Owner operators in the Australian trucking industry play a significant role in the ongoing development of the Australian trucking industry.

The support mechanisms needed to be a successful truck owner driver need to keep up with modern day trends to keep a trucking business in Australia viable. Transport costs need to be controlled on a daily basis and long term profitable contracts are paramount in gaining the edge on the competition.
Truck Insurance Australia contributes in it’s own way by supporting the Australian “truckie” with truck and transport insurance designed to meet the differing needs of each owner operator truck driver and these needs can radically change on a yearly basis.
With that in mind, understanding the needs of the owner driver, Truck Insurance Australia understands that truck owner operators are different and one type of truck insurance policy does not meet all requirements.
Your truck insurance needs to be updated on a yearly basis by getting updated truck insurance online quotes before your current truck insurance policy expires.

Truckies Online suggests Truck Insurance Australia Online Quotes are worth a contact for your next truck insurance quote.
We have supplied a direct link for you to connect with the Truck Insurance Australia online quote page…. Click here…. Truck Insurance Quotes

The Australian Truck Transport Industry is growing at a healthy rate, according to a recent published survey by the Australian Trucking Association, Truck Week 21/27 Feb 2010 showing Australian people are heavily reliant upon road transport freight.

The trucking industry carries ¾ of Australia’s domestic freight and the future looks bright with a predicted doubling of road freight up to 2030 with a 3.8% annual growth rate from 2011-2016.

The majority of road transport freight is moved intrastate with an expected high growth rate on the shorter interstate corridors like Sydney-Melbourne and Sydney-Brisbane.
Truck Transport segments:
1)      Short distance road freight… 55.8%
2)      Long distance intrastate… 22.8%
3)      Long distance interstate…21.4%
It all looks good for the truck transport road freight in Australia.
Need an online truck insurance quote from Truck Insurance Australia…. Click this link… Truck Transport Insurance

Survey Source:-
Australian Trucking Association/ibisworld.com.au/Bureau of Infrastructure/

Australian truckies have a passion for driving trucks and 4 wheel drive vehicles on weekends or holidays.

Truckies can now get a free online 4×4 finance quote for the purchase of a new or used 4×4 vehicle using the the 4×4 Finance online quick quote calculator will help you decide on vehicle finance repayments.
Click here for a 4×4 Finance Quick Quote

Australian Truckies, have you ever been involved in a road accident and had no means to support your views or been the subject of another irate driver and wondered how you could keep a record of what truly happened?

Consider a VISIONDRIVE In-Vehicle Drive Recorder. Recently launched on to the Australian motor vehicle market, VISIONDRIVE is a reliable, affordable and easy to use road cam recorder for all truck types.

The compact unit, without wires running everywhere over the dashboard, hopefully will become mandatory in all Australian trucks.

The VISIONDRIVE In-Vehicle Drive Recorder, Video, Audio, G-forces and GPS information, is all stored on a memory card for later analysis or playback in the vehicle on the integrated display and provides proof that just might be of assistance to assist you with insurance claims with your truck insurance in Australia.

The included applications provide PC based video display with Google Maps and you can view where the vehicle has been for up to six months via the stored GPS data.

PROTECT YOURSELF AND YOUR TRUCK

VisionDrive is ideal for the trucking industry (all sizes from LR’s to HR’s), “grey nomads” on their around Australia trip, the family car, taxis, and couriers. Unlike other types of road cam recorder units, the VisionDrive is easy to download and not cumbersome.

With a variety of models and features (including a twin camera unit), including simple legal windscreen mounts and very easy to use software, you can finally protect yourself, your family and your property.

See www.visiondrive.net.au or contact us at sales@visiondrive.net.au

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Phone 0419 225 722.

Get a Truck Insurance Australia Quote …. click here

From the amazing size and load weights carried by outback cattle trains, the long haul interstate b-doubles that deliver huge volumes of freight to our capital cities and the light rigid trucks which ply their trade in our cities, truck insurance needs to cover a plethora of truck insurance types to blanket specialised truck insurance cover for the needs of the Australian trucking industry.

