Is it time we introduced a towing licence in Australia?

As we are approaching the end of the year, it's getting closer and closer to people getting on the road heading off to their annual getaway/holiday.

Every year, many Australians find themselves in situations where towing a caravan can become scary, dangerous, and sometimes fatal.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Australia saw a huge increase in people purchasing 4 wheel drives and caravans trying to escape lockdowns, or not really knowing when the international borders will be likely to open again. So instead of spending money on a trip to Bali people started finding ways to travel locally.

A significant volume of these people have never towed a caravan in their lives, never driven a 4 wheel drive, and often received little to no guidance from car dealerships caravan dealerships or manufacturers as to what was legal, what their car could tow legally, let alone any explanation of ATM, GCM, GVM, TBM, breaking distance, trailer sway, reversing, correct tyre pressures, or even safe towing speeds! (It's no more than 100 kilometres per hour, by the way)

A quick look on YouTube and any Dash Cam videos, invariably at this time of year, there's often a video from a truck or vehicle showing a caravan in a serious roll over situation, or some other kind of accident.

In many cases the caravan owner is unaware of the danger that they've placed themselves in. I don't mean for this blog to be preachy or tell you how to do you, but I do want to initiate a conversation around caravan safety, towing safety, and road safety.

I’m one of the fortunate ones that has never had, or even witnessed, an accident involving a caravan, but I'm not unaffected by getting things wrong. I do frequently see other vehicles on the road towing that are seriously overloaded, poorly balanced, or have so much weight on the tow ball, the front tyres are barely on the ground.

Two years ago, I published a video titled, “this mistake cost me my car”. In this video I talked about the mistakes I made in buying a caravan, and not getting the weights right, and yes, I had to upgrade my car... a costly mistake!. Pleasingly it's one of my more popular videos.

After publishing this video, I received varying comments ranging from “thankyou’s” all the way through to private messages abusing me about how fixated I was on what was, in reality, only a few kilograms.

Well, I don't mind being abused, and honestly, it's not unfair to say that I might have gotten things wrong, some of the comments that I saw directed at me privately showed an almost disdain or lack of respect or care for other road users, or indeed themselves.

There has been in recent times a lot of push towards a nationally recognised licencing system for caravan owners. I'm in two minds on this.

On one side anything that promotes road safety and awareness cannot be a bad thing. On the other side we already have; truck licences, car licences, motorcycle licences, and yet we still have very bad drivers on our roads. So, it's difficult to say with conviction that introducing a new licencing system will necessarily promote safer driving/towing. Let's face it us Aussie's don't like being told what to do.

At the end of the day, the only thing I want to see is a safer environment for all people getting away on their holidays. Whether you are the one towing, Or the one behind the towing vehicle, the most important thing is staying safe.

As I said above, this blog is not about being preachy or telling people what they should or shouldn't do. What The 10/Ten Adventures Bush Sessions blog is all about, is starting a conversation just like you would around a campfire.

Click on the link to our video below. And drop some comments here on what your thoughts are. Is a licencing system a good idea? Or is this just more of "Big Brother" watching and controlling what you do?

Regardless of what side of this argument you fall on, Stay safe this coming Christmas. Enjoy your time with your family. And most importantly, have a couple of Bush Sessions talking to your mates.

Cheers,
Chris, Karla, Ember, and Fenix

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