INDUSTRY leaders gathered in Bendigo in August for the combined Australian Livestock and Rural Transporters Association (ALRTA), and Livestock and Rural Transporters Association of Victoria (LRTAV) conference.

The transport industry is highly regulated and complex. To this end, transport owners, operators and members use this conference to meet with government and industry partners to both raise issues and input into future planning.

Due to Covid restrictions, the annual conference has been cancelled for the past two years – making this year’s conference even more important.

“Although meetings have been taking place via zoom or phone, there is no substitute for getting together of invested parties to nut out the issues. Technology is leading the way forward, and we all need to embrace it to keep our businesses strong and efficient,” LRTAV President Russell Borchard said.

“It’s been challenging over the last two years, but the challenges are ongoing – let’s throw in the fuel levy saga, exceptionally high fuel prices, crazy worker shortages and now a real Foot and Mouth Disease threat.

“Over the last 12 months we have battled Covid compliance, stepped up our campaign for ramp safety compliance, assisted saleyards and abattoirs to upgrade facilities, began a joint high-productivity vehicle access study, created and strengthened many relationships with government officials and other industry bodies.”

Among the speakers at the conference were Sal Petroccitto, Chief Executive of the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator (NHVR) in Victoria; Aaron de Rozario of the National Transport Commission; Simon Buxton, Manager of Heavy Vehicle Access at the Department of State Growth in Tasmania; Glen Cook, a public safety specialist; Jen Grigg, Programs Manager of Agriculture and Transport at Worksafe Victoria; John Barry, National Heavy Vehicle Regulators Digital Products Manager; and Greg Hough, Regional Roads Safety Coordinator at Vic Roads.

Amongst the issues presented to the speakers was the need for a ‘National Permit’ system between states. This invariably got more complicated over the Covid pandemic, as each state and territory had their own regulations – and compliance when crossing borders was ridiculously difficult to obtain.

An initiative from NHVR is seeing the development of a new route planning system. This will allow for the transport business manager or driver to input the configuration of the transport vehicle into the software, to allow route planning that considers road conditions, turning-squeezes, bridge heights and weight limits. Speaker John Barry said that, as data is collected and added into the system, that data will become available immediately. This is a massive step forward for the transport industry in terms of both efficiencies and safety.

A huge threat facing transporters at the moment is the prospect of Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) and Lumpy Skin Disease (LSD) entering this country.

The issues were addressed with an interactive and informative session with speakers Dr Chris Parker, of the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry; Dr Peter Dagg, Animal Health Australia; and Dr Meagan Scott, Agriculture Victoria.

It was explained that the government biosecurity systems and safeguards have been in place for decades, but measures have been ramped up with the active outbreak in Indonesia due to our close connection with Indonesia and Bali in particular, in terms of travel.

“The government are actively working with Indonesia to manage the situation, in an effort to halt its spread to Australia – we are paying for vaccine and technical support to control the outbreak in Indonesia – the approach is to reduce the biosecurity risk at the likeliest source,” Dr Parker said.

“We export 70 per cent of our livestock production in this country. If we got Foot and Mouth Disease, it won’t just be live animals that we can’t export, it will be meat, milk, wool – everything that we produce – it will shut all our primary production markets down immediately, and it will take many years, if not decades, before those markets will re-open to us. In this $80 billion cost for FMD – if we get Lumpy Skin Disease - the first year alone, will cost $7 billion. The government is taking a three-pronged approach to biosecurity – pre-border (the work being done in Indonesia), at border (increase in numbers of biosecurity staff, luggage checks, foot baths etc), and post border – if FMD or LSD are detected here.”

The first response to a ‘recognised’ outbreak of FMD would be to enforce a 72-hour standstill of all animal movements, throughout the country. This will enable the biosecurity tracing measures to be activated. From that point, zones surrounding the affected areas would be enforced, and eradication is seen as the only practical response.

Dr Scott said the first indication that stock may have FMD may be lameness and drooling – it is not often that the lesions of the mouth are noticed until after further checks.

The Glove Box Guide to Biosecurity, Emergency Animal Diseases and preparing livestock for transport can be obtained by contacting the LRTAV.

Don’t forget to thank a truckie – your dinner would not be on your plate without them too.