TIRED TRUCKIES FACE DRUG TESTS, CHARGES

Drug testing for truck drivers should be mandatory and driving while
fatigued made an offence, according to the report of a bipartisan Federal
committee.

The committee also wants the minimum hours of rest increased as part of a
strategy aimed at improved safety in the transport industry.

Released yesterday, the report - Beyond the Midnight Oil: Managing Fatigue
in Transport - found fatigue-related accidents alone were costing $3 billion.

It says increased competition has led to lower transport costs for
consumers but the point is approaching where the drive for efficiency in
the industry will jeopardise safety.

"The pressure on transport businesses to be competitive has led to
decreasing staffing levels, increasing hours of work and higher asset
utilisation levels, all of which have increased the risk of fatigue-related
accidents," says the report.

"It is clear that operators struggling to remain commercially viable are
exposed to the greatest risk."

The report of the House of Representatives Transport Committee makes 41
recommendations, the largest number related to the road transport industry
where it says fatigue presents the greatest problem.

In conducting its inquiry. the committee heard evidence of the high
incidence of drug-taking among truck drivers.

It is calling for the Federal Government, through the National Transport
Council, to work with the industry to develop a system of mandatory drug
testing. Subcontractors as well as company drivers should be involved.

The committee believes state and territory governments should also be
encouraged to enact laws which make driving while fatigued an offence.

"In light of advances in our understanding of fatigue and technology to
accurately detect and measure fatigue, we believe that driving while
fatigued should be made an offence," the report says.

Along with punishing drivers, the registration of any vehicle driven by a
person found to be guilty of driving while fatigued should be suspended.

The committee recommends that if there is no appreciable improvement in the
road transport sector's management of fatigue by mid-2002, a national
operator accreditation scheme should be established.

The report's release coincided with a rally outside Parliament House in
Canberra by truck drivers concerned about rising fuel prices, low freight
rates and accidents caused by fatigue.

The Federal Opposition and the Transport Workers Union, which organised the
rally, endorsed the findings of the report and called for action from the
Federal Government.

But the Government was more cautious, saying only that the report would be
considered.

A spokesman for the Minister for Transport, Mr Anderson, who was absent
from Parliament because of illness, said the Government would respond in
"due course".

The committee said considerable progress had been made both by governments
and industry in addressing the problem of fatigue in the transport industry.

These include reforms to specify hours of work in the road transport sector
and the Civil Aviation Safety Authority's planned regulatory regimes
covering air and cabin crews, aircraft maintenance engineers and air
traffic controllers.

But it said more needed to be done by both governments and the industry.

The report comes a day after the release of a draft voluntary code of
conduct in the trucking industry, which set out guidelines on safe
operating, education and training and dispute resolution.

But the Opposition's transport spokesman, Mr Martin Ferguson, said the code
needed to be mandatory for maximum effect.