Dubbo truck driver Rod Hannifey believes more could be done to fix potholes around NSW

Mr Hannifey is one of the hundreds of drivers who are on the road covering thousands of kilometres a week, transporting food, fuel and other items across Australia.

After speaking to the Daily Liberal previously about the state of the Newell Highway around Forbes, Mr Hannifey said other areas of the country aren't great to drive on either.

"It's not just that road, I'm in central QLD at the moment and it's no better up here," he said.

"The thing that I am really concerned about overall is that we are not getting the value for the money we spend.

"The road if it's built to a standard should last a reasonable amount of time, occasionally you get a bit of failure which is fine but some of these potholes we are seeing aren't coming from a drop of water.

"They are coming from some sort of failure in the building process, now I'm not an engineer and don't think I could do it any better but we are paying a lot of money.

"Our industry is being told that we are doing this damage to the roads, we'll argue that we pay our way and pay more than our way."

Potholes are becoming more and more common in Dubbo, especially after the recent rainfall has washed away parts of the road.

Mr Hannifey knows truck drivers cop some of the blame from people for 'damaging' the roads but admitted they are only doing their jobs.

READ ALSO:

"We don't drive up and down because we visiting grandma," he said.

"We are delivering fuel, food or whatever else it may be for people and those costs must be passed on."

While it is one of Dubbo Regional Council's priorities, Mr Hannifey believes more permanent fixes should be considered.

"If they don't build to those standards they fail then they go out and fix them with those machines that just spray the stuff on the road," he said.

"Years ago they had road crews who went out and cleaned the hole properly, they put asphalt in it and womper stomped it which worked pretty well."

The Dubbo driver believes if the roads aren't fixed anytime soon then it won't be long until there is another tragedy involving someone hitting a pothole, possibly at 100km/h.

"I thought they got rid of the crews but I must admit I was watching the other day and there were four people there with this one truck which is supposed to do stuff on its own," he said.

"They were all standing watching the stuff gets sprayed on the road, which only means if you are the next truck or car on the road then you'll be sprayed with bitumen.

"By the time 15 vehicles have gone over it, by then it will be back to how it was.

"We are paying for stuff to be sprayed on the road which doesn't fix it, if some poor bugger comes along and it is back to where it was when they started he could destroy a rim or goes head-on into a truck then we'll get blamed for a start and that person could die because we are not fixing our roads."

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content: