Industry News

Truckie frustrated by work diaries that ‘keep falling apart’

An Adelaide-based truck driver contacted Big Rigs to share his frustration about the quality of written work diaries.

“Even though my book is kept in a protective cover, it still manages to break apart. Usually it’s at about the halfway mark that the book literally falls away,” said Jay Diesel, a truck driver for around 30 years.

“For a book we pay $30 for and purchase multiple times a year, it’s ridiculous. No employers in any other industry make you pay for books required for the job.”

Jay does B-double work throughout South Australia and says he usually goes through two or three work diaries each year.

“It might be three, four or five times a day that you need to open that book, so you’re bending it and bending it, and then the pages start to fall out,” Jay added.

“You try and write in this big book over the steering wheel or over your lap, and it’s just not practical. It also doesn’t look good when you hand it over to police or the NHVR either.

“I’ve handed a book over once before and the pages were falling out, and the officer just looked at me. We try to do the right thing and be professional, but this doesn’t look good at all.

“The book is so bulky. The main issue is the staples. The pages fall away from the staples that barely hold the front cover on, which is ridiculous. Just make them so they aren’t falling apart.”

In the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator’s (NHVR) Annual Report for the 2023-2024 financial year, it detailed monetary figures around the distribution of work diaries, noting a fee income of $4.138 million for the 2023-24 financial year, and a fee income of $4.263 million in the 2022-23 financial year.

Last financial year, work diaries were sold at a cost of $28, meaning the total number of written work diaries sold was 156,000. In the 12 months prior, were work diaries were sold at $26, a total of 163,000 written work diaries were sold.

NHVR income, as published in its 2023-24 Annual Report. Image: NHVR

Big Rigs contacted the NHVR for further clarification around the above figures, with a spokesperson stating, “The NHVR does not make profits from the sale of work diaries. Charges are set to help with cost recovery related to printing and distribution.”

The spokesperson continued, “The $4.138 million reflects the sale of written work diaries collected by each of the jurisdictions and passed onto the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator. The value is net of handling fees that some jurisdictions charge.

“The FY23 figure included back payments from Victoria for the sale of work diaries in prior years, therefore this amount appears inflated when compared to FY24.”

The Annual Report also included a table of the NHVR’s compliance costs.

NHVR’s key regulatory activities and associated compliance costs as published in the Annual Report. Image: NHVR

The NHVR says it defines compliance costs “as being those costs incurred by the NHVR in undertaking its regulatory services”, with the distribution of work diaries listed as costing over $2.74 million.

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