Truck drivers forced to rely on empty petrol stations to take breaks on Bruce Highway

Truck drivers on long haul trips along the notoriously dangerous Bruce Highway are unable to pull over to take legally mandated breaks. SEE WHY.

Truck drivers on long haul trips along the notoriously dangerous Bruce Highway are unable to pull over to take legally mandated breaks due to an alarming shortage of heavy vehicle rest areas, it can be revealed.

Drivers navigating the deadly highway say they have been forced to rely on empty petrol stations to take breaks, with rest stops unavailable for up to 400km on some stretches.

Queensland Trucking Association chief executive Gary Mahon said the astonishing lack of rest areas went directly against widely promoted advice that tells drivers to take a break every two hours.

“The lack of rest areas is chronic,” he said.

“There should be rest areas every 200km, that’s a reasonable request and we’ve been asking for it for a long time.

“You could probably drive for 300-400km sometimes or more for a rest stop.”

By law, truck drivers must comply with certain maximum work and minimum rest limits including a 15 minute rest for every 5 hours and 15 minutes of driving, 30 minutes for 7.5 hours, 60 minutes for a 10 hour shift and seven continuous hours if they are driving a 12 hour shift within a 24 hour period.

One driver told the Courier-Mail the minimum rest facilities available were so unsanitary and infested with bugs, they would rather “go in the bush”.

He said drivers prayed for available space when approaching the few shared rest stops or service stations and if their trucks couldn’t fit, they simply had to “push on”.

“There’s next to no rest stops and if you get to a service station and it’s full you’ve got to drive back out and keep going,” he said.

“They drive that extra two hours so they can get off the road and it’s a huge fatigue thing, but we don’t have the luxury of stopping.

“And half of the rest areas we do find, you’re parked right on the fog line, a metre off the highway and are expected to fall asleep.”

A Transport and Main Roads spokesman said the governments Bruce Highway Upgrade Program established in 2013 saw $54 million put towards 35 new rest areas and 30 upgrades to existing rest areas. Three new areas remain in the late stages of design or construction, while six upgrades are yet to be complete.

“The scope of work varied from site to site, however, generally included the replacement of toilets, shade shelters, tables and chairs, installation of solar lighting, improved accessibility for vulnerable road users, pavement rehabilitation, all-weather sealing, water tanks, water bores and other improvement activities,” he said.