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A TRUCK DRIVER ’ S PERSPECTIVE

I have just finished reading your article ; the best I ’ ve read on this controversial subject . I ’ ve held an HC license most of my driving life and when I ’ m in my LC200 Series pulling my 21ft caravan weighing well over seven tonnes ( combined ), I use every skill I ’ ve learned driving mainly heavy rigid vehicles to tow my caravan .

As a truck driver , you ’ re required to know about weight distribution , GVM and how to load your truck properly , as in the heavier stuff goes up front forward of the rear axle . As a caravanner , we ’ re required to know our GVM , GCM , GTM and towball mass . When my wife and I went around Australia in 2016-17 , 50 per cent of fellow caravanners didn ’ t have any idea about the above information . Not a whole lot has changed – I regularly see caravans loaded incorrectly , hitched up incorrectly and using underpowered utes to pull heavy

offroad caravans . I agree that education needs to be promoted .

My other complaint concerns the different laws pertaining to weights and towing limits between the various states . In Western Australia , I cannot get my vehicle recognised to tow four tonnes and the GCM upgraded to 7.8 tonnes . So something like 90 per cent of caravan owners are illegal in this state and our transport minister doesn ’ t want to know . The police aren ’ t doing anything about it because the paperwork would be a nightmare . Sadly , it will take someone to get killed in a caravan accident before something changes .

Phillip Robinson