National regulator admits errors in how it handled heavy vehicle permit applications.
The National Heavy Vehicle Regulator (NHVR) has extended its apology over process applications delays, saying its systems and processes haven’t worked as “intended”.
Speaking at the South Australian Road Transport Association (SARTA) conference in Adelaide on Saturday, NHVR General Operations Manager Angus Draheim says the regulator has bitten off more than it can chew.
“As a personal observation doing permits as a main part of business is not something we’d really want to be doing,” Draheim says.
“It’s always going to be there but perhaps we are doing too many cases right now (and) I think it’s a pretty shared view from many parties.
“Moving to a situation where it’s only done where there’s a significant issue to manage would be a good thing. We know that we are a long way from recovering our cost from the permit fee and that’s a big issue for us.”
Draheim told the conference the regulator needs to improve its consistency.
“I would stress there is a very big slip and there needs to be a greater role of consistency in terms of how it’s applied to the way notices, guidelines and pre-approvals are applied.
“We in hindsight probably didn’t focus on harmonisation in the heavy haulage and train space, and that leads to a lot of complexity for issuing permits for different states and territories.”