The NHVR of Australia has rolled out a bold new safety campaign, ‘Don’t #uck With a Truck’, aimed squarely at young, inexperienced drivers
This campaign, along with its less explicit variant ‘Don’t Truck It Up’, leverages the influence of social media personality Luisa Dal Din to drive home essential safety lessons through a series of engaging and informative videos.
Recognising the distractions that occupy young people’s attention, the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator (NHVR) of Australia has designed this campaign to cut through the noise with a combination of humour and shock factor. The videos demonstrate critical safety scenarios, such as turning, stopping, and overtaking a truck, using relatable and memorable content to highlight how quickly things can go wrong when proper precautions aren’t taken.
One of the core objectives of the campaign is to integrate heavy vehicle safety into the broader conversation about road safety, especially among young and inexperienced drivers.
There’s a widespread but misguided assumption that holding a car licence equates to understanding the intricacies of heavy vehicle dynamics. If we could, we would have all new drivers go through this programme as part of their driver’s licence, emphasising the significant differences in stopping distances, turning, and blind spots that trucks have compared to cars.
In 2022, there were 51 fatal crashes in New Zealand, 166 serious injury crashes, and 539 minor injury crashes where trucks were involved. In these crashes, 62 people died, 208 people were seriously injured, and 727 people suffered minor injuries.
The NZ Trucking Association would like to thank the Australian NHVR for the use of these great videos and resources, which we will continue to deliver from the Road Safety Truck and other events that we do. You can also view the videos at nztruckingassn.co.nz/dont-muck-with-a-truck.
For those interested in viewing the videos or learning more about the campaign, the NZ Trucking Association has made the content available on their website.
By incorporating these resources into driver education programmes, there’s hope for significantly reducing the number of accidents involving heavy vehicles and fostering a safer driving environment for everyone.