Striving for Zero Welfare incidents

The Australian Livestock and Rural Transporters Association (ALRTA) have acknowledged the recent tabling in the Australian Senate of animal welfare incident reports occurring at export abattoirs in 2020 and 2021. Chair of the ALRTA National Driver and Animal Welfare Committee, Graeme Hoare, said that the association welcomes the very high compliance rate but will continue working to eliminate welfare incidents entirely.

“Livestock transport is like no other part of the road freight sector. The interaction of animal welfare laws, workplace safety laws and road transport laws can create challenges in balancing the equally important elements of driver welfare and animal welfare,” said Mr Hoare.

“During the reporting period, there were 70.6 million animals transported to export abattoirs, with 631 welfare incidents recorded involving 4,083 individual animals. Expressed as a percentage, this represents a non-compliance rate of 0.0058 percent. Or in other words, more than 99.99 percent of livestock arrived without incident.

“The Senate reports indicate that the vast majority of incidents relate to the carriage of animals that were not ‘fit-to-load’, or to injuries that may have occurred during the transport task. Unfortunately, there were also a handful of reports indicating cruelty or mistreatment.

“There simply is no place in the livestock production chain for persons who deliberately mistreat animals. All of those cases have been reported to authorities and will be investigated. If proven, the persons responsible must be identified and prosecuted to the full extent of the law.

“While recognising that our drivers must play a role in identifying and removing animals that are not fit-to-load, the reality is that this can be difficult in some circumstances. A drivers’ observational vantage point may not allow full viewing of each individual animal and can be obstructed by infill sheets, other animals or poor lighting. In some cases, drivers are prohibited from entering the loading area due to on-site safety or biosecurity protocols.

“But this is not to say that drivers do not inspect animals and refuse to load unfit individuals. In fact, the rate of rejection during the loading process is orders of magnitude higher than the 0.0058 percent noncompliance rate. We absolutely play our role to the fullest extent possible.

“Yet, from a transporter’s perspective, any rejected animals should never have been presented for loading in the first place.

Pitney Bowes Inc. global shipping and mailing company that provides technology, logistics, and financial services, has released the new Parcel Shipping Index featuring 2021 data from 13 major markets around the world including Australia. The study revealed that Australia exceeded one billion in parcel volume, with an average of 34 parcels generated per person.

The Index found that global parcel volume reached 159 billion in 2021, equating to 5,000 parcels per second with total carrier revenue reaching US$491.5 billion. In Australia: • parcel volume grew three per cent yearover-year (YoY), reaching 1.1 billion in 2021, up from one billion in 2020 • parcels generated per second reached 34 or 2.9 million parcels per day • parcel revenue reached US$8.2 billion,

up five per cent from US$7.8 billion in 2020 • parcels generated per person rose to 42, a three per cent increase from 40 in 2020 • Australia Post maintained a strong hold over its market share at seven per cent growth in both parcel revenue and parcel volume

• TNT Express and Toll Holdings both experienced one percentage point decline in their market share in both parcel revenue and parcel volume from 2020.

Venkat Rao, country manager ANZ, India & ASEAN, said, “Parcel shipping in Australia continues to grow, which was to be expected as consumer shopping patterns drastically shifted towards online as a result of the pandemic. Parcel carriers and retailers are investing in their eCommerce supply chains to meet the rising demand of consumers. A critical part of this includes having the right technology platform in place to automate shipping processes and choose the right carrier. As consumer shopping habits evolve and inflationary pressures persist over the next 12 months, it will be interesting to track the 2022 results.”

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