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Transport Workers Union NSW Secretary of State Richard Olsen says drivers increasingly have no choice but to boycott toll roads, which means more trucks on suburban streets. “It doesn’t matter whether you are an owner-driver trying to run a small business or a large multinational company like Toll Group, Sydney’s toll roads are just too expensive,” said Olsen. Despite claims from the unions, Australia’s largest freight company, the Toll Group, has neither confirmed nor denied a report it asked its drivers to avoid toll roads because of the cost. Instead, it appears the company is using a combination of toll and toll roads while looking for the “most profitable” route. “Toll (Group) does not have a policy to avoid the use of road tolls,” said a spokesperson for the company. “We regularly perform route optimization reviews where we use data from previous trips to determine the fastest and most economical route for our drivers. Additionally, Toll uses a mix of public and private toll roads to maximize time and cost efficiency. This week, the New South Wales parliamentary inquiry into tolls showed what would have been a memo to drivers of the toll group accessing the Woolworths site in Minchinbury and dated May 2021, which said: “We Thank you for your cooperation in reducing the use of toll roads. . This is a reminder to make sure you do not use toll roads unless you have permission to do so. In most cases, the cost of toll roads outweighs any benefit we derive from using them. NSW Opposition Leader Chris Minns tweeted: “This is the reality of the government’s obsession with toll roads. Trucks that cannot afford to use our roads. Over trucks, more traffic jams and more noise. ” Shadow New South Wales Minister for Roads John Graham said the memo explained why streets in the M5 corridor were flooded with trucks. Recent data from Transurban indicated that 6,000 fewer cars and trucks were using the combination of the M5 East and M8 than the M5 East alone seven years ago, simply because the new tolls entered last year are too much. dear, he said. “One of our biggest freight companies and individual drivers have come to the same conclusion: the cost of using Sydney’s toll roads is just too high,” Graham said. “The result is truck chaos on the streets of the suburbs. It is the opposite of what the public had promised. These toll roads were supposed to remove traffic from our streets; instead, we have more trucks, congestion and noise. We now know why Double B’s are on Bexley Road. The tolls are too high. “This directive is further proof. No wonder they are on the suburban streets along the M5 corridor.” Major freight operators are looking at every dollar of their costs. The fact that Toll concluded that the benefits of toll roads do not stack shows that the government is wrong with this policy. “

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