The ATA has today released its full election platform: a comprehensive plan to reduce costs for hard-pressed families and to build the industry's future.
ATA Chair Mark Parry released the platform at the trucking industry's premier national event,Trucking Australia 2025, in Adelaide. He also released responses from the Coalition and the Labor Party.
"We developed the platform with our member associations and announced our policies during March and April. Our platform document consolidates our initiatives and will be a checklist for our discussions with the incoming government," Mr Parry said.
The ATA platform calls for a $5 billion, ten year program of targeted road upgrades to support high productivity and zero and low tailpipe emission trucks, as well as making the road network more resilient.
The platform also calls on the next government to fund eight critical road projects to boost the industry's productivity.
"Government policies to improve the trucking industry's productivity would save a typical Australian household more than $400 per year, every year, on their day to day purchases," Mr Parry said.
"Together with our voucher scheme for electric trucks and renewable diesel incentives, these policies would reduce the industry's emissions by more than 35 million tonnes of CO2 over 25 years.
"In 2035, the trucking industry's carbon emissions would be nine per cent lower than the current business as usual projection, Deloitte Access Economics modelling shows."
Mr Parry said the ATA's policy initiatives would improve safety, including its plan to resource the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) to undertake no-blame safety investigations into crashes involving trucks.
"Independent inquiries have repeatedly said that we need to extend ATSB style investigations to road crashes. We need to start with crashes involving trucks; it needs to happen under the next government," he said.
Mr Parry said that truck driving was one of the top five occupations with a skill shortage. More than 26,000 positions are unfilled.
"The Australian Government provides financial support to apprentices in priority occupations such as electricians and mechanics. But it does not support people who want to work as truck drivers, even though trucking can be an apprenticeship and is one of Australia's essential industries," he said.
"The next government should provide financial support to apprentices undertaking driving operations apprenticeships and their employers. There also need to be federal incentives for short driver training courses that go beyond getting a licence to include other skills that drivers need to succeed.
"A number of registered training organisations run these courses, which are supported by state governments, trucking industry associations or major companies," he said.
ATA election platform and Coalition and Labor responses
Deloitte Access Economics emissions modelling
