The National Heavy Vehicle Regulator (NHVR) continues to make headlines in the trucking industry as more and more Associations demand urgent changes to the permit approval processes currently in place.
While ATA NSW Manager, Jodie Broadbent, addressed the NHVR in a public statement demanding it should hand back responsibility for processing “some types of road access permits” to the NSW Government, the Civil Contractors Federation (CCF), the Victorian Transport Association (VTA) and the Victorian Crane Association (VCA) have called on the Victorian Government to intervene as well.
In a move “to avert financial catastrophe in the mining, construction, earth-moving, crane and heavy haulage industries”, the CCF, VTA and VCA have urged the Victorian Government to step in and take back the role of assessing and issuing permits related to road access permission for over size, over mass, crane and other special purpose vehicle movements from the NHVR.
In NSW, Jodie Broadbent is also expecting financial damage to the industry. “Our members have loads such as large pieces of machinery that they can’t move because they can’t get permits. These permits are usually issued routinely,” she said.
“It’s costing them tens of thousands of dollars a day, there are trucks stuck at state borders and there is mining equipment coming from overseas that won’t be able to moved.”
Meanwhile, the NHVR has issued a statement saying it continues to work closely with state road transport authorities to support local governments and streamline processing of local road access permits, particularly for urgent applications in the heavy haulage sector.
For instance, the Queensland Department of Transport and Main Roads (TMR) is processing OSOM/SPV permits for trips wholly in Queensland on the NHVR’s behalf since last week.
Now VICRoads and New South Wales Roads & Maritime Services (RMS), as well as the South Australian Department of Planning, Transport and Infrastructure decided to provide additional “specialist permit officers” to help process applications at NHVR’s national headquarters.
NHVR national Call Centre staffing has also been increased by more than 50 per cent to help manage industry inquiries.
As a result, NSW operators can now contact RMS directly to inquire about application statuses.
According to the NHVR, operators in all states can also approach local governments directly to seek consent and attach this consent to their application.
***UPDATE***
The Victorian Government has announded it will assist the NHVR in processing certain types of permit applications to ease delays for the heavy haulage sector.
“To assist with clearing permits more quickly, the NHVR has temporarily delegated authority to VicRoads to process over-size and over-mass vehicles (OSOM), and special purpose vehicle (SPV) permits for journeys within Victoria,” Richard Hancock commented.
“This will be effective from Tuesday 25 February 2014, and the NHVR and VicRoads will review the temporary arrangements when processing delays have been addressed.”