Thu Apr 14

Full response from a spokeswoman for Brendan O'Connor

Written by The Conversation Contributor

In relation to this FactCheck on the link between truck driver pay and road safety, a spokeswoman for Shadow Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations, Brendan O'Connor, said:

You can find the information supporting this below. You may also want to take a look at this article as well, which is further evidence of this point.

PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) 2016 Review of the Road Safety Remuneration System for the Commonwealth government finds that studies show that “directly comparing [driver] remuneration and safety does demonstrate statistically significant correlations”. (PwC 2016 Review p.111)

The PwC 2016 review also finds that from the 2014 and 2016 Road Safety Remuneration Orders of the Road Safety Remuneration Tribunal, “drivers are likely to benefit the most due to increased remuneration and fewer road accidents, followed by government and members of society who face costs following road crashes, and will therefore benefit from an improvement in safety.” (PwC 2016 Review p.44)

Road Safety Remuneration Orders slash road accidents.

PwC recognises the 2014 and 2016 Road Safety Remuneration Orders will result “in a 10% and 18% reduction in the number of crashes”. (PwC 2016 Review p.86 and charts on pp.30-31)

The road transport industry has “the highest fatality rates of any industry in Australia”, being “a fatality rate 12 times the average for all industries”. (PwC 2016 Review p.6)

The effect of the 2014 Road Safety Remuneration Orders in reducing fatal heavy vehicle crashes is demonstrated in the chart below: