Its about time they took action on the cowboy trucking companies.

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Originally Posted by Beckford

I disagree that "I have no idea".

I catch the train from the Central Coast to work everyday.

The rail line between Newcastle and Sydney is at capacity. It can not carry any more freight.

City rail would be able to run more services, and rail freight would be more reliable. At the moment when a freight train breaks down the whole network shuts down.

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Actually in a recent announcement on NSW infrastructure one of the projects going ahead is duplication of the rail line out of Sydney through the Central Coast exactly for freight rail.

On the Main Southern Line, significant parts of it have been leased to the freight rail companies, so if you wish to catch a scheduled passenger train, are at Mittagong station with the train at the scheduled time and a freight train wants to use the same section of track, the freight train gets the priority.

I must say that the East Hills Line (which now goes to Campbelltown) has been duplicated from Wolli Creek for freight, but I don't know how far the duplication has reached yet.

The current DNS & DC and SME at Moorebank have been "sold" to TOLL Holdings for a road/rail freight interchange. The delays are moving the Army out and completing the rail access into the site and onto the main rail corridors.

Its good they are cracking down on rogues but really I think the speed limiters are a stupid idea, On a freeway a truck hitting you doing 100 or 110 isnt going to make much difference at all.

Yes trucks speed, I drive Coffs to the central coast at least once a month and i sit at about 120 and am regularly passed by trucks especially at night but as long as they are doing it safely it doesnt bother me.

All i worry about is the drugs and lack of sleep, and that is a reflection on the business owners that put people in a position where they feel they have no choice if they want to keep their jobs. A good mate of mine owned a truck stop for a few years and I would regularly go and help him out if people called in sick or he was there alone at night and wanted some company and I did meet some absolutely awesome hard working folk but I also met some people I wouldnt let drive a go kart in the state they were in let alone a heavy vehicle, some were so drug ****ed they could barely put together a coherent sentance.

Crack down on the criminal actions of the Business owners, the drug users to make the roads safer not the fellas doing a few ks over the limit on a nice open road.

The problem is that speed is relatively easy to enforce and a great scapegoat for lazy governments. Remember 'every k over is a killer!' (or is it 'every k over is a dollar'?)

Trying to read all the post be fore I commented, but I'm not getting near the end.
So hear go's.
I drive speed limited B doubles, Our Volvo's may show 101km/h but mostly are only doing 98-99km/h from the GPS. We are also track by GPS, which records our speed, number of times the brakes are used, length of time stopped with motor running and motor off.
I also own a VW polo and its speedo is 5km/h slow.(100km/h is really 95km/h)
Lots of New cars are like this.
Comes school holidays with double demerit points and a lot of drivers will drive at 5km/h under the limit. But I still have the same times to keep.
A few km/h slower behind someone can be very frustrating, you try to pass and they speed up. You pull back in, they slow down.
Sitting on their bumper does get there attention.
Lennards trucks are know to all to be dangerous and most other Tuckie's get out of there way. I sujest you do the same.
My rule for survival is if someone is trying to pass let them and make it easy.

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Originally Posted by roverfan

Its good they are cracking down on rogues but ...

...Crack down on the criminal actions of the Business owners, the drug users to make the roads safer not the fellas doing a few ks over the limit on a nice open road.

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I would love to agree with you, but the speed freak drivers are frequently the ones doing over the limit and without some system to at least inhibit their actions, like a speed limiter* there is little hope of catching the cowboys and exiting them from the industry.

Re: the car drivers, for a period and occasionally during holidays from hospital work I would drive for the family company, and of course I would always be given the worn out spare truck to do the runs, usually from Nowra to Narooma and back in a day. Almost without fail coming out of Milton heading North I would come up behind a car who would ride the brakes down the hill, then sit at 5 - 10K below the limit and then with the long run up to Yatte Yattah they would put the boot in. Exactly the wrong technique for a truck and I would be two gears lower for the hill. Drivers like this could add half an hour to the return journey. It's a case of if a truck comes up behind you, then its generally going faster than you, let it go and you'll not see it again.

Diana

* Maybe it's a speed limiter to stop the driver taking the drugs thats needed. ;)

Most of the trucks are pretty good and very predictable.

Most truckies show curtesy even when speeding. And yes I know certain trucks to avoid on the same day and times each week.

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Most of the trucks are pretty good and very predictable.
Most truckies show curtesy even when speeding.

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most of my driving is on rural roads so speed is not an issue.so this speed limiter issue from my possition is a media beatup--the odd times im on the pacific or goldern,newell or great western.very few b doubles are comming past now at 130kmh unlike a few years ago.

on the pacific north of newcastle it can get a bit unsafe with truckies coming south making up time as they get to the heavier traffic between 12mile -- hexham.
coming out of 110 into 100-80 zones at 110 pace.
not up on stats but a few have been very few fatals with trucks compared to my youth.
truck crashes are not that common-last year there has been a regular monthly or fortnight incident single vehicle crashes or roll overs.probably a monthy shut down of the hyway.

from a mechanics point i still see dodgey trucks on the road and it wouldnt be that hard to FIX the problem-but noby looks to be willing.

the easy way to fix the real issues is to sort out or regulate transport-----noboby wants that.the labour party claims to support labour values--for the working man---notice that nobody promotes taking transport controls away from private control and sorting out the cost of this crazy just in time mentallity taught in busness school from a european text book.

trains--long been studdied.soon there wont be enough trucks or hyway to handle the road frieght north.the trains method could do it easy with the least money spent.I personally like the idea of coastal shipping ports and distrobution hubs.the government cant organise busses to meet trains so what chance have they of getting just in time shipping interstate.

at the moment-last week-i drove 2 hours to pick up a part.the frieght was $15 but the delivery was between 3-5 days-add in roster days and pick ups at the end of the day and this blows out to 8-9 days.

trains would be worse.maybe 3-5 days with staions built in regional areas-our rail frieght is truck delivered from newcastle and is about a day longer than the normal frieght pool.