The Australian Trucking Association (ATA) has released a policy statement on the minimum standards for a vehicle to be considered roadworthy.
The policy specifies that a heavy vehicle’s roadworthiness is an ongoing legal obligation on owners and drivers, not a ‘once a year’ or even a ‘when we next see the truck’ obligation said the ATA.
The policy also outlines the ATA’s recommendations for inclusion in a review of the National Heavy Vehicle Accreditation Scheme (NHVAS).
These recommendations include extending the chain of responsibility to ‘vehicle maintenance’ and over chain parties with a material influence on a vehicle’s roadworthiness; mandating electronic stability control for at least some vehicles, i.e. tankers involved in the carriage of dangerous goods and combustible goods; and establishing a national public database of coronial recommendations on road safety.
The ATA also recommends establishing a national ‘no blame’ investigation capacity for fatal truck crashes similar to the approach used to investigate aviation, marine and rail accidents; improving the visibility of on-road enforcement; and the presence of uniform vehicle standards under the heavy vehicle national law enhanced by implementation of a national registration scheme.