Police are scouring truck drivers' log books and licences in NSW as part of a blitz to ban dodgy operators who put people's lives at risk on the road.
About 50 police and Roads and Maritime Services (RMS) officers raided a Coles distribution centre in southwest Sydney early on Wednesday morning and issued nine defect notices after inspecting 60 trucks.
Coles is expected to be served with an "improvement notice," and police and the RMS say the supermarket operator had complied with the inspections.
Allegations that drivers are using ineligible overseas licences will also be investigated.
"People must hold the correct licence for the vehicle that they are driving," RMS safety director Peter Wells told reporters.
But the biggest concern was over trucks with unsecured or improperly restrained loads.
"Last year ... 63 people died on roads involved in heavy vehicle truck crashes," NSW Police Deputy Commissioner Catherine Burn said.
"Over 1000 people were injured."
Trucks with unsecured loads are much more likely to lose control or roll over and there's a danger that goods could fall from a truck onto a car or pedestrian.
As part of the crackdown, drivers' log books are being examined and claims truckers were being "forced to drive unrealistic distances, breaching work and rest fatigue laws," will be looked at, Mr Wells said.
"The allegations received in relation to fatigue are serious, that people are driving extended hours well beyond the legal limit," he added.
"Should they be proven this will be serious indeed."
