There are currently changes being made by The National Transport Commission (NTC) to the law governing national heavy vehicle regulations. The changes the NTC says will make drivers and operators’ lives a whole lot simpler with less of a paperwork burden for accredited trucks.
The amendment will involve removing the clauses that require drivers to carry documents detailing their operators’ enrolment in the “mass” or “maintenance” management accreditation schemes.
At the moment trucking operators are held accountable if a driver fails to carry these documents and keep them on hand and return the documents when they move to another company.
First the transport ministers agreed to remove the requirement as part of efforts to cut the amount of paperwork the industry has to contend with on a daily basis.
Transport authorities have already been warned not to enforce the requirement as the following excerpt from OwnerDriver.com.au explains:
The National Heavy Vehicle Regulator (NHVR) has already issued instructions to state and territory transport authorities to not enforce the requirement for drivers to carry documents for mass management or maintenance management.
Specifically, authorities have been told not to request or require drivers to produce the documents at the roadside and to not issue any sanctions if a driver is not carrying the documents.
The NHVR previously instructed officers to issue warnings about a failure to carry the relevant documents until March 10.
“The new instructions replace that approach,”it says in a statement.
“The rules for basic fatigue management (BFM) and advanced fatigue management (AFM) remain the same. Drivers must still carry and produce on demand all the relevant documents which show that they have been trained and inducted in these two safety-related management schemes.”
Source: https://www.ownerdriver.com.au/industry-news/1403/red-tape-reduction-for-accredited-operators
Meanwhile operators in South Australia have complained of financial losses experienced since the implementation of the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator because of an inability to get permits to move freight on time.
According to the state’s primary trucking group, the NHVR’s inability to process permit applications last month had a significant negative impact on the state’s transport operators even resulting in the loss of customers.
In an article on trucking website www.Fullyloaded.com.au South Australian Road Transport Association (SARTA) President Sharon Middleton claimed that operators lost customers because of the delays and others were forced to sell their trucks because of the new national regulators inefficiencies.
She was quoted as saying:
“Rigs that haven’t been able to move because they haven’t been able to get permits, they haven’t been able to get stickers, they’ve lost customers and they had to sack staff and sell trucks – I’ve had operators ring and tell me all those things,” Middleton says.
Another industry insider, Syd Redfern the General Projects Manager of Beattie Transports said that their company only received their permit after 28 days. He also condemned the NHVR’s Brisbane based call centre for being ignorant of the issues, even claiming that call entre operators had “no idea what you’re talking about”. He also claimed urgent questions from his company were not answered because of ignorance or they were forced to wait until they could get an answer.
The new national heavy vehicle regulator has admitted to their shortcomings at the beginning of the schemes implementation and its General Operations Manager, Angus Draheim explained that the regulator was not expecting the influx of calls that they received at the beginning of the its national takeover.
He was quoted as saying:
“Funding is always an issue across the board and in terms of responses we got it wrong anticipating the volume,” he says.
“However, how long it takes to pick up time from call is less than 12 seconds these days.”
Let’s hope things will run smoothly from here on, not only in SA but throughout the territories under the NHVR.
More info on chain of responsibility training.
