A new study has confirmed what most truckies already know; long distance drivers who are not paid per hour are on a hard road.

The University of New South Wales report found that long distance drivers on per-trip rates which do not pay during waiting, loading and unloading, suffer physically, and in their family lives.

The finding has implications for those arguing over the chain of responsibility on fatigue, part of the Road Safety Remuneration Tribunal (RSRT).

Drivers will be the least surprised to find the data shows that if customers do not have to pay drivers to wait, they will make them wait longer.

“The findings suggest that mandating payment of drivers for non-driving work, including waiting, would reduce the amount of non-driving work required for drivers and reduce weekly hours of work,” study authors Professor Ann Williamson and Dr Rena Friswell, told transport industry reporters.

“In turn this would reduce driver fatigue and safety risk as well as enhancing the efficiency of the long distance road transport industry.”

The study also found that drivers on trip-based pay are usually no better off than those on hourly rates,

This is despite working an average eight extra hours a week.

Researchers found that those extra hours – which can take drivers beyond the legal limits – create “adverse consequences for road safety”.

“The results suggest either that trip rates paid in eastern Australia should include better allowance for the amount of non-driving time, or that trip rates should be avoided in the interests of safety,” the study says.

The UNSW report saw actually written in 2013, but has only now surfaced.

It is surprising, given that the study’s lead author is a member of the Transport and Road Safety Research group and a part-time member of the RSRT.

The study may have been buried due to the wild unpopularity of mandatory paid waiting times for transport executives and freight customers.

Mandatory paid waiting times are one of the measures being considered by the RSRT, and have the backing of NatRoad – a group that is opposed to the very existence of the tribunal itself.

Despite numerous attempts in recent years, no mandatory paid waiting rule have come to pass, but there are hints that the current sessions of the RSRT may finally find it necessary.

Any new information on the RSRT proceedings will be posted on its website.