The importance of the NEVDIS database

For about a decade ARTSA-Institute has obtained a redacted version of the NEVDIS heavy vehicle database from AustRoads.

I want to tell you more about the heavy-vehicle information that is in the NEVDIS database.

NEVDIS is the National Exchange of Vehicle and Driver Information Service. All road-registered heavy vehicles should have an entry in NEVDIS.

This facilitates a new vehicle to be registered either by an accredited motor vehicle trader or by a road agency.

Entries into NEVDIS come from suppliers or manufacturers of new vehicles that hold a new vehicle approval issued by the Federal vehicle authority (Vehicle Standards Section).

NEVDIS also contains entries for wheeled heavy vehicles that are not intended to be road-registered, such as wheel loaders or combine harvesters.

Wheeled vehicles that come into Australia by ship should have an important approval that is issued by the Federal vehicle imports section that is within the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications and the Arts – DITRDCA.

Prior to registration the basic vehicle information (make, model, VIN, number of axles, gross rating) is entered.

The “pre-registration” data is provided either by the supplier/manufacturer to the Federal imports group or by a state/territory road agency. AustRoads ensures that the data is from a valid source and that the necessary fields were provided.

Then the vehicle entry is added to NEVDIS.

A VIN listing in NEVDIS is a pre-requisite for road-registration except for: ADF military vehicles, temporary-entry vehicles or manufacturer’s evaluation vehicles.

The Federal regulator also produces a register of new vehicles called the RAV – Register of Australian Vehicles. However, the RAV information does not get into NEVDIS.

The RAV is a Federal Database and NEVDIS is a State database. ARTSA-I gets about 30 NEVDIS data fields for each vehicle. Most of the data in these fields is added when the vehicle is registered, such as state postcode, registration charge code and body type.

The registration data is added in each jurisdiction at registration time. Unfortunately, the data may not be entered consistently, so some fields have debatable accuracy.

There are national registration codes that help us identify the type of vehicle. For example, a prime mover registered for a single trailer application has a different registration code to a multi-combination prime mover.

Because the registration code is tied to a monetary charge, this data is reliable, as is the state of registration.

Some fields such as ‘body type’ is accurate when the body is occupational, such as a tanker, concrete agitator or crane. Most freight vehicles are described as having a ‘freight’ body — so a curtainsider is not differentiated from a tray body.

ARTSA-I puts a lot of effort into ‘interpreting and cleaning’ the data we receive. I want to show how useful the NEVDIS database is for answering basic questions about the Australian heavy vehicle fleet.

Consider prime movers that can have a registration code SP*(single trailer – with * reporting the number of axles), or a registration code MC* for either A-type of B-type multi-combination connections, or a registration code LP* for use with A-type roadtrains only.

The total number of registered prime movers at the end of 2024 was 129,503. As shown in Figure 1, of these 53 per cent were for single trailers, 46 per cent for multi-combinations and 0.1 per cent for long roadtrain combinations.

These proportions indicate how multicombination trucks that can legally pull two or more trailers, with either A-type trailer connection or a B-type trailer connection, have become normal.

This transformation has occurred over the past 30 years. The first three characters of the VIN identify the country where the VIN was issued and for full-volume suppliers, the manufacturer’s code.

ARTSA-I uses this information to identify the make and the country of VIN origin. Having an Australian VIN does not necessarily mean full manufacture of the vehicle in Australia, but it does imply substantial local manufactured content.

Figure 2 shows graphically the countries of VIN origin for the single trailer registration code SP*. About 41 per cent of these have an Austrralian VIN.

The Australian VINs are mainly for Kenworth, Volvo, International IVECO and Mack. Figure 3 shows that for multi-combination prime movers the proportion with an Australian VIN is higher at 54 per cent.

Australia has allowed multi-combination trucks to operate in major towns and cities. Allowing long trucks to operate in major towns and cities has increased productivity and reduced truck traffic compared to the single trailer scenario.

It has also underpinned a significant prime mover truck manufacturing industry in Australia.

Figure 4 shows the VIN country of origin for heavy rigid trucks. The total fleet of heavy rigid trucks numbers 408,967. The contrast to the prime mover category is stark.

The majority of rigid trucks have a Japanese VIN, whereas Japanese suppliers account for only a few percentages in the prime mover category. There are about 398,000 heavy trailers registered in Australia.

Figure 5 shows the VIN country for all heavy trailers. Eighty per cent of trailers have an Australian VIN.

About 13 per cent of trailers have a chassis number but no VIN. The implication is that they were manufactured before 1989, when the rules required all heavy vehicles to have a VIN number.

Most of these old trailers were also manufactured in Australia. So, well over 90 per cent of heavy trailers were manufactured in Australia.

The VIN analysis provides ARTSA with one aspect of its detailed analysis of local manufacturing in Australia’s heavy vehicle sector.

ARTSA can identify the make, model, body type and load capacity of every registered heavy vehicle. We also know the postcode of the registration address. It is a powerful database!

Peter Hart,
Chairman ARTSA-i