The Australian Trucking Association (ATA) has congratulated the Queensland Government on its supermarket curfew reforms and has called on the other states to roll out similar laws.

The ATA and its member associations collectively represent the 50,000 businesses and 200,000 people in the Australian trucking industry. Together, the ATA and its members are committed to safety, professionalism and viability.

“Our members tell us that local government curfews are the single greatest impediment to restocking Australia’s supermarkets,” ATA CEO Ben Maguire said today.

“The new Queensland laws will enable supermarket loading docks to operate 24 hours a day where necessary.

“These longer hours will enable the trucking industry to deliver more loads to our supermarkets. We can’t do it within the existing delivery hours, because supermarkets can only take one or two trucks at a time and have limited space to store deliveries.

“Every state should take up the Queensland model – and do it fast.”

Mr Maguire said Australia’s truck drivers were working flat out to deliver Australia’s food and grocery items.

“The trucking industry delivers 76 per cent of Australia’s non-bulk freight. Everything on the supermarket shelves is delivered by a truck driver,” he said.

Mr Maguire urged governments to put in place other measures to improve the industry’s capacity to deliver freight to supermarkets, including:

• temporary access for grocery delivery trucks to T2/bus lanes
• altering parking restrictions so trucks waiting to unload can do so safely and legally
• changing regulatory requirements to allow trucks to be loaded to their maximum capacity, 34 pallets, rather than 32 or 33 pallets to meet mass restrictions
• expediting road access permits to support the use of high productivity freight vehicles that can carry more freight in a single trip.

Mr Maguire said the ATA was working with its member associations to brief governments on the issues facing the industry and possible solutions.

“Only this morning, representatives of Road Freight NSW and the ATA met with the Commonwealth Treasury to discuss these regulatory problems and the need for more help for trucking businesses,” he said.