The end of the road for truck owner-drivers in Australia.
How is this even possible?
“Some 35,000 people, mostly men, drive their own long-haul trucks. They have borrowed around $15 billion from Australian banks and other financiers to fund their vehicles. Most of the loans are also secured on the family home. A government body called the Road Safety Remuneration Tribunal has made decisions that are set to not only destroy the livelihood of most of them but to force them to sell the family home.
Around Australia there are many tens of thousands of farmers who rely on these efficient and safe road operators to get their farm produce to market and supply them with farming needs. These farmers are going to be forced to pay between two and four times the current rate for their transport as a result of arbitrary decisions by the same government body. It will wreck many farmers.”
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“This elimination of owner-drivers will be fairly quick. And as they are forced to sell their trucks the prices of vehicles will slump so they will be bankrupted. The actual capital of many owner-driver businesses is domestic homes so they will be sold to cover the debt to the banks because of the fall in value of trucks. As the large operators begin to control the business not only will owner-drivers be sent to the wall but the small transport companies that co-ordinate them will go. Many of those are in South Australia.”
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