Compliance review released by NTC

A consultation document aimed at finding ways to promote better compliance in the trucking industry has been released by the National Transport Commission (NTC). The draft review has been developed to improve safety outcomes by encouraging compliance at the same time as ensuring law breakers do not gain a competitive advantage.

The NTC carried out a number of interviews and consultations with truck drivers, operators, enforcement officers and industry associations to inform the Heavy Vehicle Compliance Review. The resulting recommendations are set out in the draft and released for comment by the trucking industry, and other stakeholders.

“Laws and policies introduced since the 1970s have resulted in significant improvements in road safety outcomes,” said NTC CEO, Paul Retter. “Fatalities involving large, heavy vehicles in Australia are trending downwards, and industry members interviewed for this project expressed strong commitment to safety.

“Nonetheless, compliance with the heavy vehicle laws and, where compliance fails, enforcement of those laws is important for road safety, fairness, protection of the road network and the health and wellbeing of the community. With the introduction of the new national law to underpin the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator later this year, it is a great opportunity to take a fresh look at regulatory compliance and address some long standing as well as more recent issues in this area.”

Suggestions include allowing the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator (NHVR) to take a bigger role in educating the industry about the laws and requirements. Chain of responsibility investigations  becoming a major component of NHVR enforcement effort is also on the agenda.

Making prosecution outcomes more publicly available is suggested as a way of giving comfort to compliant operators about how well rogue elements are being dealt with. A series of warnings and improvement notices, compensation orders, supervisory intervention orders and prohibition orders could be introduced in a transparent system by the NHVR, according to the review.

The draft review can be downloaded from the NTC website and submissions should be in by 1 November.

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