Polwarth MP Richard Riordan said car hire industry representatives at a meeting last week indicated they wanted to introduce reform to international driver hire policies, but needed the State Government to support the changes.
Hire car companies will “happily” introduce changes if the State Government makes them compulsory, Colac’s MP says.
Hire car industry representatives met with Polwarth MP Richard Riordan at Parliament House on Thursday for a second meeting about how to improve road safety by reforming policies for international drivers.
Mr Riordan said the companies were co-operative and proactively suggested potential policy improvements, but they agreed the changes would have to be mandated by the government to create a standardised framework and ensure all companies abided by the reforms.
“I was convinced by their argument that they can’t change it alone, that they must have the government backing to do the big things that people want, which is to verify that we have safe drivers on the road,” Mr Riordan said.
He said the companies wanted the State Government in partnership with VicRoads to develop and implement a framework for testing international drivers before they got into hire vehicles.
The car hire companies also suggested better mapping technology to keep drivers off back country roads and Bluetooth warning systems in vehicles to alert them to blackspots.
See today’s Colac Herald for more.