SA’s trucking industry pushing for Covid test deal

SA’s trucking industry is pushing for Covid vaccination passports for interstate truck drivers, allowing them to be tested at most once a month.

SA’s trucking industry is pushing for Covid vaccination passports for interstate truck drivers, allowing them to be tested at most once a month.

SA Road Transport Association executive officer Steve Shearer will put the plan to a meeting today of police, health officials, unionists and industry people aimed at preventing a truckie backlash that threatens freight supplies, amid tough new Covid testing rules.

In response to fears about the spread of the Delta variant by infected removalists, interstate truck drivers – who had been required to get tested once a week – now must do so within 24 hours of arriving in SA, unless they have proof of a test within the previous 48 hours.

Mr Shearer said even once a week was too often given no community cases had been spread by truck drivers prior to the removalists.

“The extremely low risk profile puts us in a position where we think … any truck driver who chooses to be vaccinated is either exempt or gets a much lower level of testing,” he said.

South Australian Road Transport Association executive director Steve Shearer, pictured with a B-double truck.

Mr Shearer said Premier Steven Marshall had taken the idea to national cabinet where it was under review. He said the transport industry was talking with private medical company Clinpath to potentially do mobile testing in key border areas.

Transport Workers’ Union state secretary Ian Smith said he would urge the government to give priority testing to all interstate truck drivers.

Too many drivers, working at night, were being delayed for up to five hours for tests which added to their long shifts, increasing the risk of accidents.

Mr Smith said more 24-hour testing stations should be opened, and called for SA to speak with Victoria about 24-hour testing at Nhill, halfway between Melbourne and Adelaide, where drivers from both cities exchange loads.

He said the government should consider whether removalists, who travelled in small crews and dealt with the public, should be treated as a separate category.

Police Commissioner Grant Stevens said officials would work with industry to “find some midpoint” that would protect SA but also not impede freight movement.

“I’m confident we will come to an endpoint there that will take this issue off the table,” he said.