Australia may have been ‘built on the sheep’s back’ but the wool produced has caused road transport operators grief for many years. The ‘bales’ the shorn wool is packed into have a number of inherent problems when the full bales are loaded onto a truck for transport.
The main issue is that the bales compress during transit, causing the bale to become wider than it was when loaded.
This tends to raise the attention of roadside authorities as the bales often end up wider that legally allowed.
NatRoad (National Road Transport Operators Association), claim the NSW RTA and NSW Police have been crippling the NSW wool industry by routinely issuing infringement notices to wool carriers for ‘over-dimensional’ loads. (An over-dimensional load is a load that exceeds the maximum width of the vehicle).
For the past 2 years, NatRoad (National Road Transport Operators Association), along with the NSW Farmers Association and wool industry organisations have been pressuring the NSW RTA to resolve the issue.
The concession, which was announced on July 30, is claimed ‘to be victory for common sense’, said Mr Rob McIntosh, NatRoad President.
For those brokers who have wool carriers as clients, discuss the impact of above news article will have on their operation.
For more information, please go the NatRoad website at: www.natroad.com.au
