An employee of the waste management company which took its national fleet of trucks off the road after a fatal crash says many of the trucks have since been found to be un-roadworthy.
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Rubbish collections across parts of Australia have been disrupted due to the fleet shutdown of Transpacific, one of Australia's largest waste management companies.
The decision to recall and inspect all of its trucks, including those of its subsidiary Cleanaway, came after one of its fleet smashed into three stationary cars waiting at traffic lights in Adelaide on Monday afternoon, killing two people.
On Thursday the company told Fairfax Media that it had "a stringent process in place" to assess and re-certify all heavy vehicles in its fleet before clearing them for operation.
But the man, who works at one of Cleanaway's WA depots - and who asked to remain anonymous because of fear he could lose his job for speaking out - told Fairfax Media that all of the trucks at the Maddington and Albany depots had been deemed "un-roadworthy" as part of this process.
He also said that he had been told that 15 of the 21 trucks at the Wingfield depot in Adelaide - the depot which the truck involved in the fatal crash belonged to - had been deemed "un-roadworthy".
The man said he hoped these trucks would now get "long overdue and major overhauls."
He said he agreed with comments made by a former Cleanaway worker who told Fairfax Media that he quit his job because the trucks were "shit" and he was worried he might accidentally kill someone as a result.
The man said despite Transpacific announcing that services would resume throughout Friday, he believed there could be lengthy delays to work being carried out.
The company operated with few spare trucks and with many still off the road, workers would not be able to carry out much of the work needing to be done, the man said.
A spokeswoman for Transpacific would not say how many of its 2800 trucks had been deemed unfit for use.
Services began resuming on Friday and trucks from other companies are being used to help deal with the backlog of work required to be carried out.
"We've gratefully received assistance from other operators to help us deliver some services on our behalf," the Transpacific spokeswoman said.
"We are committed to constantly improving the safety of our operations," she said.
