Operation Delivery targets Heavy Vehicles in Sydney’s west

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A new initiative by the NSW police force, together with the Roads and Maritime Services has been targeting heavy vehicles in particular in Sydney and was inspired by the detection of a number of truckies speeding during the week prior. The initiative, code named “Operation Delivery” is focusing on driver fatigue, speed limiter tampering, vehicle defects and breaches in legislation.

This post on Fullyloaded.com has more:

The NSW Police Force and the Roads and Maritime Services (RMS) have been targeting heavyvehicles in Sydney’s west.

The new initiative, Operation Delivery, is focused on driver fatigue, speed limiter tampering, vehicle standards and mass and load restraints in vehicles operating out of the Huntingwood, Eastern Creek, Moorebank and Smithfield areas.

It follows the detection of speeding trucks during the week when inquiries identified further compliance issues and alleged speed limiter tampering, according to police.

Before the operation began, two trucks were stopped at the Marulan Heavy Vehicle Checking Station for being over their approved mass.

Both trucks were grounded with their operator forced to dispatch further trucks to remove the excess freight.

Source: https://www.fullyloaded.com.au/industry-news/articleid/81807.aspx.

From this insert it is evident that speeding and speed limiter tampering is still a major concern. According to truck drivers they are obliged to speed in order to meet the unrealistic deadlines placed on them by consignors and retailers etc. However operators that are caught tampering with speed limiters are risking more than just their load, they are endangering the lives of other road users.

Another major problem seems to be the number of trucks that are exceeding load, mass, weight, height limitations etc. Perhaps it is important to stress that everyone even those that are in charge of loading the vehicle are liable under chain of responsibility laws. Everyone in the chain must do their part in ensuring road safety and that means ensuring the vehicle meets government standards.

The Consignor or dispatcher is responsible for dispatching goods for delivery and must ensure that the good are not greater than the vehicles mass limits. They must also ensure they do not set unrealistic time lines which cause the driver to speed.

The Consignee or receiver is the person who orders or accepts the delivery of the goods and must not cause the driver to exceed the speed limit, fail to stop for rests, driver over the amount of hours prescribed by law, exceed weight and mass limits or knowingly encourage or reward these breaches.

The Loader or loading manager is in charge of loading goods and must not exceed the vehicles limitations.

The post goes on to explain:

Superintendent Stuart Smith, Operations Commander of the NSW Police Force’s Traffic and Highway Patrol, says this is the seventh heavy vehicle compliance operation to be conducted this year.

“Police with the assistance of RMS will continue to target the trucking industry in an effort to ensure compliance with legislation and increase safety standards,” he adds.

“We have already detected a number of trucks which were found to be grossly overloaded and not complying with mass and load restraints.

“These early figures are of great concern and the fact is that an overloaded truck or a truck with a poorly restrained load has the potential to be involved in a serious or fatal crash.

“There is little room for error when operating a heavy vehicle and we have seen that crashes involving heavy vehicles are far more likely to be serious with statistics showing almost 20 per cent of road fatalities involve trucks.”

On Wednesday, a 49-year-old truck driver from Queensland was killed when his B-Double truck collided with the rear of a semi-trailer on the Pacific Highway at Herons Creek near Port Macquarie.

“We are now investigating whether fatigue was a factor in this crash,” Smith says.

Source: https://www.fullyloaded.com.au/industry-news/articleid/81807.aspx.

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