The decision by the Prime Minister and Premiers in Darwin to create single national regulators for heavy vehicles and for maritime transport is nothing short of historic according to the Australian Logistics Council.
"Previous efforts to do this have failed but now it really looks like it is going to happen," says ALC Chief Executive Hal Morris.
"Unnecessary and outdated differences in the rules for heavy vehicles from State to State mean customers have had to pay more for everything they buy.
"In these tough times when every cent counts the differences have been correctly recognised as imposing additional costs without helping make the system safer or more efficient.
"They are a relic of the past and had to go," Morris says.
"We recently completed a case study of the Sunraysia area around Mildura in partnership with the Victorian Government."
"This study shows that over $10 million of savings were potentially available to industries in that cross-border area if they could have consistent regulation in all States. If you extend this figure over the whole of Australia the saving would be even greater.”
“The ALC is committed to working with the State and Federal Governments to make this happen as soon as possible," Morris says.
A small delegation of ALC members including ALC Chairman Ivan Backman, Paul Little MD of Toll, Michael Byrne CEO of Linfox and Tony Sheldon Federal Secretary of the TWU meet with Infrastructure and Transport Minister Anthony Albanese on Monday and committed to work closely with Government to move ahead on this and on other parts of Transport reform.
“It is important to achieve the same kind of success for rail regulation,” Morris says.
“We believe that it is in the interest of transport and logistics providers and their customers that a single rail regulator is established as soon as possible.”
"There was a time when transport could be left to the States" Morris said, "but Transport and Logistics is more and more about integrated supply chains that run across State borders and include multiple transport modes.
This decision to establish a single national regulators for heavy vehicles and for maritime has vehicle regulator recognised this and is a welcome and concrete step towards creating a single, national transport market."
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