Livestock transport Industry stakeholders attended a roundtable discussion on Friday, 16 August, to discuss extending operating hours for road trains travelling through Rockhampton.
The Livestock and Rural Transporters Association of Queensland (LRTAQ) hosted the Rockhampton Road Train Roundtable at the CQLX Saleyards.
Central Queensland delegate Athol Carter said the LRTAQ had been lobbying for seven years for better access for their high productivity type one road trains to the two red meat processing facilities on the northside of Rockhampton, operated by Teys Bros and JBS.
Current access is from 7pm to 7am, but the LRTAQ wants to extend this to 10am to 3pm and 5pm to 5am, as well reducing the requirement for operators to need three permits per year to travel to the two abattoirs.
The existing route through town – around Stockland and down Musgrave St – would remain the same.
“This will improve productivity, driver fatigue, maintenance and take heavy vehicle traffic out of the CBD of Rockhampton,” Mr Carter said.
Despite the current hours being from 7pm to 7am, Mr Carter said deadlines meant many road train drivers needed to stop at the CQLX breakdown paid during the day, splitting their trailers and making two trips into the abattoirs.
He said the association was not looking for 24-hour access, with the revised times taking account of peak traffic times and school hours.
“Rockhampton may be the beef capital, but there is a massive disconnect, with other operators running road trains up and down the Bruce Highway, from Brisbane to Cairns, unrestricted,” he said.
“We are an industry that supports industries, delivering to two processing facilities here that deliver to the world and employ 14,000 people locally combined.
“Every business in Australia is struggling with labour; We need to get smarter and make sure of the efficiency of these high productivity vehicles and do more with less.
“Let’s take a sensible approach to this and work together to find a solution that works for everyone.”
AgForce Central Queensland president John Baker said the revised hours would improve animal welfare as cattle would no longer be left at CQLX for hours while operators decoupled their trailers to a “double run”.
He said the changed hours would cut road train movements by half, as well as allowing drivers to load cattle in the morning and be home at a “reasonable time” in the afternoon.
“It would certainly make life a lot easier for a lot of people,” he said.
Queensland Trucking Association chief executive officer Gary Mahon said his organisation had a strong interest in safer road train operations and felt current technology meant the trucks were safer than ever.
“We can currently run b-triples through Melbourne to the port of Melbourne,” he said.
“This is the beef capital, why would you not be moving with the times?
“This equipment is unsurpassed anywhere in the world.
“It is well established that the equipment can handle the roads and infrastructure as well as access and mobility issues that arise
“These sorts of combinations are vast improvements on equipment from 15, even 10 years ago.”
