CEO outlines the arguments in favour with infrastructure department mandarins in Canberra
Australian Trucking Association (ATA) CEO Chris Melham has reiterated the group’s support for a national registration system for heavy vehicles.
After meeting with the Federal infrastructure department’s’ secretary and deputy secretary last week, Melham says a single registration desk should be an essential part of any coordinated framework of heavy vehicle regulation.
“The ATA believes operators should be able to register all their heavy vehicles through a single web portal, or at a service centre,” he says.
“This system would reduce compliance costs for operators, and allow the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator and its service providers to undertake roadside enforcement on a more targeted, risk managed basis.”
He notes that the current Heavy Vehicle National Law includes provision for an as yet unrealised national truck registration system.
Of course, building such a system will necessarily involve input from each of the States currently responsible for registering heavy vehicles.
“It would be essential that the registration portal included all state concessions available to the operator,” Melham says.
“It would be ridiculous for operators to have to claim back their concessions through a separate process.”