Pastoralists and Graziers Association of WA
New regulations on fatigue management and road usage are threatening to force massive hikes in the cost and efficiency of livestock transport, in particular, and other rural freight services in general.
Inflexible driver hours will be introduced that will require drivers to stop whenever their hours expire, or risk heavy penalties for their employers.
This will pose a threat to livestock welfare as well as creating an impossible scenario for an industry that must use every rural and remote road in WA and travel to every livestock property in WA.
Individual shire controls over road usage are also having an increasing impact on livestock transport services.
Some shires now require written applications from livestock carriers so that they could issue transit permits for each journey, or refuse the use of certain roads.
There have even been instances of shires wishing to limit the use of their roads to trucks carrying livestock only for local producers.
