27/09/2026
The 0.01% Welcome Party
It started with a blindspot test.
At 5:30am Danny Powe was entering a northern NSW mill in his cabover Kenworth when, according to Danny, an NHVR vehicle came up his left side and crossed his path.
One problem.
He couldn't see them.
The test failed.
Police attended, breath-tested both drivers and Danny says they watched the CCTV. He wasn't charged.
I imagine the NHVR officer running back to headquarters crying while the dictator slowly turns around, cigar glowing.
"He did WHAT to our car?"
Okay, that didn't happen.
But the welcome party did.
About a week later Danny says eight NHVR officers and four highway patrol officers arrived at his 33-acre yard with a search warrant.
Trucks inspected. Safety systems examined.
Then Danny joined an exclusive club.
The NHVR says prohibition notices affect fewer than 0.01% of operators each year.
For around 2.5 months Powe's Haulage couldn't operate its trucks or even use subcontractors.
A driver of 21 years had to find another job. Another had been there 17 years.
Equipment was sold just to survive. A customer they'd reportedly serviced for 14 years stopped giving them work.
Danny and his wife watched nearly 30 years of their lives start disappearing in weeks.
Eventually the prohibition was lifted.
The trucks could move again.
But the drivers were gone. The equipment was gone. The work was gone. And hundreds of thousands of dollars, according to Danny, was gone.
Sometimes surviving doesn't mean you get your life back.
Welcome to the 0.01%.
