There was no excuse for three truck rollovers in just one week in Northland, says a local transport official – adding that police needed to put more pressure on drivers.
Regional transport committee chair John Bain blamed excessive speed on bends for the three incidents, all of which were logging trucks.
He told Radio New Zealand that while the drivers were professional that “should know better,” police needed to increase their efforts in the region to “make life uncomfortable” for truckies trying to take bends too fast on roads that were not even capable of carrying their loads in a straight line.
First Union’s Gary Hetherington told station that pay rates for log truck drivers in Northland were the lowest in the country – as low $16.50 an hour, when Auckland drivers were getting up to $10 more.
The biggest Northland heavy hauler, Senemoff Transport, said there is a shortage of drivers and it’s still forced to bring drivers in from Fiji and the Philippines, despite paying $22 per hour.
Northland MP Winston Peters waded into the argument last week, calling for better training and better roads in the north.
