New South Wales truck company has pleaded guilty to setting up the kind of conditions that bring death and heartache nearly every week.

Wollongong-based McCabe Transport has pleaded guilty to 159 charges of drivers working dangerously long hours.

The trucking firm was originally charged with 235 offences of drivers not properly recording their work times in late 2011, and now is willing to take responsibility for more than half.

The Downing Centre Local Court in NSW heard details from each one of the offences, covering drivers and routes around the country, dealing largely with inadequate breaks or failure to keep work diaries.

Prosecutor Gabrielle Bashir told the court that McCabe Transport had “a culture of non-compliance which at the very least was tolerated”.

Among a raft of serious allegations was a claim that some trip documents were falsified.

The combined maximum penalties could cost the company dearly, but would be a small price to pay for improvement in an industry that sees overbearing executives exert untenable pressure on drivers.

McCabe Transport drivers avoided prosecution by taking immunity in exchange for helping investigators from NSW Roads and Maritime Services.

It is the latest in a series of cases that many in the industry hope will prompt change for the better.

A big local transport player, Cootes, was recently fined $500,000 in NSW and $50,000 in Victoria for hundreds of road safety breaches.

Similarly, a NSW court fined Scott's Transport $1.25 million in June this year for speeding and speed limit tampering.