Advice for someone coming to Aus to drive trucks

Oh you must of only just qualified for the Holiday visa at age 32 then, think that's the max age allowed, however would still qualify for a traineeship even at that age as it would be considered discrimination to say your too old by the companies.
However with the doubles yes they have a fifth wheel, unlike with Road trains that are all hooked up with a dolly between them, you'd unhook the B-Double unload the back trailer, park it, then take the front trailer which can be rolled back to unload, bring it back then hook up to the back trailer head off and re-load however you''d need an MC license to operate a B-Double on the roads. What they'd do is maybe allow you to unhook at the depot and take them around to the cold storage warehouse.

With log books or without them your still required to fill out a company run sheet*, and abide by the 5 hr rule and have a 1/2 hour break, but yeah in this case there is nothing really to police it as far as breaks go, with a log book this is a legal document and the Dept of Transport can hold you accountable for every mistake you make something like $300 per mistake if incorrectly filled out. I got pulled up once heading back to the depot after a late night unload at the P & O cold storage facility at Girraween, I had faulty clearance lights, and DMR were hunting around the suburb where our depot was based in, they of course noticed my faulty lights fortunately the brake lights were still working, they following me into our depot, told me I had faulty lights I said yeah I've been trying to fix them then they asked to see my log book, which your still required to carry even if you don't have to fill it out for the short trips, they went right through it and noticed I had not put a line through the hours after I'd finished to show rest periods there were like 10 pages of this same mistake I could of been written up for every single page around $3000 worth of fines, however not sure why maybe because I'd co-operated with them was not aggressive all they did is just write up a defect notice for the lights which actually applied to the company not me personally and that was it. As soon as I got home I got my ruler out and put a line through every page.

*The run sheet could actually be called an activity sheet or even a diary you just right down your days activity, write arrival times so if I left our Weatheril Park depot and arrived at Girraween I'd put 18:30 pm arrived at P & O cold storage, finished unloading Departed at 21:15, Arrived at Weatheril Pk 22:00. etc etc.

 

Yes I've heard about those cards used in Europe, although some companies over here also used that idea however it was not a Dept of Transport requirement, Log books and run sheets are the norm although they do have cameras monitoring the highways NSW in particular is very strict they look for the times a truck takes between each camera and know if your speeding or taking breaks. Yes one would need to unhook trailers in a B-double combo otherwise we could not unload the A trailer which is usually 12 pallets about 29 " and the B trailer is 45' or 22 pallets. The exception if one is using a Tautliner (curtain sider) trailers and could back onto a dry dock like with the large Big -W and K-Mart warehouses. Which is all side loaded. The Western Suburbs of Sydney where most of the large cold storage warehouses are there is usually plenty of room however if there isn't one would just unhook at the depot take the first trailer unload then return and take the second trailer. With Traineeships it would depend on what your learning it's not like an apprenticeship that's usually 4 years. Each company would have its own rules, I actually applied for traineeship back in 2023 despite being over 50 this was because the company involved wanted drivers that also had loader experience which I did not have so I thought wow I'll go for the traineeship and learn how to operate a loader I sort of know the basics as I've operated smaller ones, but not the large ones with the 12 tonne buckets. However because they saw I'd already had Road train experience they decided to offer me a job at a mine where I did not need to self-load and I worked out there at the Newmont Tamini Gold mine in the Northern Territory hauling gold ore to the ROM.

 

Yes we have the so called "booze buses" where 75% of the police on duty with have an active zone usually they'll use a rest area to random breath test drivers although in a lot of cases they'll be mostly targeting cars. A few years back when I was doing Fuel tanker work delivering Diesel out to the BHP coal mines they had an RBT set up at the new ring road I saw a police officer out on the road waving drivers in where there was a long line of officers with Breathalyzers apparently I was supposed to keep driving and thought he'd directed me in and I with a B-Double tanker took up the entire line hit my airbrakes with the hiss of air drowning the officers who proceeded to jump up on the stairs of my truck and hand me the Breathalyzer. With Truck drivers you have to blow .000 with no alcohol at all on your breath although this also applies to Taxi and Bus drivers too. Mostly the Dept of Transport in QLD where I'm based will have an occasional "blitz" where they'll only target heavy vehicles more so for log book infringements, however will also have police on hand to do random drug and alcohol tests. With those cameras I was referring to in NSW they just monitor truck times and speeds however are completely different to an actual "speed Camera" which they also have in fixed positions targeting all traffic, one in particular that's on New England Highway going down the great dividing range there is one set up to nab trucks only as there is a sign on top of the range asking drivers to use low gear and do below 40 km per hour you must stop at the top of the hill select a gear that will hold your truck without applying your brakes and crawl down this is to stop trucks losing air and getting out of control. In some parts of Sydney that have duel camera's that are both Red Light and speed camera's this is to ping those drivers that will speed up to make it through the lights before turning red. Got to love the NSW dept of Transport ingenuity. So in NSW you can and will encounter 4 different types of camera's the [1]Red light/ speed camera, mainly in the city fixed at traffic lights[2] Fixed speed camera's along certain sections of Freeways and Highways, [3] Portable mobile speed camera's can be randomly selected but usually the operator is directed to a zone with a high incidence of accidents due to speed [4] RTA monitor camera's to check on trucks times and speeds only usually around 300 km apart on major highways and Freeways.