National Road Freighters Association
The Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the NRFA will be held in Rockhampton on the 30th October 2010 at the Glenmore Homestead, meeting starts at 10 am everyone is welcome, a newsletter will be sent to all members soon. Your association is pleased to advise that we have negotiated an arrangement with the International Insurance Broker, Jardine Lloyd Thompson (JLT) in Townsville. A feature of this arrangement is that JLT will pay to our association a percentage of the commission earned by JLT on all classes of Commercial Insurance arranged by JLT for you, the members. We urge you to use this facility as it generates income for your association and could reduce your insurance costs. Contact details are: JLT PO Box 1720 Townsville QLD 4811 Ph: 07 4722 9000 Fax: 07 4722 9094 Eddie Taylor Mob: 0418 740 779 Amber PetersNotice of meeting
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SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT
Please give Eddie or Amber a call now for all your insurance needs, please identify yourself as a member of the NRFA and quote your membership number
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RED RIBBON CAMPAIGN - A POSITIVE ACTION PLAN
The NRFA is now promoting a ‘positive action plan', talking is a waste of time and the only way to get action is to take action, the RED RIBBON CAMPAIGN is designed to do just that, the program will create a visual that will draw the attention of all governments and media.
Rhetoric is cheap and easy to ignore, the three step campaign which will run over a couple of months, there is a time line for each process, we want people from all walks of industry and community to show their support by tying a red ribbon around the mirrors, bull-bars, towbars, aerials, or where ever it is considered safe and not distracting.
The Red Ribbon Campaign is not solely for the trucking industry, we need the community to support our attempts to get a fair go for our truckies and the industries we support and who support us.
This whole campaign has been brought about by the ridiculous fatigue regulation and over the top registration and road user charges promoted by the NTC, our ability to supply cost efficient and safe transport services is being diminished daily by government interference.
This will most likely be our last attempt to bring about change to a corrupt system that cripples the workers in this country and rewards the unproductive non achievers in our so-called democratic system.
It's now up to you to show your support so we can support you, TIE A RED RIBBON ON YOUR VEHICLE NOW.
Over the next couple of weeks all members will receive in the mail a flyer, a supporter sticker and a Red Ribbon, please let it be seen and explain the reason for the campaign.
To view the issues we wish to address (click here)
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Problems facing the Road Transport Industry raised at Normanton QLD.
Willy Davis and I attended a meeting in Normanton on the 5/05/2010 called the Northern Outback Development Forum to discuss what we can do in terms of putting forward a case to government on issues affecting regional and remote rural areas.
The Local government areas of Etheridge, Burke, Carpentaria, Mount Isa, Cloncurry, McKinlay, Richmond, Flinders and Croydon are hosting a development forum. This forum will provide people who live and work in the region with a platform to discuss opportunities and constraints affecting the future growth and development of the region. Speakers will include people from this region who have invested and developed their businesses in spite of very little support from external influences. This debate is about real people creating real jobs for our region.
The forum will consist of individual sessions covering Agriculture, Mining, Fishing, Aboriginal community development, Transport and Tourism. The forum will result in a Northern Outback Development Report. This report will assist in shaping the influence local government and industry have on future policy planning. The report will be delivered to the two Regional Development organisations in the region, MITEZ and Gulf Savannah, to take forward and action outcomes.
The meeting started about 8.30 am and finished at 5.00pm the day was very informative and the speakers were well informed, the questions all had a constructive and positive approach.
The issues I raised in the time allocated only covered heavy vehicle registrations and the compliances to the new fatigue laws and the affect they are having on the industry, it seemed to me that very few in attendance were aware of the hardship the trucking industry is facing trying to supply the services they have taken for granted, I believe that they now have a greater understanding of the issues we also distributed a list of the issues we are facing in industry and that is available for download at the top of this page
We had a very graphic display (photos below) in that we had a banner protesting the registration increases on the side a triple road train parked opposite the venue, which was the shire hall in the middle of Normanton, the people attending and passing by all took photos, our glory was however short lived as the police threatened to breach the owner of the Road Train Bradley Hawkins if it was not removed, the Mayor of Normanton Fred Pascoe spoke to the officer in charge and we got about a two hour reprieve, my special thanks to Bradley Hawkins for the use of his equipment.
We ended the day with resolutions that promoted further action and requests, in my view a worthwhile event, time will tell.
Mick Pattel
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Attention all Livestock Carriers.
News from Peter Whytcross, on the counting of hours and how to avoid the traps using a very simple system *********************************************************************Good news at last, access to JBS Swifts meatworks in Townsville is now open via the new port access road to type 2 Road Trains under a permit from Queensland Transport and for a trial period of twelve months, hours of entry are restricted to, 11pm to 5am this will give you a 6 hour window to access the meatworks, I must impress on all livestock operators the importance of adhering to the conditions of the permit, if you are unable to get in and out within this time frame you must break up to go in.
The other option to access the meatworks over an extended timeframe will involve entering into the Intelligent Access Program (IAP) to do that you must contact the Dept of Transport & Main Roads.
I must acknowledge the good work carried out by the LTAQ over a long period to ensure that Livestock transport is included in the Townsville Port Road Access, this is of great benefit to the trucking and grazing industry, and Liz Schmidt has worked tirelessly to achieve this result, we owe Liz a vote of thanks.
Those people who wish to apply for a permit (Click Here) to download the form and send it to;
Department of Transport & Main Roads.
Attention
Samantha Neill
P.O. Box 1089
Townsville 4810
Ph 07-4720-7438
Fax 07-4720-7209
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