Thread: Look out for all the coppers on the road

Interesting reading, to me it shows how small some people’s worlds are.

I have driven in many places around the world, and have a number of different driver’s licenses.
it is very surprising how different road rules can differ from country to country and not just the little things either, EG Russia you give way when you are on a roundabout not like here where to give way to cars already on the round about. Or even closer to home NZ you give way at an intersection to the car opposite turning right if you are turning left. My point is that it pays to learn the local road rules. BUT in SA many countries licenses are not accepted or recognized even driver’s licenses that are from countries who are signatures to the international road rules agreement ( Australia is not). These people who have possibly already been driving for 20 years plus are required to not only sit the road rules test ( a good thing) but are also treated like a teenager complete with "P"plates and mandatory driving instruction period etc.
Now to an arrogant insular Aussie this may seem like a good thing, but I would like to point out that aussie roads are tame and on average aussie drivers are very unaggressive compared to most of the rest of the world add to that the mild weather and wonderful roads IE that translates to low skill
International Drivers license- there is no such thing, there is however an international drivers permit ( AA) this must be accompany your original drivers license. Now given that your a family Man or woman complete with kids and that you have been driving for over 20 years be subjected to a "P" plate ? Plus the time and the money? No its just easier to keep driving on your forren License it also means that cops tend to be a bit nicer ( let you off on minor things) after explaining your offence etc. Read any Expat forum.
Now am not saying this is correct I am saying that this is the way it is or so it is in SA due to the arrogant licensing laws.
OH just to add to that, there are a couple of counties where you can just trade in your DL for a SA one, no test no nothing, even though the road rules are quite different.
As for getting chewed out by a cop? So what, he didn’t take your DL, He didn’t expect you to hand over your weeks wagers in cash? He didn’t require you to attend court? He didn’t confiscate your car because he needed another one for his EX wife’s second husband’s grandmother?
NB its easier for an immigrant to get the DOLE in Australia than to get Medicare or a DL, something has to be wrong there.

Originally Posted by Lotz-A-Landies

I have news for you, a lot of people who are out there don't have a licence. Despite being "permanent residents" required to have a local licence
many are driving on international licences which means they have never been tested on Australian Road Rules,

True
I know of many aussie expats in a few counties who have never bothered to get the Local license, worse they prefer to just pay the bribe. Aussies a bad for this.

Originally Posted by Lotz-A-Landies

many others have had their licences suspended or cancelled while others have never bothered to get one. (A recent fatal accident in Sydney witnessed by a member on this forum had a driver in the first group mentioned above.)

If this is the accident i think it is. This new to Australia person never held a license in there original country either.

To have a license suspended you must have had one in the first place.
An Australian court can not suspend or cancel a license from an other country

Originally Posted by Lotz-A-Landies

So in light of the above I applaud the Police actions of RBT stations, where they sometimes check every car driving a particular road and they get extra points from me for using new technology which identifies vehicles that are unregistered or the car's owner is identified as having outstanding warrants.

Agree. in many countries this is the only form of traffic policing

Originally Posted by Lotz-A-Landies

If it gets people off the road who shouldn't be there I think its great. Unfortunately those who have had their licence cancelled often ignore the fact and continue to drive. In fact I was involved in a case where this was exactly the situation. A driver had his licence suspended, continued to drive so had the licence formally cancelled and was banned from holding a licence for 5 years. He continued to drive and even drove to the the NSW Supreme Court where he was to appear on the charges and parked illegally outside Court in front of the Police who were there to prosecute him.

Diana

Then we should let Darwin have his way.

I'm sure there was a reason the mods deleted Sprint's reference, hence why are you now quoting it?

Originally Posted by p38arover

That will soon be a big source of revenue - if the standard of spelling I see is any indication.

Oh, maybe not. The truckies will lose their licence pretty quickly at 3 points per offence.

What a stupid law (if actually policed). I can see the reasoning for it - if one assumes it is to prevent logbook fraud.

BTW, Sprint, calling the police "scum" as you did earlier (since deleted by a Mod) is unacceptable in my opinion.

Originally Posted by p38arover

That will soon be a big source of revenue - if the standard of spelling I see is any indication.

Oh, maybe not. The truckies will lose their licence pretty quickly at 3 points per offence.

What a stupid law (if actually policed). I can see the reasoning for it - if one assumes it is to prevent logbook fraud.

BTW, Sprint, calling the police "scum" as you did earlier (since deleted by a Mod) is unacceptable in my opinion.

This is just one of many ways used by police and transport officers to harass truckies with minor "offences".
These always seemed to me during my gear jammer days to be purely ways to assert their authority. Little men with small minds in a position of power always seem to find ways to abuse that power. Victoria's Country Roads Board officers were far and away the most pedantic and the greatest harassers of truck owners and drivers. They expected drivers who could barely spell their own names and had minimum education and literary skills to produce paperwork like a senior clerk.

It really is a credit to truckies abilities to contain their temper that most of these officers lived long enough to retire.

Originally Posted by Numpty's Missus

Ummmmm......P38 IS a mod......a nice gentle warning I think you'd call that

Ummmmmmmmmmm

yes we know that...

he had been warned his post had been moderated, what was the point of

bringing it up again?

Originally Posted by Brian Hjelm

This is just one of many ways used by police and transport officers to harass truckies with minor "offences".
These always seemed to me during my gear jammer days to be purely ways to assert their authority. Little men with small minds in a position of power always seem to find ways to abuse that power. Victoria's Country Roads Board officers were far and away the most pedantic and the greatest harassers of truck owners and drivers. They expected drivers who could barely spell their own names and had minimum education and literary skills to produce paperwork like a senior clerk.

It really is a credit to truckies abilities to contain their temper that most of these officers lived long enough to retire.

How true, but you'll never get many of the sheeple to see that point of view...trucks are like 4wheel drives there big so must be a danger...
another good mate of mine is an RTA heavy vehicle inspector, he is much the same as me, a spade is a spade and a shovel is something altogether different,
in the first few months on the job he had some real problems with coppers who were assisting the scalies wanting him to find fault with trucks were there were no faults....and in one particular case a coper had a line of prime mover and b doubles lined up so much so that it was a danger to other road useres

Originally Posted by Numpty's Missus

Well....he could have sent Sprint a PM warning him, but decided to warn him publicly instead.........

here we go again, I do wish people would r e a d whats written

the way I read P38's post was

that it was a by the way

I dont like what you said, and another mod has edited it

Not as you have suggested ....

I may be wrong Ron can you confirm is numptys missus correct in her interpretation of your post or am I

Originally Posted by tony

Ummmmmmmmmmm

yes we know that...

he had been warned his post had been moderated, what was the point of

bringing it up again?

I wasn't aware he'd been warned that his post had been moderated. I wasn't the one to edit the post. I saw the term in the post. I was about to edit it. When I looked again, it had been already changed by another Mod.