The Importance of Rest Areas
Caravanner and RV users in comparison to truck drivers have abundantly more options available to them in regard to fatigue management and where they choose to stop and rest.
Unfortunately, many heavy vehicle drivers, particularly those travelling long distances, are arriving at rest stops only to find Recreational Vehicle (RV) users have taken spaces designated for them, when they could have pre-planned and found a caravan park or one of the many designated areas being provided by councils and towns.
The Co-Exist website is designed to educate, inform and encourage caravanners / RV users to consider pre-planning their rests-stops and fatigue management. The majority of Australians want and intend to do the ‘right thing’ and hopefully keeping this message ‘front of mind’ will remind us that Co-Existing supports safety, our economy and our truck drivers.
This is not to say that caravanners / RV users cannot and should not use rest stops if needed but additionally, many RV users don’t always use rest stops in either a safe manner or in the way that rest stops were intended to be used. Examples include not following the posted signs, thereby blocking areas designated for heavy vehicle drivers or forcing heavy vehicle drivers to unnecessarily reverse their vehicles or manoeuvre around the parking area. Another issue is the parking of RVs in rest stops for far longer than they were envisaged to be used.
Rod Hannifey explains the need to share road side parking bays and their facilities among caravaners, campers and heavy vehicles. Watch this video for some helpful tips and hints on how we can all better CO-Exist and make the roads a safer and happier place.
We would like to acknowledge and credit Whiteline Television as the creator of the videos in conjunction with the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator (NHVR) Heavy Vehicle road safety initiative. We appreciate their support and believe Working collaboratively is in the best interest of road and public safety and seeks to reduce competing messages and advise.