Although there has been a barrage of new technology applied to the trucks moving livestock around the country – ABS braking, stability controls and air suspension are some – the Australian Livestock and Rural Transporters Association executive director Matthew Munro believes that old is sometimes the best in the bush.
Subscribe now for unlimited access to all our agricultural news
across the nation
or signup to continue reading
“They work pretty well on sealed roads, but in more rugged places, breakdown and maintence issues come in,” he said. “The more cables you’ve got under your vehicles the more there’s an issue with sticks and stones, that you can’t fix in remote places.”
Asked to speculate on future improvements in the livestock transportation business and whether any innovations were imminent, Mr Munro emphasised the importance of driver amenities, and interfacing with roads and yards.
He said all the crate design and penning density advances in the world was one thing but protecting meat standards would continue to be a challenge until the road network was improved.
The association last month released a National Animal Welfare Policy for livestock carriers, which lays out 13 key principles for best practice.
ALRTA President Kevin Keenan said that the association has taken a proactive approach to safeguarding animal welfare.
“Caring for live cargos is a unique part of the rural road transport task that is under constant scrutiny by markets, governments and the community”, he said. “The interaction of animal welfare laws, workplace safety laws and road transport laws creates complex challenges in balancing the equally important elements of driver welfare and animal welfare”.
Among the new initiatives are national guidelines for the safe design of ramps and forcing yards, merging truckCare with the award-winning truckSafe accreditation system and established LivestockASSIST – a 24hr national hotline dedicated to coordinating emergency responses.
Both Mr Munro and Queensland LRTA past president David Scott spoke about trailer combinations.
The Toowoomba second range crossing and Warrego Highway upgrades were widely anticipated in Queensland circles, according to Mr Scott, with the prospect of A/B triple combinations coming into play.
“Looking into the future, five decks or 42.5m going to Dinmore would save four to six hours of cross-loading.”
Sally Gall
Based at Blackall, CW Qld, where I've raised a family, run Merino sheep and beef cattle, and helped develop a region - its history, tourism, education and communications. Get in touch at 0427 575 955 if you've got a story idea for me.
Based at Blackall, CW Qld, where I've raised a family, run Merino sheep and beef cattle, and helped develop a region - its history, tourism, education and communications. Get in touch at 0427 575 955 if you've got a story idea for me.
