The National Heavy Vehicle Regulator (NHVR) inspected more than 2,500 heavy vehicles as part of its national safety operation focused on freight movements at Australia’s busiest ports.
As a result of its Operation Quay, held from 21 July to 17 August 2025, the peak body found that mechanical and mass non-compliance were major issues of concern.
The testing operation was conducted at key port locations, including Port Botany and the Port of Brisbane, Melbourne, Adelaide and Bell Bay.
NHVR Chief Operations Officer, Paul Salvati, said the operation was crucial in ensuring heavy vehicles entering and exiting port precincts were operating safely and meeting all obligations under the Heavy Vehicle National Law.
“Over the course of the month-long operation, our Safety and Compliance Officers inspected 2,566 heavy vehicles, issuing 905 notices as a result,” he said.
“Unfortunately, this is 905 times where some form of non-compliance was found during an intercept – each representing a preventable issue, and a potential risk to the safety of the driver and the wider community.
“SCOs found that heavy vehicle non-compliance was the highest in Victoria, closely followed by South Australia and New South Wales.”
Salvati said of the mechanical and mass-related non-compliance issues, hundreds of defect notices issued for mechanical non-compliance mainly for faulty lights, reflectors or brakes.
Of those infringements, he said 43 were major breaches, and 662 that were minor.
“Additionally, mass non-compliance was a significant concern, with 65 breaches detected during the four weeks –18 of these breaches categorised as either severe or substantial violations,” said Salvati.
“Non-compliance with mass limits has the potential to result in the damage of critical infrastructure and compromise a vehicle’s braking ability, meaning these breaches could have ended in disaster had our SCOs not intervened.
“We know heavy vehicles transporting freight in shipping containers are more likely to be involved in safety incidents in comparison to vehicles carrying general freight, and these findings underline the ongoing need for vigilance within the industry to protect all road users.”
Mr Salvati said the NHVR will continue to work alongside police to ensure safety is never compromised.
“Ports are high pressure environments where safety simply cannot take a back seat – the consequences can be severe, and the last thing we want to see are more families, friends and loved ones impacted by road trauma,” he said.
“We worked in close partnership with police during Operation Quay to inform and educate industry on how to meet their safety obligations, but also to enforce the law where required.
“The majority of drivers and operators do the right thing, and we thank them for their commitment to safety, but for those who aren’t, we’ll continue to take action – because no load is worth a life.”
Read about other NHVR safety initiatives.
