It has come to light that the NSW road authority do not have the power to suspend the licences of wrongly accredited truck drivers.
An incident that occurred on Sydney’s M5 freeway involving a visa holding truck driver who was unable to back a combination and had to be assisted by the Transport Management Centre’s Traffic Emergency Patrol staff raised questions about the power of authorities to suspend licenses of wrongfully accredited drivers.
The driver’s licence was supplied by a corrupt assessor. Questions were raised about whether, in the interest of safety, RMS officers had the authority to challenge the competency of a driver in such circumstances and not allow the driver to continue driving.
Since then it has been revealed that officers do not have the power to prevent drivers from continuing their journey. The limits of RMS power were six demerit points, fines of $630 and $2,196 for failure to obey low clearance sign and failure to be on permitted route respectively and the suspension in NSW of the combination for three months.
In this specific case RMS later imposed the maximum 3 month suspension of visiting driver privileges on the driver.
Find out more https://www.ownerdriver.com.au/industry-news/1704/rms-confirms-block-to-halting-incompetent-truck-drivers
