Daily delays on the M1 are costing one local business around $9000 a week
A SOUTHSIDE business claims congestion on the M1 is costing him about $9000 a week — and the situation is only getting worse. What is the solution?
- M1 upgrade: newly launched taskforce
- M1 upgrade: Opposition leader Bill Shorten pledges $168 million
- M1 upgrade: Could see 10-lane-wide highway in trouble spot
- M1 upgrade: Stand-off continues between the State and Federal Governments over funding
TRAFFIC delays on the M1 are not only a source of frustration for motorists — they are also causing costly headaches for local businesses.
One such business is Loganholme’s, True Blue Glass, with managing director Bill Leavey claiming he is losing about $9000 a week due to daily delays on the stretch of road.
Mr Leavey said staff overtime, staff turnover and delays getting to and from jobs were the main contributors to his business’s financial losses.
He said a few years ago an individual staff member could attend six or seven jobs a day during an eight hour shift.
“Now they do 10 hour days doing four to five jobs,’’ Mr Leavey said.
“I checked to see if they were getting cruisy, lazy but no they were not; the reason was because they are stuck in traffic.
“We did consider opening satellite offices around the suburbs but can you image the cost of that?”
Mr Leavey said staff were having to start their working day from home instead of coming into the Loganholme office.
He said he had decided to install GPS trackers in his fleet so drivers could be informed on all traffic snarls.
Mr Leavey’s comments follow Logan City Council’s recent #LetsGetMoving campaign launch. The community-based campaign targets Logan’s congested highways, the pace of NBN roll-out and the need for a passenger rail service between Brisbane and Beaudesert. It aims to put pressure on the Federal Government to commit to an M1 upgrade prior to the July 2 election.
Mayor Luke Smith urged Queenslanders to lobby their local Federal Members and opposition candidates to demand improvements to the M1.
“We are seeing businesses and people leave the city because of this,” he said.
“It has been on the record since 1996 and here we are in 2016 still talking about it; it is not just about our city, it is about the whole region.”
Cr Smith thanked the ALP at state and federal level for committing to upgrade a 4.5km section of the M3 and M1 southbound between the Eight Mile Plains merge and the Springwood turn-off.
However, he was disappointed at the lack of response from the LNP Federal Government which has repeatedly maintained a requirement of a 50-50 funding split with the State Government.
The State Government has agreed to an 80-20 funding split.
Federal LNP MP for Forde Bert van Manen said he was lobbying his colleagues to release funding for an M1 upgrade.
Griffith University Associate Professor Matthew Burke supported council’s #LetsGetMoving campaign and also called for the government to extend the South-East Busway from Springwood to Loganholme.
Teachers’ union faces $280k fine over bungled votes
