Yesterday was both an emotional and satisfying day. I met with Steve Shearer and Minister Tom Koutsantonis at Parliament House this morning to announce the changes to the laws which ONLY apply in South Australia at present. I had previously presented the Minister with 18335 signatures on 26 July and today I was able to bring that total upto 19602. The highest number of signatures on a single petition ever received by the Minister in his 27 years as a Minister. As a result he knew he had 19602 people asking for changes to be made so ever driver can return home after their shift is over. The changes are as follows.
1. The overseas experience of HV drivers will NOT be recognised in SA (except for drivers from NZ) and they will all have to undergo the full training and assessment before gaining an MC licence in SA; and
2. Adoption of the highly effective 3 year pilot (run by SARTA and one of our members with the Department) to progress HC drivers to MC. Instead of just HOLDING, but not having to use, an HC licence for 12 months before going for an MC licence, there will now be an alternative OPTION that will ensure better-trained and competent drivers. This will involve on the job buddy training within their employer's operations.
Heavy Rigid (HR) licence holders will be required to complete a minimum of 60 hours of logged supervised driving and additional learning components. Drivers with a Heavy Combination (HC) licence will need to complete at least 50 hours of logged supervised driving with additional learning components.
These are MINIMUM periods. Some drivers will require 80 or 100 or more hours of training before they achieve the necessary competency. They'll ALL have to undergo at least the above minimum hours of in-truck logged training on the job with the employer under the guidance of an experienced supervising driver WHO IS SITTING RIGHT NEXT TO THEM THE WHOLE TIME doing real work.
When and only when, the driver is considered ready, they will then have to undergo a practical driving assessment in an MC vehicle with an Authorised Examiner to obtain the MC licence. If they don't pass the MC Licence assessment, they won't get an MC licence.
I feel this is an excellent result and if all other states come on board, then Australia have safer conditions and more Australians will want to be truck drivers. It won't be an immediate change seen on the roads but in time this is what we all want to go home after each shift. Today each and everyone who have been on board with me I say A BIG THANK YOU. Knowing Slim (Nev Mugridge) hasn't died in vain means a lot to me.
I would like to ask everyone if they can ask a friend to sign this petition as we have a lot more work to do to get these changes nationally.