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Queensland rejects NSW approach to HML

Granting full access to HML maps is the best method for encouraging enrolment in IAP, Queensland says.

By Brad Gardner

Granting full access to higher mass limits maps for trucking companies is the best method for encouraging enrolment in the Intelligent Access Program (IAP), Queensland says.

In a rebuff to the NSW approach, the Department of Main Roads says full disclosure helps businesses determine if IAP is necessary and gives them “a thorough knowledge of the HML requirements”.

“Providing detailed HML maps allows transport operators to make fully informed choices about the applicability of HML to their business,” the spokesperson says.

Unlike Queensland, the NSW Roads and Traffic Authority (RTA) will not allow trucking companies to access HML maps unless they first install IAP monitoring technology.

Despite repeated calls from the trucking industry for NSW to release its HML maps without restrictions, the RTA has refused to budge.

Instead, the RTA says trucking companies can submit a route request form to find out if HML is available on a particular route.

“The route confirmation service specifies where approved HML routes end and start on local, regional and state roads,” a spokesperson for the RTA says.

Prior to the start date of IAP, the Victorian Transport Association (VTA) surveyed 22 of its members on whether they would enrol in IAP in NSW.

According to the findings, nine members with a combined fleet of 585 trucks pre-enrolled in IAP planned to enrol only 88 trucks in NSW and 81 in Queensland.

VTA Chief Executive Phil Lovel says the lukewarm reaction to IAP is due to uncertainty over route access.

Victoria chose not to apply IAP to HML, instead choosing to link the scheme to concrete pump trucks, cranes and high productivity vehicles (HPV).

Under IAP, heavy vehicles are monitored via GPS to ensure drivers do not stray onto routes incapable of supporting trucks. In return, trucking companies can carry extra mass on specified routes.

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