Retter says the plan will help identify future challenges to allow pre-emptive action
The National Transport Commission (NTC) has launched a new corporate plan that includes strategic projects, operational policy projects and maintenance work on existing laws and guidelines.
The 2016-2020 Work Program aims to identify and address future problems in the transport sector.
The main part of the program includes strategic projects such as:
- preparing for automated vehicles;
- developing a framework to guide future productivity improvements;
- developing options to improve the mechanisms and processes for setting and collecting road user charges;
- filling information gaps to provide evidence as a basis for future reforms;
- examining ways that the regulatory landscape will need to change in the lead up to 2040.
Other than that, NTC will also work on some operational policy projects, as well as ongoing maintenance work on national laws, model laws and administrative guidelines.
“Australia is undergoing rapid technological, social and economic changes which will result in the biggest transformations to our transport system since the invention of the motor car,” NTC chief executive Retter says.
“This work program reflects the need for the NTC to undertake bolder, more strategic reforms to ensure we are ready for the future.
“Australia can’t afford to sit back and wait for issues affecting our transport system to arise.
“We need to look to the future now and work together to resolve the challenges we can already see on the horizon.
“Strategic analysis work like Land Transport Regulation 2040 is one way we will develop a larger evidence base for the longer-term reforms we will need for the future.
“It will help us identify plausible scenarios and start the process of developing policy and regulatory responses to the challenges we are likely to face in the future.”
In the future, operational policy work will fall under the responsibilities of the national heavy vehicle and rail safety regulators, as recommended in the outcomes of the 2015 NTC Review.