COR laws for speed take effect in SA, holding all parties in the supply chain accoutable
By Brad Gardner | February 2, 2010
All parties involved in delivering road freight in South Australia are now bound by stringent chain of responsibility laws for speeding.
The laws began on February 1 and require employers, prime contractors, operators, schedulers, consignors, consignees and loading managers to take all reasonable steps to ensure truck drivers are not forced to speed.
The speed reforms, passed last year as part of the Road Traffic (Miscellaneous) Amendment Bill, are similar to other chain of responsibility laws for fatigue management and mass.
“If you use road transport for any part of your business, you are part of the chain of responsibility…you can be held legally accountable if, by your actions, inactions or demands, you cause or contribute to road safety breaches,” a fact sheet from the Department of Transport, Energy and Infrastructure says.
The Bill also included legislation to introduce the Intelligent Access Program (IAP), which tracks a vehicle’s movement via GPS to ensure it does not stray onto a restricted route.
Unlike Queensland and NSW, a spokeswoman for the DTEI says IAP will not be mandatory for higher mass limits (HML) access.
“The IAP will be applied voluntarily to HML in South Australia and will not be imposed retrospectively so trucking companies have a choice between using IAP or route compliance certificates for HML access,” the spokeswoman says.
Similar to Victoria, South Australia plans to mandate IAP for mobile cranes, performance-based standards (PBS), AB triples and 30 metre B-doubles.
However there has been no confirmation on when IAP will be introduced, with the Rann Government planning implementation sometime this year after the end of a communication campaign designed to sell the tool’s benefits.
The introduction of IAP faced stiff opposition, with the Liberal Party and Family First attempting to stop it being passed over concerns it would bankrupt trucking companies.
