Five-year plan aims to provide gains and certainty to trucking and councils
Expanding networks and reducing the need for access permits will continue to boost freight efficiency according to a productivity blueprint the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator (NHVR) releases today.
South Australian transport minister Corey Wingard sees the NHVR’s Heavy Vehicle Productivity Plan 2020-25 as an important step to ensure governments and road managers were taking steps to meet Australia’s future freight growth.
“The plan outlines important objectives, including partnering with local governments to build capability and promoting more productive heavy vehicles that are better for the environment and communities, as well as providing certainty and consistency with access,” Wingard says.
“Here in South Australia, we’re already seeing the benefits of the notices covered under the South Australia Load Carrying Vehicle’s Operator’s Guide, updated in July and the National Class 2 Road Train Notice, released in June.
“Both updates have allowed increased height, width and mass on dedicated heavy vehicle networks across South Australia, which allows more goods to be delivered safely and reduces the number of vehicles on the road.”
Read about feedback on the NHVR’s technology plan, here
NHVR CEO Sal Petroccitto expects the Heavy Vehicle Productivity Plan 2020-25 to assist Australia’s 425 road managers to coordinate their approach to addressing Australia’s growing road freight task.
“The response to the pandemic has again shown the importance and resilience of Australia’s heavy vehicle industry,” Petroccitto says.
“Importantly this plan includes a series of short, medium and long-term actions driven by data and information of freight movements across Australia.
“The NHVR will use this as a pathway to provide information to road managers to remove key pinch points across Australia’s heavy vehicle network.”
The NHVR conducted consultation on the Draft Heavy Vehicle Productivity Plan last year, engaging more than 50 groups across government and industry.
Broadly, the plan goals and priority actions as follows.
Short-term actions (1-2 years)
- Provide access certainty and consistency: targeted elimination of access permits; greater access and certainty for Performance Based Standards (PBS) vehicles; clarify the capacity and capability of key freight roads and structures
- Partner with local government to build capability: develop an education and support program on heavy vehicle performance and route assessments; Equip road managers with route assessment products; deliver digital and data solutions to enable improved government and industry decision-making
- Promote safer, cleaner, quieter and more productive heavy vehicles:
Medium-term actions (2 to 4 years)
- Partner with local government to build capability: equip road managers with route assessment products; Develop a national mapping solution for heavy vehicle access related services
- Develop a national mapping solution for heavy vehicle access related services
- Complete the review of the standards in the PBS scheme under the PBS marketplace review
- Continue to implement improved systems and processes that incentivise industry uptake and accelerate growth in the PBS scheme.
Long-term actions (4 years +)
- These effectively aim to develop, finalise and reinforce the goals and priority actions of the previous four years.
The Heavy Vehicle Productivity Plan 2020-25 and Action Plan is available here
More information on gazetted routes visit the NHVR Journey Planner can be found here.