Truck Insurance Australia has cleverly focused on providing the right truck insurance to cover every contingency that Australian truckies need. While many supposed truck insurance companies cover different insurance markets like boat insurance, car insurance and home insurance, Truck Insurance Australia is dedicated to specialising only in truck insurance and that makes a huge difference in truck insurance knowledge and product delivery.

Over a very short time, Truck Insurance Australia has positioned itself as the truck insurance provider of choice, with the knowledge to handle your truck insurance needs. Get a Truck Insurance Australia quote today by visiting Australia’s specialised truck insurer Truck Insurance Australia (click here)

Australia looks set to bring in plain packaging for tobacco products from next year after the legislation passed the House of Representatives last night.
The legislation requires cigarettes to be sold in dark green packets with graphic health warnings and without trademarks from July 1 next year.

Both bills to implement the plan have now gone through the Lower House, despite the Coalition’s concerns about the potential for intellectual property infringements. The legislation will now go to the Senate for approval.

Ms Roxon told Parliament the Opposition was “shamed into backing the bill, but really opposed it with every fibre of their body”.
Editors Comment: I do not understand how this will make truckies in Australia who smoke, give up the habit. If a truckie smokes and enjoys it and can afford to buy cigarettes, is obviously capable of making the decision to quit and not be forced into it via stupid cigarette packaging. Democracy gone mad? It makes me ponder what the government will do next. Who makes the most money from the sale of a packet of cigarettes? It’s not the manufacturer, the wholesaler or the retailer.
I’ll have a pack of 25’s… you know…the dark green ones… the ones without the trademarks…. their the better cigarettes!

Queensland Transport and Main Roads media alert

One lane of the Toowoomba Range will be closed on 4 September to allow for slope assessments, Transport and Main Roads Regional Director Tony Platz said today.

“Ensuring the safety of drivers, as well as the slope assessment teams, is the key consideration in these lane closures,” Mr Platz said.  The lane closure will be as follows, weather permitting:  west bound (one up lane): Sunday, 4 September, between 5.30am and 3pm.

“In the event of wet weather, the assessment will be postponed,” Mr Platz said. “Queensland Transport and Main Roads has scheduled the lane closure to not inconvenience drivers travelling to Toowoomba for the Carnival of Flowers from 17-25 September.” One lane will be closed to allow the technical experts to examine steep slopes of up to 30 metres above the road, following flood damage earlier this year.

Mr Platz said these assessments were a continuation of work on the Range section of the Warrego Highway that would allow Transport and Main Roads to determine risk of landslip and erosion, and to develop options for remedial works if needed.

Heavy vehicles will not be permitted to use the west-bound lanes during the closure to allow the inspectors to do their work safely and to avoid the risk of further delays or crashes in the event of a vehicle breakdown.

They will be able to wait at a holding area at Withcott at the bottom of the Toowoomba Range during inspections of the west-bound lanes, or they will be able to use the alternative route via Murphy’s Creek Road if they are regulation size.

Slope assessments on the Range will be overseen by Queensland Transport and Main Roads and police officers to enforce the changed traffic conditions.  Mr Platz said safety was the number one priority. “We thank motorists for their patience while these important investigations take place,” he said. “These works will help to make the Range crossing more resilient and safer.”

The work is being delivered through National Disaster Relief and Recovery Arrangements (NDRRA) funding, uunder which the federal government provides 75 per cent of the funding, with 25 per cent from the Queensland  Government.

For more information about the closures, contact 1800 063 397 during business hours or email reconstruct_darlingdowns@tmr.qld.gov.au. Motorists can also check the latest traffic and travel information at www.131940.qld.gov.au

“CONVOY OF NO CONFIDENCE”
ACT police say the main routes in and out of Canberra will be clogged by protesters in trucks, vans and cars on Monday. The protesters arrive in Canberra on Sunday before starting a formal convoy from 5:30am Monday to protest against Federal Government policies like the proposed carbon tax.

The Truckies ‘Convoy of No Confidence‘ is expected to clog Canberra’s main streets including Northbourne Avenue, Adelaide Avenue, the Tuggeranong Parkway, Gungahlin Drive, and the Monaro and Barton highways. Superintendent Michael Chew says police are working with the protest organisers to try to avoid traffic gridlock.

