Darryl Pedersen

  News From Darryl

 

National President Darryl Pedersen dpedersentransport@bigpond.com   Mob:0418-450-641.

Letter to the Queensland Minister for Transport.

 6 April 2011

The Honourable Minister Transport,

Minister today I went to the customer service centre in Atherton to Pay my heavy vehicle registration on a Prime Mover and a A trailer. On the 21/3/2011 I had annual COI inspections done at Ravenshoe by Queensland Transport Inspectors where defect notices were issued and to be cleared by an approved AIS station. My Mechanic is an approved station, I took the vehicles to him to fix and sign off on the defects which he did and sent the notices to the Cairns office of Queensland Transport as instructed on the notices however the inspectors did not enter them onto the system.

The lady at the Atherton customer service centre tyred to contact them by phone however went straight to message bank. I then went back to my Mechanic to double check they had been posted back and they were posted on the 31/3/2011.

My Mechanic then contacted Townsville where the Lady there sent up another copy of the defect notice for the Mechanic to Sign again and send back to her by fax so I could then go back to the Queensland Transport Customer Service Centre in Atherton to pay the registration.

I have no problem taking my vehicles to inspection each year however the present system is not user friendly in any way.

Let’s start at the beginning of the process.

1. You have to book either by Internet or by phoning 132390 call centre. You can pick which inspection station you require and then you are given a date and time which can be up to three months from the date you booked it. For most operators myself included I lose approximately one week of work each year as I do long distance work you can just about guarantee the trips will not coincide with prescribed inspection times where years ago you dealt with your local area inspectors for bookings and could usually get in between trips therefore not losing any income or very little to comply.

2. When you present for inspection if the inspecting officer finds something my mechanic misses you get a defect notice to be lifted usually by an approved AIS inspection station. This is fairly easy part of the process to comply with.

 You then are given an address to send the signed off defect notice to have them lifted. If for some reason the inspecting officers neglect their responsibility to enter this and clearing the defect and issuing a new COI for the period of twelve months you cannot pay your registration. So this means because of a public servant not honouring their duty I cannot renew the registration therefore losing income until such time they decide to do their job.

3. Finally the person at the customer service centre has to spend unnecessary time to try to fix the situation, I lose time and income trying to get to the bottom of what should be a simple task for the inspecting officer.

I would like to applaud the efforts of the ladies at both the Atherton Customer Service Centre and the North Queensland Heavy vehicle centre in Townsville for their efforts today.

My suggestions to fix the problems are as follows:

1. Go back to the local inspectors booking for their area so they are more accessible.

2. Return Defect Notices should have a fax number that the AIS centres or Customers can send them to and have a confirmation within one working day they have been entered into the system and the New COI mailed out the Owner of the vehicle.

3. Inspectors that fail to comply be fined accordingly. The same amount that A transport company or individual would be fined for operating a defective vehicle.

4. Registration should be able to be paid regardless of whether inspection has been completed or not however it should be illegal to operate the vehicle if either the operator has failed to book an inspection or failed to show up at the booked inspection. However if it is due to Transport Department not lifting defect notices there should be no penalty to the operator.

I feel there is a double standard with regard to Transport operators and Transport Inspectors. If a Transport operator neglects his responsibilities regarding having his/her yearly COI inspections done on time they should be penalised however the same must apply to the Inspectors that are not doing their jobs. Public servants need to realise private enterprise cannot survive without income and without a truck or trailer registered there is no income. I feel until penalties are applied to public servants not doing their jobs there will never be a fair and accountable system.

Kind Regards

Darryl Pedersen

 

 

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Chain of Responsibility

I think the chain of responsibility be a very big issue affecting all drivers and owner/drivers and companies.  I have always shied away from accreditations but after listening to a transport barrister at the meeting  I can see the need to protect ourselves through accreditation such as NHVAS.  I think the law needs to be changed in the long term to stop a lot of this rubbish but in the mean time I think all operators are going to have to look at accreditation to protect themselves.

 The parking issues are becoming a lot worse on the open roads as a lot of them are not sealed and with the continuing wet season there are parking areas not able to be used.  I have not yet had a meeting with Queensland main roads although when I do some of the issues members have given me are:

 Bruce Highway between Tully and Cardwell, the road has recently been realigned and there are quite a few sections of the old road that would be perfect parking for trucks but they have the entrances and exits cut off. 

This is a total waste of infrastructure that is already there so why not use it.

 Bruce Highway between Clearview and Marlborough at Waverley Creek there is a rest area with a sign on it saying no trucks over 5 tonne allowed to use it. There is room on both sides of the Highway where trucks can and do already stop, this area needs to be levelled and sealed so truck drivers can use, this would still allow the caravaners and car drivers a rest area of their own with the truck drivers still having access to the amenities in the existing rest area.

Leichardt Highway between Miles and Delulu there are a lot of off road parking areas for trucks on this stretch of road all unsealed and no amenities.  The sealing of these rest areas is needed urgently because of the lack of suitable rest areas on this highway in wet conditions. 

The rest areas already exist it is only the sealing of them we are asking to be done.

All future rest areas to adopt the off road parking areas when constructing new rest areas such as the ones previously mentioned on the Leichardt highway, and where Highways are realigned use the existing infrastructure of the old highway as parking.  When constructing rest areas for tourists and cars have a totally separate area close enough to be able to share facilities.

                     

Bruce Highway at Miriam Vale South.  Main roads have constructed a good parking area with shade trees around the perimeter and picnic tables all sealed one of the best on the Bruce but they have no amenities.

The meeting I talked about with the Queensland manager of Coles express Mr Alan Goode is going to take place around the middle of march, Mr Goode advised me the other day the upgrade  to Coles Express at Bogabilla will be starting in the coming weeks.   He has said it will be complete upgrade both inside and out.

Any members with issues for the Main roads, Coles Express or any other matter please don’t hesitate to contact me by Email 

dpedersentransport@bigpond.com or by mobile phone 0418450641.

I want to be able to take issues from our members to these people but I want input from members on what they want.

Until next time

DRIVE SAFELY

Regards

Darryl Pedersen