In the media

Heavy vehicle charges recommended by Transport and Infrastructure Council
National heavy vehicle charges came under the spotlight at the recent 12th meeting of the Transport and Infrastructure Council acknowledged the growing gap between road expenditure and revenue from charges resulting from increased government investment in roads (25 November 2019). More...

Fatigue flexibility endorsement in NHVR survey
Operators using Advanced Fatigue Management experience fewer fatigue-related incidents, an improved safety culture and higher productivity, according to a National Heavy Vehicle Regulator (NHVR) survey (28 November 2019). More...

Police fine speeding, unlicensed, unregistered truckie $4191
A Concerned citizen called police about a speeding heavy vehicle, but the driver has been fined $4191 for much more than that after police discovered he was driving unlicensed and unregistered and had no National Heavy Vehicle Work Diary (27 November 2019). More...

New permit scheme benefits Queensland crane industry
NHVR Program Director Annette Finch said the new Queensland Class 1 Crane Permit Scheme was the result of work undertaken by the NHVR, Local Government Association Queensland and the Crane Industry Council Australia. This scheme will increase productivity and reduce burden for the crane industry operating across Queensland (27 November 2019). More...

Austroads tackles heavy vehicle traffic flow anomalies
Project spotlights difficulties in approach to arterial road capacity due heavy vehicle movements.
Austroads tackles heavy vehicle traffic flow anomalies. It notes road agencies are concerned that current traffic modelling software fails to correctly calculate the capacity of arterial roads when there are many heavy vehicles, resulting in inaccurate scenario testing and policy analysis. (26 November 2019). More...

Queensland to see 2020 on-site vehicle safety blitz
The movement of vehicles around work sites and their interaction with pedestrians in Queensland are to be the focus of the state's safety watchdog next year. While freight-related vehicles are mentioned, WHSQ gives special mention to mobile plant (22 November 2019). More...

Queensland Inland Rail Agreement and additional rail funding good for the nation
ARA CEO Danny Broad said double stacked trains will vastly improve the efficiency of rail freight, helping our industries get products to market more quickly, improving our supply chains and benefiting the Australian economy. Inland Rail will also ease road congestion on our east coast highways allowing more freight to move from truck to train, improving road safety (21 November 2019). More...

Growing push for competency-based national licensing
The Safe People and Practices element of the Heavy Vehicle National Law review has seen near-unanimous support for an upheaval of the current framework, which many stakeholders say contributes to safety and driver shortfalls (21 November 2019). More...

PBS builds international momentum
International interest in Performance-Based Standards (PBS) continues to grow with several international territories now in varying stages of commitment to the Australian-devised scheme (21 November 2019). More...

RMS issues three major defect notices following incident outside Goulburn
Roads and Maritime Services has issued three major grounded defects to a company whose truck was involved in a collision on the Hume Highway (19 November 2019). More...

Holcim in SafeWork NSW enforceable undertaking
Holcim's Australian arm has accepted a SafeWork NSW enforceable undertaking after a visiting truck salesperson was struck by a B-double at a site operated by the construction materials firm in 2016. The undertaking agreed to by Holcim and SafeWork involves a total expenditure of $1,294,100 and includes: a community safety awareness campaign creating awareness of the risks to pedestrians when interacting with heavy vehicles (19 November 2019). More...

Vic Government funds $4M heavy vehicle training program
A new initiative dedicated to improving heavy vehicle safety for all road users has been launched by the Victorian Government (18 November 2019). More...

Encouraging Victorians to be safe around heavy vehicles
Heavy vehicle drivers and other road users are being urged to take care, in the wake of an increase in the number of deaths involving heavy vehicles on Victorian roads this year. An $850,000 road-side fatigue testing trial is currently underway to see if roadside testing for extreme fatigue can be conducted in a similar way to current roadside alcohol and drug testing (17 November 2019). More....

Published – articles, papers, reports

Improving the reliability of heavy vehicle parameters to support more accurate traffic modelling in Australia and New Zealand
AP-R609-19 25 November 2019
This report explores heavy vehicle parameters which can be used to improve the accuracy of traffic modelling in Australia and New Zealand. More...

NHVR On the Road newsletter 2019
The newsletter provides important information on the heavy vehicle industry, including the latest NHVR news and events, relevant law and policy changes, and resources to help industry members comply with the HVNL
On The Road - Issue 73, November 2019. More...

In practice

Accreditation services set to join the NHVR Portal
National Heavy Vehicle Accreditation Scheme services will be available in the NHVR Portal from 2 December 2019. From Friday 29 November, the NHVR Accreditation team will start transferring NHVAS applications received via email, fax or web forms to the NHVR Portal (27 November 2019). More...

NHVR: HVSI program funding 2020-21
Projects must be implementable, begin in the 2020-21 financial year and be completed by June 30, 2023 – and applications are open until February 21, 2020. The funding is focused towards groups and projects delivering safety benefits for the heavy vehicle industry and all road users. More...

AIS: Transport and Logistics Industry Reference Committee Projects (expected 31 December 2019)
TLI Chain of Responsibility
TLI Heavy Vehicle Driver Safety
TLI Freight Forwarding

NTC Discussion Paper: Barriers to the safe use of motorised mobility devices
The NTC will accept submissions until 11 December 2019. Submissions can be made online. More...

Current Consultations
The policy, regulatory, taxation, administrative and funding priorities for Australian shipping
Status: Date Referred: 23 July 2019. On 5 October 2019, the Senate granted an extension of time to report until the Wednesday of the first sitting week in June 2020

Legislation

Gazette Notices

Heavy Vehicle National Law - Heavy Vehicle Stated Maps – Amendment Notice 2019 (No.18)
28/11/2019 - The purpose of this Notice is to amend stated maps for vehicles at the request of road managers.
The amendments take effect 28 days after publication of Amendment Notice 2019 (No.18)

Heavy Vehicle National Law - South Australian Heavy Vehicle Standards (Six Tonne Trailer Brakes) Exemption Notice 2019 (No.1)
28/11/2019 - The purpose of this notice is to exempt a heavy vehicle to which it applies from the requirements of Part 7 of Schedule 2 of the Heavy Vehicle (Vehicle Standards) National Regulation 2014 (the National Regulation).

NSW

Bills passed by both Houses of Parliament
Road Transport Amendment (Miscellaneous) Bill 2019
Transport Administration Amendment (RMS Dissolution) Bill 2019

Queensland

Subordinate legislation as made – reminder
Proclamation No 1 - Transport Legislation (Road Safety and Other Matters) Amendment Act 2019 (commencing certain provisions) 2019 (Qld)

Explanatory Memorandum
This Proclamation fixes 29 November 2019 as the date for the commencement of the provisions of the Transport Legislation (Road Safety and Other Matters) Amendment Act 2019. The following sections will commence on this date: chapter 3, part 1; sections 73, 75-85, 102-108, 110, 111, 113(1), 113(2) and 113(3).
These provisions allow a person who has been issued with an infringement notice to use an online process to nominate that they were not the offending driver, and to nominate another driver as the person in charge of the vehicle when the offence was committed

This publication does not deal with every important topic or change in law and is not intended to be relied upon as a substitute for legal or other advice that may be relevant to the reader's specific circumstances. If you have found this publication of interest and would like to know more or wish to obtain legal advice relevant to your circumstances please contact one of the named individuals listed.