“At this stage there’s no expectation there’ll be any violent demonstration associated with the convoy,” he said. Truckies want to make their point with the members of Parliament and the organisers have been working with us over the last couple of weeks to ensure everything runs smoothly.

“The Truckies been co-operating with us over the last couple of weeks and have stated they will continue to do so throughout Monday and Tuesday.” But Superintendent Chew warns there will be traffic disruptions. “There will be traffic delays and traffic diversions in place to allow the Canberra public and the Canberra convoy participants to have access to Parliament and try and lessen the disruption to Canberra motorists on Monday morning,” he said.

“The volume of traffic that they are potentially bringing into Canberra as part of the truckies convoy will naturally cause bottlenecks and disruptions.” Superintendent Chew is urging commuters to be patient and consider taking alternate routes to work. “We just ask everyone to be patient, and flexible, and if they can take other modes of transport to work on Monday morning or arrive later on Monday to work, then that would assist us in the movement of traffic around Canberra,” he said. He says the disruptions could flow into Tuesday.

“At this stage they plan to have the protest at Parliament House on Monday and possibly again on Tuesday. “So we’d anticipate them hanging around Canberra for the two days. We’re not sure how many people will hang around for the second day. But we’re anticipating there could be traffic delays on Tuesday.”

Source: ABC News (http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-08-19/police-warn-of-convoy-chaos/2846856)

Chrissy Arthur
Workplace health and safety officials are investigating a fatal accident at the Longreach saleyards in central-west Queensland.

A 44-year-old Warwick man was loading cattle for Frasers Livestock Transport at the saleyards when the incident occurred.
It is understood the truck driver was struck in the chest by a bull. He later died in hospital. A report is being prepared for the coroner and a departmental investigation is underway.

Liz Schmidt from the Livestock Transporters Association of Queensland say it highlights the dangers of working with cattle.
“Any kind of workplace accident is a terrible thing and we’re just very devastated that this has happened,” she said.
“We train our people to work with the cattle in the safest possible environment, but every beast is different and these things happen.
“There’s not a lot that can be done about it but we train our people to make sure they know the dangers and can avoid them as best as possible.”

She says the accident comes on top of a difficult year for livestock transporters, who have been affected by the live cattle export ban.
“It wouldn’t matter if we hadn’t had a bad year – this is still horrific however you look at it,” she said.

Source: ABC News (http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-08-19/bull-kills-truckie-loading-cattle/2846462)

An unemployed truckie who allegedly gave himself the online nickname ‘Evil’ has been refused bail over what police say could have been Australia’s biggest hacking attack.

Twenty-five-year-old David Cecil appeared in court in the New South Wales town of Orange to face more than 40 charges related to an alleged attempt to hack into the systems of Platform Networks, one of the 13 service providers for the National Broadband Network (NBN).

Australian Federal Police officers arrested David Cecil yesterday at his home in Cowra after a six-month investigation which they say began when he started bragging about his plans in an internet chat room.

Police say David Cecil was working alone and could have caused considerable damage to Platform Networks‘ systems and to those of other companies. But they say the attack did not have the potential to cause serious disruption to the $36 billion NBN.

“What he’d basically done is that he’d tunnelled into their Platform Networks‘ system, he had bypassed their firewalls, he’d also bypassed all of their security systems,” Assistant Commissioner Neil Gaughan told ABC TV’s 7.30. “So he was in the position where he was mapping their infrastructure, which enabled him, if you like, to be in a position to compromise not only the network more broadly, but also the system where he could basically collapse it if it seemed necessary to do so.”

AFP commander Grant Edwards says the NBN was never on the verge of collapse because of Cecil’s actions. Police allege that Cecil is a self-taught hacker and police say he spent up to 20 hours a day on his home computer as he worked on the attack.

They say a number of companies may have been compromised but do not believe that personal information has been accessed. David Cecil has been charged with 48 counts of unauthorised access to, or modification of restricted data. He has also been charged with one count of unauthorised modification of data to cause impairment. He has been held in custody to appear in court again on Friday.

Source: ABC News (http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-07-27/afp-makes-hacking-arrest/2811780)