The NHVR (National Heavy Vehicle Regulator) is developing a national maintenance compliance database and is seeking guidance from the state of NSW who already have such a system in place.
At the recent Technical and Maintenance Conference in Melbourne, a keynote speaker Brett Patterson, statewide operations manager with NSW Roads and Maritime Services (RMS), explained that RMS collected information to target specific operators and sectors.
He explained that each day 460,000 + heavy vehicles were operating on the states’s roads and 60 per cent of interstate heavy vehicle traffic passed through the state.
The state has the highest investment of any state in heavy vehicle checking stations, checking technology and staff with 8 safety stations on arterial roads, including the Hume, Pacific and Great Western Highways. He went on to explain:
“We are able to do some data mining, look at some specific operators, look at some specific sectors, and undertake an operator profile,” Patterson says.
Source: https://www.ownerdriver.com.au/industry-news/1611/nsw-model-for-national-compliance-database
He explained that something of an “operator of interest” profile allows for targeting of “higher risk” operators, those that typically have penalty notices higher than the state average during intercepts.
In many safety stations in NSW, there exists a risk-based screening lane technology on the approaches which many operators and drivers are probably not even aware of.
“We do a number of checks in a heartbeat and then it’s a guidance sign which makes a decision about whether the vehicle goes in or out” (to the main weighbridge area), Patterson says.
Source: https://www.ownerdriver.com.au/industry-news/1611/nsw-model-for-national-compliance-database
The checks include camera scans of registration plates, detecting misdemeanours and Safe-T-Cam data en route. The checks include “weigh-in-motion” technology and height sensors as well.
He went on to explain:
“So we screen over 3.2 million vehicles a year just at four checking stations, and that’s how we are able to grab some of that data in the risk-based screening. Where there’s a possible non-compliance, it (the truck) will get sent in (to the weighbridge).
“For those good complying operators who are doing the right thing, along with your merry way.”
Source: https://www.ownerdriver.com.au/industry-news/1611/nsw-model-for-national-compliance-database
In addition to the millions of automated screenings that occur in NSW, there are also 540,000 physical heavy vehicle inspections in 2015-2016.
Brakes are a particular problem, accounting for most of the key defects identified.
The NHVR spoke of developing a system along the same lines as NSW. Tony Martin from the NHVR spoke about getting the project underway,
“It’s essentially going to drag the compliance and enforcement information from every jurisdiction,” Martin told the TMC delegates.
“We’re going to pool all that information together and then we going to use it to pretty much do what Patto (Patterson) is able to do in NSW, do that on a national scale, so we’ll be able to understand and clearly see where the highest risk areas lie.
“We’ll be able to deploy our resources in a much more strategic way, and those compliant operators, we’ll let you get on with business.”
Source: https://www.ownerdriver.com.au/industry-news/1611/nsw-model-for-national-compliance-database
