Road safety reports cited by employment minister found pay had safety effect, although impact varied, and another report found link ‘overwhelming’

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

Employment minister Michaelia Cash has defended the government’s decision to delay minimum pay rates for truck owner-drivers, but reports cited by the minister have contradicted her claim there is “no link” between truck drivers’ pay and road safety.

The reviews found evidence that pay had a statistically significant effect on safety, although studies on the size of the impact varied. Another report prepared for the National Transport Commission (NTC) found the link was “overwhelming”.

Minimum pay rates for owner-drivers were intended to reduce road deaths by removing financial incentives to skip breaks or speed.

Union anger over delay of minimum pay rates for truck owner-drivers Read more

Cash, appearing on ABC radio on Tuesday, said the regulatory impact statement prepared for the Gillard government legislation which allowed minimum pay to be set “did not support ... continued claims that if you pay drivers more, suddenly you solve the problems of safety on our roads”.

Cash said “two reports that this government just released ... one by PricewaterhouseCoopers [PwC Australia] and the Jaguar [Consulting] report – again both say there is no link. Merely paying someone more does not suddenly mean they are going to institute safe work practices.”

The January 2016 PwC report found that “directly comparing remuneration and safety does demonstrate statistically significant correlations. However, results vary substantially.”

It cited four studies which found a 1% increase in remuneration can lead to decreases in road accident numbers involving crashes, although estimates for the reduction varied from 0.06% to 3.4%.

“While some of these studies have found a link between remuneration and road safety, there remains limited research and conclusions vary as to the extent and nature of this relationship.”

The PwC report said academic literature found “unpaid waiting time creates economic incentives to engage in unsafe practices, where drivers are more likely to make an overnight trip when fatigued to avoid make-up time lost waiting. Piece rates incentivise drivers to make riskier decisions, such as skipping breaks.”

The report nevertheless opposed setting minimum pay rates for independent contractors in the trucking industry due to a “significant cost to the economy ... with any potential safety benefits significantly outweighed by the associated costs”.

The 2014 Jaguar Consulting report concluded “a small number of studies have identified statistically significant relationships between driver remuneration and accident involvement”.

However, it said “the nature and extent of the identified links differ widely, in ways that are highly significant from a policy perspective”. For example, one study found paying drivers too much could also harm safety.

A 2008 report for the NTC by occupational health and safety experts, academic Prof. Michael Quinlan and former New South Wales industrial relations commission president Lance Wright, concluded the “overwhelming weight of evidence indicates that commercial/industrial practices affecting road transport play a direct and significant role in causing hazardous practices”.

“There is solid survey evidence linking payment levels and systems to crashes, speeding, driving while fatigued and drug use. This evidence has been accepted and indeed confirmed by government inquiries, coronial inquests, courts and industrial tribunal hearings in Australia over a number of years.”

It confirmed owner-drivers and small operators cut back on repair costs due to low pay.

Quinlan told Guardian Australia assertions there was no link between pay and safety were not true as “there is strong evidence between pay and unsafe behaviours including speeding, skipping breaks and cutting corners on maintenance”.

“They’re arguments of convenience rather than of evidence. [Cash is] talking about two reports by two consultants, I’m talking about peer-reviewed scientific research.”

Addressing claims owner-drivers would lose business, Quinlan said a similar scheme had been introduced for short-haul trips in New South Wales which had not decimated the industry. “There will be a reorganisation of work but owner-drivers have always been part, and will continue to be part, of the industry, including for reasons like their flexibility.”

“There are other things you can do to address safety, like truck breaks and looking at maintenance regimes. But ... you need to get at the underlying causes and the labour cost is the underlying cause [of unsafe practices].”

In 2008 the NTC backed the establishment of a national scheme for setting minimum safe rates covering both employee and owner-drivers in the heavy vehicle industry due to the link to safety.

“A minimum safety net for employee and owner-drivers will enable those operators to cover costs and secure a sufficient return so that they are not forced or encouraged to cut corners in regards to safety,” it said.

“A safe payment system will just ensure there is a minimum enforceable safe rate which will ensure that those price efficiencies do not come at the expense of driver and broader community safety.”

The regulatory impact statement also cited by Cash said, “there is some research to suggest that the remuneration for drivers is a factor in safety outcomes, however data at this point in time is limited and being definitive around the causal link between rates and safety is difficult”.

Quinlan responded “that’s true of many things – the question is when you have evidence of the impact do you wait for it to be so overwhelming, when more people have died?”