The founder of a national campervan rental service has attacked the Queensland Acting Premier for alleging much of his company’s fleet has been taken off the road for safety reasons.
Acting premier Paul Lucas’s claimed that all except four of the company’s 86 backpacker hire campervans in Queensland had been taken off the state’s roads. He also suggested Wicked Campers took another 77 vans off the road, with only four out of nine vans passing a voluntary roadworthy test.
“That is frightening, and we have written to other state governments to alert them to the problem,” he said.
Transport minister Rachel Nolan also said the company was targeted by inspectors after it was discovered some of the vans in Cairns allegedly had significant defects.
“When they investigated in Cairns, they found such a serious rate of non-compliance they conducted a state wide blitz,” she said.
“Some of them were rusty, some had problems with their tyres, but overall the rate of non-compliance is very much a concern.”
Some of these faults included rust, seating issues, oil leaks and severe damage sustained during accidents.
But company founder John Webb says his company is an “easy target” and said the claims the majority of the company’s fleet had been suspended from action due to roadworthy issues was false.
“Wicked Campers takes the safety of its fleet very seriously and we have cooperated closely with the Queensland Department of Transport to ensure all our vehicles are safe,” he said in a statement.
“We have recently voluntarily deregistered around 50 vans and are also in the process of introducing 500 upgraded vehicles over the next year… This will phase out all pre-2004 vans in our fleet.”
Webb said he has been “very disturbed” by the reports most of the company’s 950 vans, including 600 of those in Queensland, had been removed from the roads.
“In contrast, about 5% of our fleet has been voluntarily deregistered, which is generally in line with car rental industry standards,” he said.
“Wicked has almost 950 vans still on the road around Australia, including more than 600 registered in Queensland. It is very much business as usual for Wicked – providing a safe and fun-filled holiday for thousands of tourists.”
Webb has said he is not pursuing legal action due to Lucas’s allegations.
Patrick Stafford is a freelance journalist and a former deputy editor of SmartCompany.
