Truck-drivers’ image ‘removed from reality’

Press, 12 September 1987, Page 21

Truck-drivers’ image ‘removed from reality’

PA Wellington Popular images of truck-drivers leading carefree, glamorous lives are far removed from the realities of the trucking industry, says the president of the Road Transport Association, Mr John Geraghty. Truck-drivers were generally portrayed in the New Zealand news media as happy-go-lucky cowboys or as law-breaking road-hogs, he said. “All the work they do is for cash and every dollar they earn is profit. Television programmes have portrayed the trucker as a person with no cares apart from his sex life,” Mr Geraghty said. It was unfortunate that

the recent New Zealandmade trucking series, "Roche,” had also depicted the truck-driver as a law-breaker. “The second image of the trucker has him (his truck) overloaded, paying no road-user charges and breaking up the roads.” In reality, the average New Zealand trucking firm was struggling to survive, and was unable to make enough profit to invest in replacement plant, Mr Geraghty said. “He has all the hassles of breakdowns, punctures, his trucks wearing out, and generally working on a ‘charge’ basis, and having to do all the financial juggling that goes with those problems,” he said.

On the one hand, trucking was highly competitive, given the relative ease of entry of new operators into the industry. But the maze of vehicle-dimension and weight restrictions, road user charges and driving hour logbook rules meant an individual operator’s behaviour was strictly regulated.

“I also feel we are at times unfairly treated by the courts. For example, a driver can be fined $5OO for not having his roaduser licence with him in his cab.” Generally, however, the trucking industry remained optimistic about the future. “Things can’t get much worse,” Mr Geraghty said.