Transport on the right road

Livestock and Rural Transporters Association of SA president David Smith said he was pleased to see several of the key issues put forward by the association being addressed.

"SA has fallen a bit behind other states in some areas and road transport is one of those," he said.

One of the key initiatives in the 90-day A Modern Transport System for Agriculture - A New Partnership Approach project is upgraded access for B-doubles and road trains at the Jamestown saleyards, which will avoid the need for these vehicles to pass through the centre of town.

Mr Smith - who thanked Premier Jay Weatherill and Ministers Leon Bignell, Geoff Brock and Stephen Mullighan for instigating the project with PIRSA - said it was high time the Department of Planning, Transport and Infrastructure caught up with industry advancements and made what is essentially a common practice, legal.

"Jamestown is a pretty major saleyard for a huge area - obviously that means it's accessed by a lot of RAV (restricted access vehicle) trucks both in and out," he said.

"Jamestown hasn't been approved for B-double and road trains for so long that I think everyone forgot about it.

"As the road transport industry progressed, it was something that just got left in the lurch, so to speak."

The 90-day project gave industry a means to highlight some issues which should have been dealt with "a long time ago", according to Mr Smith, and the resulting initiatives would "start 'kickstarting' the state".

Other initiatives announced this week included extending the maximum length of road train prime movers operating as semi-trailers from 19 to 20 metres, amending the existing SA tri-axle dolly policy to be nationally consistent, and approving BAB quad road train access to the 53.5m road train network between the NT border and Port Augusta.

Primary Producers SA chairman Rob Kerin said one "big winner" from the project would be the grains industry, particularly on the Eyre Peninsula where it would open up road access.

"Over the next two to three years hopefully we'll see quite a bit of change," he said.

"Industry and government are working together like never before in this."

Agriculture Minister Leon Bignell said one of the highlights to come from the project was the amount of feedback received from more than 700 respondents to the survey.

"We've been able to identify some things which are really broad that affect the whole state, some others that affect certain council areas or regions and then some things that just affect one town or one saleyard complex," he said.

"It's terrific to get all the varying degrees of problems and then come up with solutions for as many as we can."

While some changes had already been made, he said there was more work to be done.

A Project Steering Group will be set up to oversee the scoping and implementation of the initiatives, with quarterly meetings to occur during the 2015-16 year.