has been very difficult. When trucks or freight have to take alternate routes that are adding to the cost of operations,” Di continued.
“It’s also a fatigue management issue for drivers when we are on restricted hours and then have to add extra hours of travel time due to the detours.
“Especially when we have to have scheduled slotting times for numerous companies for when we have to unload.
“We’ve got to factor in detours when we are planning our runs.”
Despite the long list of challenges, Di believes the transport industry is doing well to overcome them.
“Our industry associations have been pushing for truck drivers to be double-vaxxed, especially the fact that we have to adhere to interstate protocols as well, so the majority are doing the right thing.
“Overall, I think especially in this area our truck drivers are doing the right thing and driving to the conditions. They are also protecting themselves from COVID and adhering to the COVID business plans.”
The Harden truck wash facility has been instrumental in helping the industry power through precarious biosecurity and decontamination factors.
“Our local truck wash that we have here in Harden is a very important factor in protecting us from a biosecurity and an animal welfare point of view,” Di said.
“It’s important to mention that we look after that infrastructure.
“Also from a grain perspective, they are protecting their biosecurity from cross-contamination and are able to use that locally to washout between their different commodities.”
Barry Woods from ABC Freighters weighed in on the challenges for trans-port operators during the COVID pan-demic.
“There hasn’t been too much negative feedback that we’ve seen. Probably three or four months ago, they started to close down service stations where they shut down service stations, taking the access away for our drivers to eat and shower,” Barry said.
“That perspective has changed though, and everyone is doing the right thing, but at the start, it was a bit sticky.”
Barry admitted that the industry faced major challenges such as struggling for COVID tests and decontamination factors, but said the sector is starting to get back on top of things now.
“That process was very challenging at the start as they didn’t have enough testing sites and there were also delays in getting results back, but it all has improved now, to be honest,” Barry continued.
“We haven’t had too many issues around here; it hasn’t really upset too many people thankfully.”
Although the COVID front is seeming to ease, Barry said the deteriorating road conditions are as bad as he has ever seen.
“The roads are most definitely poor. Every time you have a wet winter it will happen, but the biggest challenge we have is the conditions of the road and the access that we are getting,” he said.
Tim Warren
