FOR the past four months, 90 per cent of business for livestock transporter John Leeds has involved trucking cattle from drought-stricken stations in the State's north and returning with fodder.
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He has transported at least 50,000 head on triple road trains to properties between Regan's Ford and Geraldton, as well as to saleyards further south.
Stock fit enough to travel have even been transported to properties at Alice Springs.
Triple road trains need a permit to carry cattle further south than Binnu.
But Mr Leeds said his efforts to help pastoralists destock had been continually hampered by Main Roads WA, as he has fought what he described as unreasonable permit restrictions and "bureaucracy gone mad".
The situation came to a head last week when Mr Leeds was told by Main Roads that drought permits for the movement of livestock would no longer be issued.
With the permits due to run out at midnight on September 17, Mr Leeds had been calling Main Roads every day for the last two weeks to find out what the situation was and when new permits would be issued.
Last Thursday, the day before the permit deadline, he was told no more permits would be issued this year with the school holidays and harvest given as the two reasons behind the decision.
Mr Leeds said he was "gobsmacked" by how such a seemingly easily decision could be made with such feeble reasoning behind it.
"We're dealing with people who don't have any understanding of the situation," Mr Leeds said.
"School holidays and grain harvest were the reasons we were given, which are ridiculous.
"We're only talking about one or two movements every two or three days."
The decision would have meant that trucks carrying smaller trailers would have to be used to carry cattle and fodder, which would have been an added cost to pastoralists and Mr Leeds, however he said cost was not his main concern.
"This is about animal welfare, not about money," he said.
"We're just trying to do what we have to, so this is a real slap in the face."
Mr Leeds had also made calls to the offices of Transport Minister Simon O'Brien and Agriculture and Food Minister Terry Redman, which he thought was to no avail. But it seemed the ministers took note of his pleas for common sense.
Mr Redman wrote a letter to Mr O'Brien urging him to extend the permits and on Thursday afternoon last week, or what Mr Leeds described as "the eleventh hour", good news finally came and the permits were extended for two weeks.
Last Friday, Mr Leeds said he received his new permits and was pleased, but was still urging action.
"The message I've been given is that they will be reviewing the situation over the next few weeks, but they really needed to start on Monday," he said.
"For the last two weeks I've been trying to get things moving but it still took until the eleventh hour for something to happen, I don't want that to happen again."
A spokesperson for Main Roads said special permit approvals were issued for the transport of livestock in areas experiencing periods of exceptional dry weather conditions, which were due to expire on September 1, 2010, until the date was extended until the October 1, 2010 after transport operators requested an extension.
"Main Roads extended the permit for a further two weeks to allow road trains already in transit to complete their journey and to assess the impact of the continuation of the operation on the grain transport task as a result of the impending grain harvest," the spokesperson said.
