Western Roads Federation – How manufacturing will drive road transport

Both the Federal and State Governments have recently announced major investments to start the process of bringing manufacturing back on-shore.

Great news but it is even better news for the road transport and logistics industry. I will explain ‘why’ after I do a quick background on a couple of points

25 years ago, I was the GM of a specialist vehicle manufacturing company over East for a couple of years, we even built up an export market.

The skeleton prime mover we used as the base for the specialist vehicle build was made 120 km away. But, it was cheaper for us to ship the prime mover to New Zealand and then re-import it back than it was to transport it 120 km directly to our factory.

Why, well State and Federal Government taxes, charges and policies at the time were the culprit for this insanity.

Let’s take the new rail wagons to be built at Midland. They will be assembled in Midland, with component parts be made elsewhere both locally and overseas.

The Government has set a commendable target of 50% local production but that means the other half will be transported from the East or imported through the port.

The point here is that when you make stuff, you create a series of transport jobs

TraumaSim services utilized at RAC’s Annual Bstreetsmart Road Safety event held at RAC Arena, Perth – involves a simulated car accident and emergency response teams with the aim to teach students about risks on the road and safe behaviours

If you found yourself at the scene of a road accident, would you know how to help?

Sadly, many Australians die from severe blood loss relating to trauma related injuries. Given how adventurous we are but how remote our location is, we’re asking – should all Australians learn how to use a tourniquet and haemostatic dressing?

Should someone you know suffer from an injury that is causing severe blood loss, and the haemorrhaging isn’t stopped, the casualty can bleed to death in just five minutes. However, St John WA’s promise to you is that they will arrive within 15 minutes during a lifethreatening emergency in the metropolitan area or a maximum of 60 minutes in less urgent situations. This is met 90% of the time for a priority 1 (emergency) call.

In 2000, the World Health Organisation (WHO) reported that globally, severe trauma results in the death of over five million persons annually and was projected to surpass 8 million annually by the year 2020. At that time, haemorrhage accounted for approximately 35% of the mortality from these traumatic injuries, and up to half of the deaths resulting from haemorrhage occurring before reaching emergency care.

Given we are in Australia and have the dangers and risks associated with our great southern land, is it time to upskill our nation and make every Australian a first responder?

Whilst statistics show that road deaths in Australia decline each year, we have still had 1,107 deaths in the past 12 months. And due to the vast uninhabited areas linked by kilometres of highway across Australia, an increasing number of truck drivers are finding themselves acting as accidental first responders, stumbling upon serious crashes in remote locations – often waiting two to three hours before paramedics arrive.

The above has identified that the more civilian bystanders who are trained in managing massive haemorrhage control using tourniquet application and haemostatic dressing, the more Australian lives can be saved.

In support of this, there are various award winning programs such as Stop The Bleed® and Rider Down for Motorcyclists which aims to teach ordinary people how to keep trauma victims alive whist waiting for emergency personnel, and are greatly assisting to fill the gap on our roads.

A more recent initiative is the collaboration between the NT Road Transport Association (NTRA), Western Roads Federation (WRF) and MedResponse to develop a program around “Industry Response to truck drivers as first responders in remote and regional Australia”.

But can we do more? As quoted by Denise Dagley from Stop The Bleed®, “The only thing more tragic than someone bleeding to death, is if you could have prevented it”

Nola Pearce, director of TraumaSim Group says, “At TraumaSim, we’re passionate about realism in training as we know it improves student retention and prepares them for responding in real life situations and hence, we’re just as passionate about training itself.”

If you’re a business looking to upskill your drivers or First Aid Officer(s), please contact the NTRA or WRF for more information on their pilot training program.

moving stuff between suppliers and to the final assembly point.

Manufacturing is a tight margin business especially in Australia where we have to compete against cheap imports. Even if Government funded, the pressure will remain for the manufacturers to remain on time and on budget.

No Government wants to see a cost blow out and that’s where we have an opportunity, because manufacturing is a network of suppliers and therefore a network of transport activity.

So if those tasks are delayed or made more costly due to Government policy, then we will have Governments willing to hear from us on how we can help fix the problem.

One major operator told me that 20% of their cost of transport at the Port is due to fees and charges. Most of which do not have an off-setting service or productivity benefits - rather they are just simply a cost impost.

Re-building WA’s manufacturing industry means we are going to be importing some components and materials etc. through the Port. Manufacturers are going to want those materials or components imported cost effectively. So they are not going to be impressed to find 20% non-productive transport costs added to their invoice as a line item. Especially, those prime and sub manufacturers building equipment under Government contract.

That means that Port inefficiency and costs are now going to come under the microscope. And we will make sure it does. That is finally good news for our industry.

You have read this before, but the longterm failure to address the Over Size Over Mass corridor issues connecting our WA heavy engineering and manufacturers with Ports and inland customers seriously risks undermining the retention of manufacturing in WA.

The question being asked is, “Is it actually cheaper due to road transport barriers to build overseas and direct ship in to regional Ports?”

That question is not ‘my words’, it is the question being asked by the manufacturers themselves.

So, having Government policy now pushing for on-shore manufacturing is finally good news for our industry, as they will be more open to listening to us on what needs to be done.

No Government State or Federal wants to have policies in place that undermine the bringing back of manufacturing.

It is our job now, to make sure that policies creating road transport barriers are removed in order to help the Government bring back manufacturing.

Bringing back Manufacturing on-shore may well be the transport industries time to shine.

Western Roads Federation has been formed to give a strong unified voice for companies who use WA roads for commercial benefit. Western Roads Federation is a membership driven organisation. If you believe in the industry and what you do, then make sure your company is a member, and get involved. For a membership application form Email cam.dumesny@westernroads.com.au ◆ Phone 08 9365 7799 or 0481 064 371 180 Hay St, East Perth WA 6004