Association outlines new voluntary system in HVNL review submission
The Australian Trucking Association’s (ATA’s) plan for a new voluntary operator accreditation system would “halt the tidal wave of pointless customer audits and boost safety”, it says in its submission to the Heavy Vehicle National Law (HVNL) review on assurance models
Under its approach, businesses certified under the ATA’s TruckSafe accreditation scheme or another accreditation scheme approved by the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator (NHVR) would be deemed to comply with their safety duties.
In addition, customers and other chain parties, including prime contractors, would be able to rely on a trucking business’s certification as evidence that the business was compliant with its safety duties.
“Trucking businesses are overwhelmed with multiple compliance and customer audits, which are costly and time consuming. They generally cover the same ground and are of little legal value to anyone,” ATA chair Geoff Crouch says.
“The ATA’s plan for the future national truck laws includes a new voluntary accreditation system that would enable operators to demonstrate their safety and access alternative compliance arrangements, including on fatigue management.
“The customer would be able to focus on meeting its own obligations rather than demanding yet another unnecessary audit.”
ATA has previously questioned the NTC’s stance on TruckSafe
Certified trucking businesses validated for alternative compliance would also be:
- able to access the alternative fatigue management regime proposed in the ATA’s fatigue management submission
- exempt from yearly vehicle inspections where relevant
- subject to a lower level of roadside enforcement
- pre-credentialled for the current NHVAS access arrangements and mass concessions.
Under the ATA’s approach, the NHVR would not continue to run the National Heavy Vehicle Accreditation Scheme (NHVAS) – rather it would be responsible for regulating accreditation scheme providers, including TruckSafe, and auditors.
“The NHVAS modules do not cover a host of important safety issues, such as speed limiter tampering, speed management and load restraint.
“Under our plan, scheme providers would need to meet high standards based on international best practice. The result would be increased safety and fewer audits.”